CLUB SANDWICH 75

            "These stills of the Grateful Dead were taken before motor-drive cameras were popular," he considers, "yet she took some of the photographs in a clear sequence, particularly a series of portraits of [guitarist] Bob Weir which are ideal for turning into moving action, even though, obviously, she wasn't thinking at the time of having this done."
            Paul's storyboarding of the 144 images and the miles of film that resulted from the Rostrum camera work was but the start of a major operation. Into the Soho editing suite went Paul, often for a mentally-draining 10-12 hours a day that, depending on the trickiness of the work that entailed, might yield as "much" as two minutes of completed film or as little as 30 seconds. Either way, Paul did not shrink from the task, remaining very much hands-on for the entire duration. Fortunately, in Eddy French, he found an editor as willing to put in the hours as he was ^sympathetic to his objective.
            And what was Paul's objective? "To make a film that he was artistically happy with," says Robby. "Anyone can take stills and turn them it into an MTV-style promo, but Grateful Dead - A Photofilm is a pure art film. There were no deadlines or corporate pressures exerted on him, so, quite simply, the film was not finished until Paul was happy with it. Such care was made - for example, it was decided to put scratches on to the film, as if it had been sitting in a can for 30 years and had deteriorated, and we had meetings where we discussed the kind of scratches we should add. On a conscious level the viewer may not even notice them but they still have to be right. Paul is a perfectionist and he instinctively knows when something is right or not. He worked at it until it was."
            As a result of this supreme dedication Grateful Dead — A Photofilm has been accepted into the 39th London Film Festival, being held 2-19 November. The festival's prime objective is the promotion of cinematographic art, presenting films of an extremely high standard, so although it gives out no awards the very fact that the Grateful Dead film has been accepted is prize enough. Not that Paul's name has had anything to do with this: the film has admitted on merit alone. "It happens to be an extremely good film," confirms Robby, "and I have been specifically informed, quote unquote, that it would have gotten into the London Film Festival whether or not it was made by Paul McCartney. So it's really quite an achievement."
            As Grateful Dead - A Photofilm moves on from London to other festivals at home and abroad, so Robby Montgomery expects to see its innovative technique "lifted" by others. "There are certain aspects of this film which are highly original," he says, "and you can bet your bottom dollar that the hip people out there, the 10 per cent that start all the trends, will pick up ideas from it and turn them into adverts for Levi's or whoever. Certainly, from the few people who have seen it so far, we are already getting calls asking how it was done, so that the techniques can be used for other projects."
            Sadly, in August, since the completion of Paul's film, Jerry Garcia, the leader of the Grateful Dead, passed away. "People should be clear that we are not in any way trying to profit from or capitalise on Jerry death," assures Robby. "Paul has been working on this for two years now, and it had already been accepted into the London Film Festival before Jerry died. If anything, it'll serve as a tribute to Jerry. The thing is, films such as this can only do good. And there's so much bad going on in the world that it's great to be able to do something which only produces happiness and only makes you feel good."
            It makes one feel so good, in fact, that already another project is in the pipeline: Paul is planning to take Linda's stills of the Beatles and turn them into a Photofilm. If it's as good as the Grateful Dead one, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be, then it's a mouth-watering prospect indeed.

Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart - The Grateful Dead in 1968