The music video for “Appreciate” is a collaboration between Paul McCartney and Newman, a robot designed by Significant Object.
“When I knew the title for the album would be New, I got this little vision – you know, like you get waking up in the morning – of me in front of a forest in a checked shirt, kind of lumber jack-y, just like I’m having my picture taken by a neighbor. Only right next to me, with his arm around me, was a robot, this very shiny guy. So I’m working on the idea, at the moment, of having this big guy onstage. I like the idea that I’ve got a big mate who’s a robot.”
The best reference for how the robot looks, he says, is The Iron Giant – a favorite of his and Beatrice’s. To design the robot, McCartney commissioned the same firm that made the elaborate puppets for the stage version of War Horse. “It’s a highly speculative idea,” he says. “Why would you build a robot? Just because you imagined a picture of yourself with one? But that’s what you do: You have ideas and you try to bring them to fruition. You have an idea for a song and you try to bring it through.”
From RollingStone, November 7, 2013
From paulmccartney.com, May 16, 2014:
Paul McCartney teams up with Newman the robot for his NEW video ‘Appreciate’ & Japanese tour dates
Introducing Newman…
Paul McCartney has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the world. In recent years his videos have featured a stellar line up of guests including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Jude Law, Tom Ford, Sean Penn and Natalie Portman.
Today, Paul announced his first artistic collaboration with a robot. Newman, the robot, has teamed up with Paul for his new music video for the song ‘Appreciate’. ‘Appreciate’ is taken from Paul’s latest studio album NEW, which was launched last year.
The video sees Newman on patrol in a museum of humans. Newman is drawn to one exhibition in particular. In a dimly lit sound studio he sees Paul McCartney sitting on a stool holding his iconic Höfner bass guitar. Paul twitches making a sound on the guitar and to Newman’s astonishment he starts to come to life as the song ‘Appreciate’ starts up. Paul comes closer to Newman staring at him through a force field that encloses him. Newman reaches through the force field and pulls Paul out of his exhibition. As the two of them move around the museum all the exhibitions start coming to life too.
Speaking about Newman, Paul said: “I woke up one morning with an image in my head of me standing with a large robot. I thought it might be something that could be used for the cover of my album NEW but instead the idea turned out to be for my music video for ‘Appreciate’. Together with the people who had done the puppetry for the worldwide hit ‘War Horse’ we developed the robot who became Newman.” […]
The video was premiered exclusively in Japan this week where Paul and his band will be performing to sold-out crowds in Tokyo and Osaka. Newman will also be joining Paul on this leg of his tour.
The video was directed by Andre Chocron and filmed in London. Newman was designed by Mervyn Millar and Ed Dimbleby for Significant Object.
On set photos by Mary McCartney.
From Significant Object – Newman:
We’re delighted to announce that we have been working with the legendary Sir Paul McCartney to create a robot character named Newman.
Newman was designed and created by Mervyn Millar and Ed Dimbleby in collaboration with Paul and can be seen in the video for Paul’s single Appreciate.
Newman was performed live in the video, in which the puppeteers have been digitally removed in post-production.
Newman also appeared alongside Paul on his arrival at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to perform concerts as part of his Out There tour.
The puppeteers performing Newman have been Mervyn Millar, Ross Green, Ivan Thorley and Henry Maynard. Ross and Henry can also be seen in cameos in the Appreciate video – along with a marionette that Mervyn made as a student more than 15 years ago! The Appreciate video is directed by the brilliant Andre Chocron and was produced by Sonya Sier for Friend.
There are some clips of Newman at Haneda airport with Paul in May 2015 – we’re caught in the last bit of this one for example.
From Paul McCartney – Appreciate on Vimeo:
Director: André Chocron
DP: Jake Scott
Art direction: Art Dept TV
Stylist: Grace Snell
Hair & Makeup: Lisa Zipper
Choreographer: Jorge Crecis
Puppet design: Mervyn Millar and Ed Dimbleby / Significant Object LtdEdit: Sam Ostrove / Cut+Run
Colorist: George K / MPC
VFX: MPCExecutive producer: Nico Chavez
Producer: Sonya Sier
Comissioner: Paul McKee
Label: MPL
Prod Company: FRIENDShot on Arri Alexa
