Michael Lindsay-Hogg

From Wikipedia:

Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet (born 5 May 1940) is an American-born British television, film, music video, and theatre director. Beginning his career in British television, Lindsay-Hogg became a pioneer in music film production, directing promotional films for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Following his work with these bands, he branched out into film and theatre, while still maintaining successful careers in television and music video production. […]

Career

Lindsay-Hogg began his career in 1965, directing episodes of the British pop programme Ready Steady Go! featuring artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Who. In addition to these he directed episodes of Blackmail, The Informer, A Man of Our Times, Half Hour Story, and The Company of Five, a series of television plays. He served as the series director of The Ronnie Barker Playhouse in 1968. In 1969, an episode that he directed of the mystery/supernatural anthology series Journey to the Unknown was released as part of a TV movie.

Through his work on Ready Steady Go!, Lindsay-Hogg became acquainted with some of the top rock artists of the day, and was subsequently hired to direct promotional films for their songs. Some of his early promo film work includes films for the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer“, “Rain“, “Hey Jude“, and “Revolution” and the Rolling Stones’ “2000 Light Years from Home”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, and “Child of the Moon”. His work on these and other films led Camerimage to award him a retrospective “Music Video Pioneer” award in 2012. The Rolling Stones liked his work, and he was approached in 1968 to direct a full-length television special. Lindsay-Hogg conceived The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, featuring the Stones and other musicians playing in a circus atmosphere. The band was not completely satisfied with the result, and the film did not see release until 1996.

Lindsay-Hogg was hired by the Beatles to direct a film. Originally conceived as a television special, Get Back was to feature footage of the Beatles recording a new album and rehearsing for a concert appearance. However, the sessions were extremely acrimonious, and the film and album were shelved for a time following the Beatles’ rooftop concert in January 1969. The Beatles returned to the project, and released the newly retitled Let It Be (1970) along with an album of the same name.

Following Let It Be, Lindsay-Hogg continued his work in UK television, directing both episodes and TV movies, including work on the TV serial Brideshead Revisited (1981). His work on the BBC series Play for Today and Play of the Week, and the serial Brideshead Revisited were each nominated for BAFTA awards, in 1974, 1978, and 1983, respectively, with Brideshead Revisited winning for Best Drama Series/Serial. His second feature film as director, Nasty Habits (1977), is a comedy satire of the Watergate scandal. His third theatrical film, The Sound of Murder, was released in 1982.

Lindsay-Hogg continued directing music videos throughout the 1970s, including many for the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney and Wings. In 1985, he directed the video for Whitney Houston’s single “You Give Good Love”. During the 1980s he returned to directing concert films, including Simon and Garfunkel’s The Concert in Central Park, Neil Young’s Neil Young in Berlin and Paul Simon, Graceland: The African Concert. Lindsay-Hogg’s work in the 1980s also included directing TV movies of various plays and novels, including adaptations of Doctor Fischer of Geneva (1984), Master Harold…and the Boys (1985), As Is (1986), and The Little Match Girl (1987).

Lindsay-Hogg’s The Object of Beauty for the BBC’s Screen Two series of television films received positive reviews in 1991, and his comedy/drama for HBO, Running Mates, was broadcast in 1992. Frankie Starlight (1995), which followed, was met with mixed reception. In 1994, he directed the Roger Daltrey concert film A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. The VH1 television movie entitled Two of Us (2000), is a fictionalized account of the last meeting between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He directed a film adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play Waiting for Godot (2001).

In addition to his television and film work, Lindsay-Hogg is known for his work in theatre. He directed both the original 1978 production (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award) and 1980 revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. He also directed Broadway productions of Agnes of God (1982), and The Boys of Winter (1985). Off-Broadway, he helmed Larry Kramer’s AIDS drama The Normal Heart in 1985.

His autobiography entitled Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond was published in 2011. It chronicles his career and his relationship with Orson Welles. After a long hiatus from television and film work, Lindsay-Hogg began directing the television series Tinsel’s Town in 2015. […]

In 1966, Michael Lindsay-Hogg was commissioned by NEMS Enterprises and Brian Epstein to film promotional videos for the tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

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Two years later, Lindsay-Hogg was called upon again to direct the promotional films for “Revolution” and “Hey Jude.” These performances marked the first time Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had appeared in front of an audience since they had stopped touring in August 1966.

A couple of years later, I did my next videos with The Beatles, “Revolution” and “Hey Jude.” They were performance videos too, because that was what we thought best. Brian Epstein had died the year before.

We shot “Revolution” and “Hey Jude” on an afternoon which went into evening. […]

Paul and I had met a few days before to consider how we would do the songs and we discussed the “problem” of “Hey Jude,” which was the four-minute final chorus. We agreed that just being on The Beatles wasn’t enough and so Paul and I came up with the idea to have a cross section of people to join in with The Beatles, a mixed-race collection of not only the usual young fans but also housewives and people of middle age, including a village postman.

We did “Hey Jude” in six takes and between each take, while the cameramen were getting notes and repositioning and the video reels were being reloaded, The Beatles jammed for the audience, old hits, some Tamla Motown. This was the first time they’d played in public for any kind of audience since they’d stopped touring in 1966. And they found themselves enjoying it, more or less, reluctant at the beginning, just to keep the audience from getting restive, and then with more vigor and delight as the evening went on.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg – From “Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond” by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 2011

The experience inspired Paul to revisit the idea of live performance and to create a television special showing The Beatles rehearsing ahead of a return to the stage. This concept developed into the Get Back / Let It Be project, which began on January 2, 1969. Lindsay-Hogg was commissioned to film the sessions and produce the TV special.

In November of 1968, as I was preparing The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, I got a call from Paul McCartney asking me to come to Apple, The Beatles’ office building in Savile Row. I walked over from the nearby Rolling Scones’ office and went up a flight of stairs to the floor-through space which served as office, living, dining, and conference room. They were all there, and Mal and Neil Aspinall.

Paul said they’d been happy with our recent videos and knew I was busy working for their friendly rivals, the Rolling Stones, but, if I could fit it in, The Beatles wanted to do a television special, partly as a result of their experience playing to the hundred or so people who sang along on Hey Jude.

We’d meet every week or ten days during November and December. After a while it became clear that though Paul was the driver of the bus, one or two of the others might get off at the next stop. The harmony which had existed when they’d first started, and during the heady days of their striding onto the world stage and through Sgt. Pepper and their time after the Maharishi, had gradually been fraying as they spent more time on their own. Touring often holds rock ‘n’ roll bands together.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg – From “Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond” by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 2011

However, the project soon deviated from its original intent. The television show was shelved, and the footage was ultimately edited into a feature film, Let It Be, released in 1970. As its release coincided with the break-up of The Beatles, the film was rarely seen in the decades that followed.

In 1977 and 1978, Lindsay-Hogg collaborated once more with Paul, directing music videos for Wings’ songs “Mull of Kintyre,” “London Town,” and “With a Little Luck.”

In 2021, director Peter Jackson released “The Beatles: Get Back,” a three-part documentary series totalling nearly six hours. Drawing from the original footage captured by Lindsay-Hogg and his team during the January 1969 sessions, Jackson used advanced AI technology to restore both image and sound. The renewed interest in the sessions paved the way for Lindsay-Hogg’s original “Let It Be” film to be remastered and re-released in 2024.

Recording sessions Michael Lindsay-Hogg participated in

Film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg