Matt Hurwitz

Music and Soundtrack Features
The Creation of The Beatles’ Last Song and the Rebirth of Red and Blue
Matt Hurwitz  |  Feb 09, 2024  |  4 comments
How does the most popular band in rock music history both close out their recording history and celebrate their iconic legacy at the same time? Well, in early November, The Beatles accomplished both by releasing their last new recording, “Now and Then,” and reissuing their ever popular catalog compilation albums, The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970—known informally as the “Red” and “Blue” albums (Apple/Capitol/UMe), augmented with dozens of new tracks and completely remixed in stereo. “Now and Then” was accompanied by both a 12-minute documentary about its creation, by filmmaker Oliver Murray, and a joyous, fun music video by director Peter Jackson.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Magic Before and After: Peter Jackson’s “Now and Then” Music Video
Matt Hurwitz  |  Feb 09, 2024  |  2 comments
Paul and Ringo join their 1967 counterparts in the “Hello Goodbye” music video - © Apple Corps, Ltd.

It starts with Paul and George tuning up their acoustic guitars, during the February 1995 sessions for the recently-released final Beatles tune, “Now and Then.” Before long, we’re being reminded of just whom their brother, John, misses every so often and why, in a way that both stirs our hearts and also makes us smile.

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Special Features
“Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song” Documentary
Matt Hurwitz  |  Feb 09, 2024  |  Published: Jan 31, 2024  |  2 comments
Documentary director Oliver Murray - Courtesy Oliver Murray

On November 1, a day before the release of “Now and Then,” fans were treated to a special film, a 12-minute documentary titled Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray. The film wonderfully mixes footage from the 1995 sessions (and more recent), intermingled with loads of great archival Beatles footage, all of it beautifully restored. And unlike so many rock documentaries, it is The Beatles themselves who walk us through the process, rather than a narrator type.

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Director's IntentSpecial Features
How James Cameron Created an Otherworldly Reality in Avatar: The Way of Water
Matt Hurwitz  |  Jul 28, 2023  |  2 comments
“I see you.” That is the line spoken in both James Cameron’s original Avatar (2009) and its first sequel, the incredible Avatar: The Way of Water, released this past December, when the native Na’vi characters look into each other’s eyes and see the person within.

And with the Oscar®-winning visual effects (VFX) he and his team have developed and utilized, the phrase takes on new meaning. The CG animated characters are not cartoons – they are people. And we see them, from the inside out.

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Director's IntentThe S&V Interview
Elton John: Farewell Yellow Brick Road
Matt Hurwitz  |  Apr 20, 2023  |  0 comments
How do you close a 50+ year career in America, one which has brought music and magic to millions of fans, to celebrate with them? Well, if you’re Elton John, by returning to the city where it started—Los Angeles—and to one of the locations which symbolizes his incredible success, Dodger Stadium, where he famously played in 1975.
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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesAudio Video News
Recording and Remixing Revolver
Matt Hurwitz  |  Oct 28, 2022  |  18 comments
All photos courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd. unless otherwise noted.

For many Beatles fans, Revolver is their favorite album. A balance of great songwriting and first dips into experimentation and change even place the 1966 LP above Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road for some. The album was a clear step forward into new kinds of music, fresh sounds, and pioneering recording techniques. Following in line with Special Edition packages of Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road , The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album), and Let It Be, Apple Corps, Ltd/Capitol Records/UMe today released a series of new special editions of Revolver featuring the original mono mix and a new stereo remix by Giles Martin (son of original producer Sir George Martin) and engineer Sam Okell plus a Dolby Atmos mix of the album, now available via download. Matt Hurwitz explores the creation and lasting legacy of the work that marked a turning point in the evolution of the world’s greatest band.

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Music Disc ReviewsMusic and Soundtrack FeaturesStreaming Movies and TVSpecial Features
The Making of The Beatles' Let It Be and Peter Jackson's Get Back
Matt Hurwitz  |  Dec 03, 2021  |  2 comments
1968 was a busy year for The Beatles. They had traveled to India to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, launched their own record label, Apple, and spent months at EMI's studios at Abbey Road recording their mammoth double-album, The Beatles (aka The White Album). But even before that album was released, they were planning what would end up as their post-breakup album and film, Let It Be. That disc was recently reissued by Apple/Capitol/Universal in a super deluxe edition, remixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, complete with previously-unreleased bonus tracks, and the film has now been given a reimagining by Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, in the form of The Beatles: Get Back on the Disney+ streaming service.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
The Making of All Things Must Pass
Matt Hurwitz  |  Aug 05, 2021  |  2 comments
George Harrison had a stockpile—fantastic compositions overlooked by his bandmates over the years, along with some written more recently following The Beatles' official breakup. The band's final album release, Let It Be, came on May 8, 1970. But by that time, George had already put the ball in motion to begin recording his first true solo album later that month: All Things Must Pass. The triple-album set would join Paul's McCartney LP as the first Beatles solo albums to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
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Streaming Movies and TV
The World of Raised by Wolves - A Behind-the-Scenes Look
Matt Hurwitz  |  Dec 15, 2020  |  2 comments
A mother and father head to a new home to begin a family. Sounds simple enough, right? But in the world of HBO Max's Raised by Wolves, the world is anything but simple.

The Ridley Scott-driven sci-fi series takes place 150 years in the future, when a world war between a religious cult, the Mithraics, and those who won't accept their life, the Atheists, has led to the Earth becoming uninhabitable.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
The Making of John Lennon's Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes
Matt Hurwitz  |  Oct 23, 2020  |  2 comments
When Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon set out to create a music collection to honor the late John Lennon's 80th birthday, they knew that another greatest hits collection wasn't something fans needed or wanted. Instead, together with the core team that crafted 2018's highly successful Imagine The Ultimate Collection box set, they delivered John Lennon. Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes. Released by Capitol/UMe on October 9, Lennon's actual birthday, this box set includes not only new stereo mixes drafted from the original multitrack session tapes, but also high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes of each, available on an additional Blu-ray audio disc in the album's deluxe box set.
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