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If you’re a big corporate sponsor, like, say, American Express, and you’re seeking a director to oversee Thursday night’s Web broadcast of a performance by Arcade Fire at Madison Square Garden (which will be streamed live on YouTube), you could presumably have your choice of talent, from up-and-coming music-video auteurs to established Hollywood hotshots.

So why turn to Terry Gilliam, the highly unpredictable Monty Python alum whose feature films include “Brazil” and “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” and who dislikes indie rock almost as much as he despises the Internet? Even Mr. Gilliam himself wasn’t sure, though he says he’s a huge Arcade Fire fan.

ArtsBeat spoke recently with Mr. Gilliam — apparently not too long after he’d been roused from bed — about this unusual project that we all hope turns out better for him than “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” These are excerpts from that conversation.

Q.

How are you?

A.

I’m just awake, barely awake. As long as you keep talking, I’ll keep my eyes open.

Q.

I hope this doesn’t affect your process Thursday night, when you’re frantically choosing from among all your camera options.

A.

Maybe I’ll just be sleeping. I want the entire community of the people watching it making the choices. Can we do that? Can they be tweeting in what cameras they’d like to be watching? Then we could have some sort of machinery that collates all the votes, and it could work by that. The Web is about community, not about hierarchy and fascistic directors and things like that. I’m just a beginner in this world. I’m a complete novice. I hate the Web, to be honest about it.

Q.

So how did this all come about, then?

A.

You mean [laughs] how the finger of God pointed down at me and said, ‘You are the chosen one’? ‘Help these young people out, save their careers,’ that sort of thing? Well, it was as long ago as two weeks ago when my agent was approached, saying they were doing a show at Madison Square Garden. They wondered if I could get involved with no time at all, which means there’s very little I can do. It’s all their work — I’m just trying to make sure that it gets somehow seen on the Web accurately. I’m not a director — let’s put it that way — in this instance. I’m just a follower. [Laughs.]

Q.

Are you a big indie-rock guy?

A.

No! I mean, most of it’s [bad]. I just happen to like Arcade Fire. The world of indie is such a funny thing now. I think everybody’s in it. Otherwise you’re just the dependent rock world. I think half the indie bands are owned by some big company. So it’s a complete lie. I don’t know why Canada produces some rather interesting work. Arcade Fire, Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade — these are my favorites.

Q.

See, you do know your indie rock.

A.

Just a very limited group … up there, singing to the northern boundaries of America.

Q.

In your filmmaking career, have you ever directed a music video or a concert film before?

A.

No, that’s what’s interesting about this, I’ve always avoided it. My good friends, people like George Harrison and Sting, I said no to. I was trying to concentrate on my film work. Now I guess it’s old-dogs-learning-new-tricks time in my life.

Q.

So what was different about Arcade Fire?

A.

I saw them about three years ago in London at Brixton Academy, and that was before they had as much of a show as they have together now. Then I came to Montreal some days ago and was at a show there, where they were playing at a festival. They had four of the world’s biggest trucks there, for all the gear they carry around. I said: “Whoa. An upcoming indie-rock band is not what I used to think an indie-rock band was.” [Laughs.]

Q.

What about the Montreal show stood out for you?

A.

When a new song was played up in Montreal, you could see the audience was very quiet. From the band’s point of view, it must have felt like, Ooh — they don’t like it. But in fact, they were just listening very respectfully, trying to take in this material. I’ve always reacted to their music because it really feels like these are personal stories being told. Each of us comes away with our own interpretation. It’s a poetry that doesn’t provide the answers but it certainly opens up possibilities in the way you perceive things.

Q.

How do you film something like this, that’s so elaborate, and has all these potential interpretations?

A.

These shows, there’s a machine, in a sense, that runs them. I’ve never done multicamera work, so I’m just advising people: Look at the video work they’ve got up on the screen; it’s raw and it’s overexposed, and almost the antithesis of what I do when I make a film. So let’s use that, and basically throw away the slick stuff that’s normally done at, say, a Britney Spears concert. Let’s just be true to what the band wants to do.

Q.

So what kind of equipment will you have at your disposal for the Web broadcast?

A.

I don’t know. Just the same old. Some people and some cameras. [laughs] There’s nothing magical about any of this stuff. There’s some very professional people who’ll be doing what they do well, and I’ll probably try to stay out of everybody’s way. And if it’s good, I’ll take credit for everything, and if it’s bad, nothing to do with me.

Q.

Did you watch any of the classic concert films in preparation for this?

A.

Nope. [Laughs hysterically.] It’s an absolute disgrace. I’m just a hanger-on. I’m a secret groupie. This is the only way I could get close to a band I admire. I’m really just a hanger-on, is what I am. I’m sucking up knowledge for who knows what we do in the future. I’m getting old. I’ve got to create a new career. It’s just nice being with a young band who are — “pure” is a reasonable word to use, because there’s a real integrity about them.

Q.

So what will your agenda be like on the day of?

A.

I’m going to go over there around 3 o’clock and say hi, and talk, hang out. There’s a documentary crew of sorts, following me around, meeting them and all, which they might use that stuff as an opening before the show. The idea was somehow to show me blending, meeting, conspiring, bumping into a young band, to see what happens. It’s wonderful. I’m just behaving completely irresponsibly.

Q.

After everything you’ve been through, you’re still O.K. being in front of the camera?

A.

You’ve seen “Lost in La Mancha,” I hope. If there’s going to be a documentary crew following me around, I never censor anything — that’s the whole point of it, it seems to me. I’ve never understood why people allow themselves to be documented and then censor all the interesting bits. I saw a couple feet of what they shot and I looked like an absolute fool. [Laughs.]

Q.

And you’re all right with that?

A.

I’ll have to sort that out when I get back to London and learn to walk properly. I’ve got a lot of work to do, to lower the self-contempt level. It’s kind of shocking to see how I’ve aged. That’s just vanity and ego speaking.

Q.

Have you decided what you’ll do next, when you’ve finished this assignment? Or do you want to see where the inspiration takes you?

A.

I’ve got lots of things in there, and all of them are just all possibilities. I’ve always made the mistake of talking about my possibilities as reality, and invariably I’m wrong. So I don’t talk about it anymore. I’m getting better at keeping my mouth shut, because I’ve made a fool of myself too many times in the past.