Thursday, May 27, 2010

Behind The Themes: Music Video for ‘In It Together’ by Human Life

The concept for the video was spawned by an idea formulated years ago in which the camera were the point of view of a dancer in a pitch-black dance party. As we (the protagonist) run though the darkened space, we encounter a variety of dancers, ‘party monsters’, temporarily illuminated for a moment’s dance before we move onto another one. I had been longing to explore this concept for ages, and I thought that in ‘It It Together’ I finally had my chance to do so.

Through the process of collaboration, however, the idea developed: who was this lone dancer, motivated by fear and wonder for the great, dark disco unknown? Where has he come from and what is he looking for? And once he gets there, what sort of creatures would be lurking in the dark?

It was these questions that prompted the hero’s journey of discovery that ends up making up a bulk of the clip. Though even up until the editing stage, I didn’t realise this would be the case.

We shot a lot of footage of the hero’s adventure though inner-city back streets and equally as much of solo dancers and crowd scenes, so much so we could have made two clips. It’s almost a shame the song wasn’t three minutes longer as there were five weeks worth of costume design and production by a team of six amazingly talented costumiers, I would have loved to have featured them more. However, I think that’s one of the clip’s strengths: the illusion that there is so much more here than we have shown you - which there was!

The film’s look comes down to the production design of Jay Matthews. I had been such a big fan of his blog (http://jaybarrymatthews.blogspot.com/) for months before meeting him, but once we became friends and the idea of a collaboration came up, I knew that his aesthetic applied to a music video (or even a film – if they were to remake ‘Holy Mountain’) would be a civil union made in heaven.

Jay works using mini-narratives of his own, so even I as the director wasn’t aware of the stories behind each of the thirteen looks he designed for the dancers – stories of political upheaval and tribal conflict that manifested in the amazing garments that magnificently come together as one cohesive look for the underground utopia. Some of the costumes were also designed by baby geniuses Jack Mac and Emman Debattista (the ‘rope gridiron player’ and the ‘blonde afro bandage’ looks respectively.)

One of the first thing people say when commenting on the strength of the clip is of course the hero, played by George McCullough. I met George at the Melbourne indie nightclub ‘Sorry Grandma’ (RIP) and I was amazed – and delighted – that he’d never so much as modeled before.

I really came to understand what people mean when they say he or she is “a natural”. Just by putting the camera on George and asking him to do the most menial task it is instantly alluring. George the epitome of ‘the boy’ in the Germaine Greer sense: men and women, gay and straight are drawn to him - possibly due to a mix of burgeoning sexual potency and innocence – a perfect starting point for the journey of the protagonist.

Another triumph of the video is the way in which it is shot. For such an ‘arts ’n crafts’ style of production design to look so glossy also comes down to Stefan Duscio’s cinematography. Stefan, who I’ve worked with on my last few projects - and who I cannot possibly imagine working without, shot on the Canon 5D digital SLR using a set of superior lenses. This gave us freedom in size and mobility – a must when shooting in the inner city on the sly ;) A lot of the tracking shots of George running in the street are Stefan either skateboarding or on a bike with a camera mount. The whole thing just felt so free and easy and a lot of the filming solutions were the result of little planning and us just working creatively in the space.

The magical realism of the clip came from the fact that the protagonist needed to transform along the way, so that by the time he reached his destination, his adventure can be seen as one of self-discovery.

The ‘Mystic’ who emerges from the mountain of garbage bags was a result of me asking Jay to design “Glinda The Good Witch – of Trash”. She signifies the point at which his journey truly begins, as if the universe is guiding him to his fate.

The logo on the flyer, corresponding with the huge paste-up on the wall of the warehouse was designed by a local graf artist Callum Preston, and is inspired by Keith Harring’s work around the time of his collaboration with Grace Jones and is tied to the three basic colours that Jay used in all of the costumes.

So many of the concepts in the video – definitely the ones I like the most – all came as a result of creative problem solving between Jay and I: how to get our little guy from A to B in as visually stimulating a way as possible. And because this is the project where I gave the most amount of creative freedom to the people who I worked with, it was for me an exercise in collaboration, and as a result, the clip I am most proud of.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Top 10 Music Videos

A some of you may know I have recently premiered a music video which I directed for the LA electro-pop band Human Life (hopefully justifying my hiatus from the High Horse stables). The clip has been a huge success, and so I thought I would, in the spirit of my ‘Top 10 Favourite Movies’ post, make a similar list for the music videos which influenced me the most.

The music video is an integral element of the modern day film world. They provide a corner stone for the youth film diet: even when our attention spans are incapable of receiving conceptual fare of feature length, we can still consume the art house hors d’oeuvre that is the ‘promo’. And although they were originally designed with the intention of selling albums, they have since become an art form unto themselves.

