Editor Paul Crowder Discusses His Work On "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years"

Paul Crowder seemed destined to edit “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.”  During the seventies his father, a ranking figure at Decca, worked directly with Paul McCartney and other A list musicians.  A musician himself since the age of eleven, Crowder briefly followed his father’s footsteps, working first in packing at Decca before migrating to the marketing department at MCA.  While he didn’t meet the former Beatle as a young man, he was immersed in the rock world, eventually splitting from the back end when his band, Flogging Molly, got signed. He lived the rock lifestyle, even toured with Fleetwood Mac, before family life beckoned.

“When my wife became pregnant, I wanted to get a stable income,” said Crowder.  “An (old roommate) suggested I become an editor.”

With no formal training, Crowder began learning the ropes in the pre-computer software editing days.  When Avid hit the scene, Crowder became an early adapter, eventually landing a job with a company that prepared compilation shows.  He became known for his ability to handle montages.

“Because I came from a world of linear, I went about it as a visual art; I never had the affects palettes, so I would try things,” said Crowder.

Cut to nearly thirty years later. Nigel Sinclair, a friend and associate of Crowder’s, was co-producing “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” and realized Crowder would be a perfect fit for the project.  Crowder was eager to sign on, and found an easy comradery with the producing team and director Ron Howard. Sifting through a plethora of footage, Crowder would come up with ideas he’d share with Howard and his team to ensure everyone was on board.  As the story began to emerge, Crowder relied on the teamwork of his editorial department to log and transcribe material coming from film and radio archives, home movies and many other sources.  During the cutting process Crowder relied heavily on first assistant editor and post-production supervisor Jamie Boulton for advice and guidance, even help in editing sections.

“It was like looking for needles in a haystack.  He always found what was best, he just knew what I was looking for,” said Crowder.  “He wasn’t just my right hand man, he was both hands.”

Many seminal moments of The Beatles early days were recorded, however not all moments have cohesive archival footage.  In some cases the visual was fully intact but the audio was missing. Crowder and his team had to sift through multiple sources to find a complete stream of audio, carefully picking sources that had a close match.  In some instances they found elements they were missing through online sources such as Youtube.  While some archival material has been preserved on 2K transfers, the need for specific moments to tell the story did require the use of the fuzzy, low-quality grabs.

“It can be frustrating, because we wanted all the material to look (high quality),” said Crowder.  “Some decisions were forced upon you due to the archive.  We needed what was best to tell the story.”

As Crowder was working on the film, he became increasingly impressed by how much everyone surrounding The Beatles loved being “in their bubble.”  With the approval of everyone involved in putting the documentary together, he was able to go beyond retelling the historic moments of The Beatles early days and follow the narrative that was he was uncovering in the clips, particularly home movie footage.

“Art is always the way forward,” said Crowder.  “You let the film tell you where to go.  When you work with the intimate footage it makes the content in the interviews ten times more powerful.”

Crowder enjoyed working within the confined period of the rise of the band, something that struck him as a coming of age tale.  He was particularly impressed with how cool, calm and level-headed the musicians, all between 20 and 22 at the time, were.  What particularly amazed him was their lack of selfishness and the complete comradery, respect, and love they all had for each other.  He also noted the strong moral core of the young band members eager to make an impact on an American audience. Segregation was still prominent during The Beatles first US tour and civil uprising sparked violence throughout the country.  Despite the typical avoidance of upstarts to take a political stand, the band members bucked popular opinion and refused to play venues that practiced racial discrimination.

Crowder also learned that George, Paul, John and Ringo truly handled stressful situations with good humor and grace.  For four young men who rose from the humble London streets, he was fascinated at how relaxed they remained throughout their rise: they were constantly having fun in the situation, and ensuring they all remained grounded by making each other laugh.

“That was so fascinating and wonderful to see,” said Crowder.  “They were protective of each other.  They didn’t know how strong (what they had) was.”