Minutemen Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love

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Director: Randall Jahnson. Camera: John Hart & Bill Judkins.

Shot Saturday night, May 12, 1984 at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.

The Minutemen were on the bill with a half-a-dozen hardcore bands; Fear was the headliner, and the Circle Jerks may have been there too.

From the director:

We shot this the same weekend we were shooting 'This Ain't No Picnic.' Since we already had the cameras and gear, I thought why not go down to the Olympic and get some footage of them live? I specifically wanted to film them performing 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love' because they had condensed the Van Halen anthem of nearly 4 minutes into 32 seconds of joyous fist-pumping pandemonium.

D. Boon told me when they would play it in their set so we could have our two cameras ready. I asked if they could play it twice, giving us a chance to switch positions. Cameramen John Hart and Bill Judkins stationed themselves at the foot of the stage, precarious positions given the intensity of the slamdancing in the pit. Mid-way through their set, D. gave us a nod and launched into the Van Halen cover. The cameras rolled. Thirty seconds later it was over - but then they immediately started playing it again without a break, giving us no time to move the cameras. Hart and Judkins reacted quickly. They scrambled onto the stage, hand-holding the cameras, and managed to capture Boon and Mike Watt in their climactic howls of 'Hey! Hey! Hey!'

When we looked at the dailies, the footage from Judkins' camera was particularly funny. All the movement was sped-up and jerky, not unlike what you'd see in an old silent film. His camera, which he owned, was an aged, spring-wound Bell & Howell. The spring mechanism was failing; it would start slowing down as it got toward the end of each wind-up. Likewise, film passing through the aperture slowed down, too, enabling more action to be captured on each frame. Thus, Watt looks like he's in a Buster Keaton comedy in certain shots. For me it was a happy accident. It just added to the kinetic nature of the final video.

In post we added some video effects to further enhance the frenzy.

It played on some local video shows. Someone told me it made the MTV News - Kurt Loder proclaimed it as "the world's shortest video" but I've never had that confirmed.