By the time MTV launched in August 1981, music videos were common promotional tool for record companies. In 1975, when director Bruce Gowers brought the cover of the album ‘Queen II’ to life, the band Queen created what is considered to be the first ever music video - not just the recording of a live performance.

It wasn’t until 1980 however that the filmic potential of the medium was really capitalised on via the special effects-laden video for The Jacksons’ Can You Feel It.

In the thirty year since, music video as a medium has boomed (1995 saw the most expensive video ever made - US$7 million - for the Michael/Janet Jackson single Scream) and busted. In a post-piracy era there is less and less money to be made in album sales so focus is being brought back towards the live show and thus the music video is a lesser priority.

Music video is a medium which has provided a platform for so many of the Gen X auteur directors we celebrate today: David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are), Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), Jonothan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Birth) have been working with artists like Bjork, Madonna, Kylie, Radiohead, Daft Punk and The Beastie Boys since the 90s.

The expediency of the music video turn around and relative creative freedom allow a public space for experimentation and exploration that my not be granted in a feature film where bigger budgets promote minimal risk. Music video has somehow slipped though the cracks of film commerce to be a medium that celebrates the surreal and the subversive – in an industry that can so often play it safe.

A music video’s success is usually gauged on the way in which it frames the song. A music video can make or break, by giving us visual associations to hook our understanding of the music to a place or a moment.

The clips I have selected as my Top 10 are chosen for the way in which they resonated with me filmicly, not just because I liked the song or the artist (though those factors are inevitabily influential).

These are the source of the seeds that have been sewn in my left hemisphere – the fruits of which, ultimately form the foundations of my work today. They may either offer you a chance to discover some great new works, revisit some old favourites, or possibly inspire you in your own creative pursuits (or dancefloor dominations).

Enjoy.

ALL IS FULL OF LOVE Bjork (1999)

Dir. Chris Cunningham

A sexual ideal is explored on a sci-fi tangent: two androgynous robots with Bjork’s face make love in an exquisitely sterile space station which calls to mind the 70s ‘Star Wars’ ideal of future perfection.

The track is minimalist, like the setting (and not the album version). The success of the video is that, even in it’s slow pacing and lingering edits, audience attention is captivated due to the composition of the frames and the beauty of the design.

Unlike other clips which try and give it to you hard and fast, All Is Full of Love offers a slow, deep vision of the act of love, made acceptable to our sociological censor due to it’s synthetic subjects, yet it is no less affecting: because the avatars aren’t human, they allow us to focus on the beauty of the connection.

Further viewing by director Chris Cunningham: music videos for ‘Come to Daddy’ and ‘Window Licker’ by Aphex Twin; DVD-release experimental film ‘Rubber Johnny’.

FLASHING LIGHTS Kanye West (2007)

Dir: Spike Jonze and Kanye West

All things being said about the questionable sanity of Kanye West, for a video to be comprised entirely of one shot played out in slow motion is a defiant attempt at pushing an artistic bent. Kanye co-directed this clip with Spike Jonze and the video shows a playboy model, Rita G, pulling up in a Ford Mustang on the outskirts of Las Vegas, removing her clothes and wig in order to burn them (a gratuitous yet clever way of keeping a distinctive section of his fanbase engaged in a clip that is snail-paced in comparison to most BET videos). She pops the boot of the trunk to reveal Kanye bound and gagged (a nod to his increasingly ego-maniacal public image?) and then kisses him. As the camera pulls away she bludgeons him repeatedly with a shovel before the video cuts to black revealing the title of the song in red almost a minute before the album version of the song ends.

A refreshingly twisted, sexy and tension-filled offering for a mainstream artist.

Further viewing by director Spike Jonze: music videos ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ by Bjork; and the films ‘Being John Malckovich’, ‘Adaptation’ and internet mini-feature: ‘I’m Here’.

SINGLE LADIES Beyonce (2008)

Dir. Jake Nava

It seemed almost radical for a video to champion dance in the way that Single Ladies does, especially since the jump-off point for the choreography came from Bob Fosse rather than Michael Jackson - often considered the source of music video choreography.

The story behind the clip’s simplicity is that the videos for ‘If I were a Boy’ and Single Ladies’ were shot in tandem in order to be released simultaneously, however the budget for both videos was used almost entirely on ‘If I Were a Boy’ (black and white photography, large-scale location shoots telling the story of a New York City police woman tempted into infidelity - no doubt attempting to assist Beyonce in her transition to non-musical film acting) thus rendering the ‘Single Ladies’ video a comparatively streamlined affair.

And to what end: As a testament to the skills of the performer, the video allows us to watch, unhindered by effects or shift in location or costume (the usual tricks), dance for dance sake, not to titillate or distract.

