I know that this might prove to be difficult if you are over 12 and are not up during the hours of midnight and 3 AM when it seems to be the only time MTV shows actual videos, BUT I strongly encourage you to TIVO or just stay up a little late one night and check out what is happening on the music video front. I, myself, am not an avid MTV watcher but I recently got a gym membership and most times when I am huffing away on the treadmill there are a string of music videos on. How delightful! Some are what you would expect - The Pussycat Dolls dancing around in their underwear and flipping their hair so much that I am sure the wind mustered could power a car, Beyounce sadly doing the same hair flip action and a hip hop artist I have never heard of in a flash car with a bunch of scantily clad big bottomed women. However, in amongst the excess skin and the hair flip, there are some fabulously cinematic gems.
Case in point: Christina Aguilera's HURT - directed by the fabulous Floria Sigismondi - this video harkens back to vaudeville with a storyline of a liitle girl whose father was the center of her world and is not around to see her later success which now seems empty without him. Shot beautifully in sepia tones and elegant costumes, Christina emotes! The video is a film about love, loss, and fame. Floria has been around for quite a while shooting videos for the likes of Sigur Ros, Interpol, Incubus, and The Cure. She is a master of visual style and innovation. If I were a producer and she wanted to make a feature, I would just write her the check - no questions asked.
Where Floria has a mass of experience, Barney Clay - the director of the equally fabulous Gnarls Barkley video - WHO CARES - is relatively new on the scene. He has shot videos for hip bands such as Dirty Pretty Things and Zero 7. WHO CARES is a sadly hilarious take on the blaxploitation classic, Blacula. The lead character, played by Mario Van Peebles, is a vampire who has lost his mojo. Even when he bites someone, the guy just ends up inviting him up to watch TV. This would be a great short film even without the music.
A few years ago, the graduating class of music video director to filmmaker was crowded with the likes of Michel Gondry (Massive Attack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Jonathan Glazer (Radiohead to Sexy Beast), Mark Romanek (Michael and Janet to One Hour Photo) and of course, Spike Jonze (Beastie Boys to Being John Malkovich).
Though there has been, in my opinion, a bit of a fallow period, things seem to be looking up. Bryan Barber just directed Idylewild with Outkast and Tim Burton is in post production on The Killers new video, Bones,
Will music videos replace short films entirely as calling cards for filmmakers? I am not sure but judging from the work that I am seeing in the music video world - videos are certainly giving short films a run for their money.
Keeping it indie,
Julie
Case in point: Christina Aguilera's HURT - directed by the fabulous Floria Sigismondi - this video harkens back to vaudeville with a storyline of a liitle girl whose father was the center of her world and is not around to see her later success which now seems empty without him. Shot beautifully in sepia tones and elegant costumes, Christina emotes! The video is a film about love, loss, and fame. Floria has been around for quite a while shooting videos for the likes of Sigur Ros, Interpol, Incubus, and The Cure. She is a master of visual style and innovation. If I were a producer and she wanted to make a feature, I would just write her the check - no questions asked.
Where Floria has a mass of experience, Barney Clay - the director of the equally fabulous Gnarls Barkley video - WHO CARES - is relatively new on the scene. He has shot videos for hip bands such as Dirty Pretty Things and Zero 7. WHO CARES is a sadly hilarious take on the blaxploitation classic, Blacula. The lead character, played by Mario Van Peebles, is a vampire who has lost his mojo. Even when he bites someone, the guy just ends up inviting him up to watch TV. This would be a great short film even without the music.
A few years ago, the graduating class of music video director to filmmaker was crowded with the likes of Michel Gondry (Massive Attack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Jonathan Glazer (Radiohead to Sexy Beast), Mark Romanek (Michael and Janet to One Hour Photo) and of course, Spike Jonze (Beastie Boys to Being John Malkovich).
Though there has been, in my opinion, a bit of a fallow period, things seem to be looking up. Bryan Barber just directed Idylewild with Outkast and Tim Burton is in post production on The Killers new video, Bones,
Will music videos replace short films entirely as calling cards for filmmakers? I am not sure but judging from the work that I am seeing in the music video world - videos are certainly giving short films a run for their money.
Keeping it indie,
Julie
posted by indieIN | 7:02 AM
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