The dance on which the now famous ‘Single Ladies’ dance has gone through many a genesis: originally a variety show performance designed by Fosse for Broadwaystar Gwen Vernon to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show entitled ‘Mexican Breakfast’ in which she was flanked by two dancers in the ‘lead and follow’ style (which had since became popular in African American gay clubs in Atlanta). This, now seemingly ironic footage was then dubbed with the contemporary song “Walk It Out” by Unk and put on Youtube - which Beyonce then saw and decided she wanted to modernize.

A routine was created which was originally much more jazz/hip hop based, until it was brought back to much more closely representing the original.

Further viewing by director Jake Nava: music videos: “Crazy I Love” by Beyonce, “If You Seek Amy” by Britney Speers.

WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO Bat For Lashes (2007)

Dir. Dougal Wilson

Pre-empting the emergence of ‘fixie’ culture and executing a simple idea with logistical wit, the video features singer Natasha Kahn riding a bicycle down an isolated forest road, flanked by a swarm of reappearing BMX Bandits wearing animal masks.

The clips strength lies in its simplicity. Ironic, considering the challenges presented in shooting an action-based video with only one edit point. However, the chaos taking place around the singer punctuates her performance rather than distracts from it.

“What’s a Girl To Do” manages to tick all the right boxes: referencing a culture of the day, appealing to the ‘internet phenomenon’ trend of “pass this on” high-concept videos while quite literally keeping the beat of the tune perfectly.

EVERYTIME Britney Spears (2004)

Dir. David LaChapelle

As an eerily pre-emptive suggestion as to the psychological public-undressing that Britney would undergo only a few years later, a pre-head-shaving Britney plays herself in the story of a starlet on the verge of a breakdown that may or may not end in her suicide.

The work of photographer David LaChapelle defined celebrity portraiture in the late 90s and created the garish colour palate that would resonate across the spectrum of creative media of the time. He notoriously plays with juxtapositions of the glamorous and the grotesque: the American dream realised to the point of gluttony.

This clip unfolds like a diorama of Britney’s life, to which the tune is a bizarre music-box lullaby.

At this stage in her career, the cracks were beginning to form in Britney’s ‘All American Girl’ façade, yet she was still a chart-topping hit-maker. It was a bold move, then, for a director to make a clip based on the seemingly imagined suggestion of what was really going on behind the scenes: that this was a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Never before has a mainstream pop starlet’s troubled existence become the basis for a pop video. If anyone was going to celebrate the celebrity dream unravelled, it was going to be David LaChapelle.

Further viewing by director David LaChapelle: music videos: ‘Dirrty’ and ‘Can’t Hold Us Down’ by Christina Aguilera, ‘Not If You Were The Last Junkie’ by The Dandy Warhols; the dance documentary ‘Rize’.

NOVEMBER RAIN Guns N’ Roses (1992)

Dir. Andy Morahn

Almost twenty years later, the video for rock’s greatest power ballad is still as visually arresting as it ever was due to its design, high drama and bravado.

The video tells the story of the perfect wedding between Axle and his then real-life girlfriend Stephanie Seymore. They’re wedding plays out, complete with jovial moments like the point at which the wedding ring is forgotten and one of the band members steps in with the offer of a ring from his leather-gloved hand.

The wedding reception is rained out and through a shift in mood of music and visuals it is suggested that soon after, the beautiful bride kills herself as she is seen in a coffin in the same church with a mirror obscuring one half of her face (a common way of presenting an open casket after suicide via gunshot wound to the head).

The video is so successful in creating moments that linger in the subconscious like clever chorus hooks, it is impossible to hear the song without recalling:

- Stephanie Seymore walking down the aisle in the mini wedding dress.

- Red wine spilling on white linen.

- The bouquet landing in the rain.

- Guitarist Slash’s solos: in a barren field in front of a church in New Mexico and mounting Axl’s piano in the guilded theatre in front of an audience of thousands while a string orchestra builds the mounting suspense in the background.

November Rain is still one of the most expensive music videos in history, yet through all the locations and lavish design elements, there is a congruous and contained story within the excesses of the telling.

CRIMINAL Fiona Apple (1998)

Dir. Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek’s music video for Criminal invites the audience to illicit pederast thoughts on the seemingly adolescent Apple. Her gamine corpse is strung out in a serious of orgiastic panoramas shot to emulate a teenage girl’s flash photography.

Eerily childish imagery abounds: the clip open on a phallic stuffed animal, the colour palate is made up of saturated primary colours, and she sits, sulking like a naughty child on kitchen benches and in the cupboard while giving her rendition of the song.

The setting too ties us to notions of the 70’s Californian porn industry through its faux wood panelling and green shag carpet – very much alive in the public’s consciousness at the time due to the release of Boogie Nights.

In the song, Apple tells the story of a girl who has committed the crime of heart breaking, but the video allows a platform for a very raw performance that makes us feel as though a different, more sinister crime is taking place: one by us a voyeuristic audience.

Further viewing by Mark Romanek: ‘Bedtime Stories’ and ‘Rain’ by Madonna’, ‘Closer’ by Nine Inch Nails; ‘Are you Gonna Go My Way’ by Lenny Kravitz and the film ‘One Hour Photo’ starring Robyn Williams.

BACHELORETTE Bjork (1997)

Dir. Michel Gondry

Both artist and director have come together over a number of projects, but Bachelorette is the best example of the power of collaboration: Bjork’s cinematic musical production and Scandinavian operatic plays out like a film score over Gondry’s surreal meditiation on the imitation of life in art, and art’s subsequent imitation by other art.

The clip open with Bjork’s narration on finding a book in the street. This narration then appears as the words in the book. She takes the book to a publisher, who then manufactures it, it’s success leading to it being turned into a stage play in which Bjork finds a book, takes it to a publisher which is then manufactured and turned into a stage play. And so on, until the ‘real life’ characters are watching a play of a play of a girl finding a book in the street.

It is in that copying of a copy and the increasing denigration of the idea that the director is exploring which is a clever abstraction on the song’s theme of love and loss.

SUGAR WATER Cibo Matto (1996)

Dir. Michel Gondry

Reflection, time loop and repetition are themes that feature heavily across Michel Gondry’s extensive (and in many cases genius) music video career - indeed, if he could reappropriate this genius to his feature film work, we may not have been given the misfires ‘Be Kind Rewind’, ‘Human Nature’ and ‘The Science of Sleep’.

However, ‘Sugar Water’ by Cibo Matto, an otherwise little known Japanese Band, allows him to explore this terrain in a way that is intricate in concept but simple in presentation so it can be received as either quaint or perplexing.

A split screen shows two sides of the same story played out from two girls’ perspectives.

The left hand side of the screen is playing forward while the right hand side is playing in reverse and at the middle point the scenes cleverly switch perspective so that the Girl 1 is now covered in the perspective shown backwards and vice versa.

This clip is a testament to the strength of the concept: it takes multiple viewings to get one’s head around exactly what is happening, yet from first viewing, the clip maintains a visual harmony which is balanced and poetic.

This clip also perpetuates the notion of ‘director as artist’ – unable to satiate his exploration of an idea via one video, Gondry allowed the theme to reoccur though the clips ‘Let Forever Be’ and ‘Star Guitar’ by The Chemical Brothers, ‘Come Into My World’ by Kylie Minogue and ‘The Hardest Button To Button’ by The White Stripes.

PAPARAZZI Lady Gaga (2009)

Dir. Jonas Akerland

Paparazzi signifies Gaga’s ownership of the music video medium and in doing so, she collaborates with long-time Madonna videographer, Jonas Akerland.

In the video, Ackerland and Gaga parallel the song’s theme of pitching the object of her affection as the paparazzi, and her, the star vying for their attention to the metaphore of the heart breaker as a (literal) lady-killer.

After her attempted ‘murder’, Gaga takes him back and breaks his heart (kills him) as revenge.

Where this clip succeeds where it’s follow up - the Beyonce duet, ‘Telephone’ - fails, is that all of the scenes, costumes and stories presented are all necessary to heighten the key theme. Even the dance routine is done with Gaga and dancers wearing outfits inspired by press flash bulbs. Every element of the styling supports the scene and the story – even the hair-piece worn after her fall from the balcony reflects splattered brains.

Imagery of 1930’s cinema like Fritz Lang’s Metroplois represented (brilliantly) by her (high drama) golden iron-lung bodice and the mythology of tragic Hollywood heroines like Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond are paralleled and presented via a ‘tele-novella’-style introduction in Swedish. And just as in Sunset Boulevard, the infamy gained by killing her lover provides her with the fame she’s been craving, cleverly trying in both the video’s narrative and the song’s lyrics.

Selected further Viewing by Jonas Akerland – music videos: ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ by The Prodigy, ‘Telephone’ by Lady Gaga, ‘Music’, ‘American Life’ (the brilliant original, un-released version) and ‘Celebration’ by Madonna.

Prologue:

You may have noticed a certain lacking in my listing. That’s right: I did not include any Madonna in my Top 10. This is because in trying to devise a Top 10 list, she featured entirely too heavily as she has chosen to work with so many of the directors I have come to admire.

So tune in next week when I list my ‘Top 10 Madonna Clips (and the way in which they have signposted her career)’ J