AMAZING!
IT'S REALLY CUTE, ORIGINAL AND EVERYTHING BECK WAS TRYING TO DO WITH HI PUPPETS BUT BETTER.
Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Best Picture
12 years ago
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Some One Knows What They're Doing
So this year of Music Videos was off to a weird start.
Meaning, there wern't any. Like at all. Until a week later.
Then the public received, "SouljaBoy Tell Em'" and "Freeze" the latest Auto-Tuner installment from T-Pain featuring the Dacing Feet of Chris Brown and the lack of him singing anything really. He sang, like, a sentence and then he was gone. Probably off to abuse his fame in order to get some red of LA Cooze.
Anyway.
Now some artsy music videos are starting to show their faces which means that you should color me excited. I am a big fan of treating music videos as an art so I'm really excited to show you guys this.
This video is directed by Yuval and Merav Nathan. I guess their Israeli brothers who've gotten into music videos. At least that's what I think their back story is.
So, as it turns out, they started out as animators doing 3-D cartoons and all that bidness then they were seens by somebody and one thing lead to another and you can watch all of their videos on their website here.
So it seems that in the Oren Lavie music video they stuck to their style of stop motion with people. Which, I've had different feelings about over the years. I mean, I know it can look cool but I think the only time it's acceptable to use Stop-Motion with the living is in cases like this music video. Where the directors had something extraordinary planned but their budget is maybe $20. And then I could get into how I feel you should only use stop motion when the mood calls for it and if the mood calls for it then you're probably doing an indie movie.
I can say after watching all of their videos that the Oren Lavie music video is the best by far. Yuval & Merav Nathan have made maybe another really good music video with their stop-motion method but everything else they make is more klunky than cute and I have the idea that's not what they were going for.
This music video knows it's strengths and weaknesses. The main weakness of using stop motion with Lip-Syncing is that the entire movement of the mouth isn't really photographed but maybe 50-75% depending on the length of the word and when a view sees that this it kinda takes them out of the surreal world of whimsy and cute images. So how do they fix this. They keep the guy who is lip-syncing away from the camera. This way you can barely see what he's doing but you have the general idea.
The song is also well written and goes with the mood of the piece. The video is also directed by the singer Oren Lavie but I think it's co-directed in the nicest sense of the word. Like, maybe he had the idea to keep the whole thing on a bed instead of an actual sidewalk. I dunno. But it seems that the direction was able to mesh very well with the attitude given by the music and whenever this is attempted it doesn't always work so props to them.
And finally, I give final props for using clothes in your every day drawer as animals and set pieces. Not everyone would have thought of that and because of their imagination I can't wait to see what Merav Nathan and Yurav come up with next.
Meaning, there wern't any. Like at all. Until a week later.
Then the public received, "SouljaBoy Tell Em'" and "Freeze" the latest Auto-Tuner installment from T-Pain featuring the Dacing Feet of Chris Brown and the lack of him singing anything really. He sang, like, a sentence and then he was gone. Probably off to abuse his fame in order to get some red of LA Cooze.
Anyway.
Now some artsy music videos are starting to show their faces which means that you should color me excited. I am a big fan of treating music videos as an art so I'm really excited to show you guys this.
This video is directed by Yuval and Merav Nathan. I guess their Israeli brothers who've gotten into music videos. At least that's what I think their back story is.
So, as it turns out, they started out as animators doing 3-D cartoons and all that bidness then they were seens by somebody and one thing lead to another and you can watch all of their videos on their website here.
So it seems that in the Oren Lavie music video they stuck to their style of stop motion with people. Which, I've had different feelings about over the years. I mean, I know it can look cool but I think the only time it's acceptable to use Stop-Motion with the living is in cases like this music video. Where the directors had something extraordinary planned but their budget is maybe $20. And then I could get into how I feel you should only use stop motion when the mood calls for it and if the mood calls for it then you're probably doing an indie movie.
I can say after watching all of their videos that the Oren Lavie music video is the best by far. Yuval & Merav Nathan have made maybe another really good music video with their stop-motion method but everything else they make is more klunky than cute and I have the idea that's not what they were going for.
This music video knows it's strengths and weaknesses. The main weakness of using stop motion with Lip-Syncing is that the entire movement of the mouth isn't really photographed but maybe 50-75% depending on the length of the word and when a view sees that this it kinda takes them out of the surreal world of whimsy and cute images. So how do they fix this. They keep the guy who is lip-syncing away from the camera. This way you can barely see what he's doing but you have the general idea.
The song is also well written and goes with the mood of the piece. The video is also directed by the singer Oren Lavie but I think it's co-directed in the nicest sense of the word. Like, maybe he had the idea to keep the whole thing on a bed instead of an actual sidewalk. I dunno. But it seems that the direction was able to mesh very well with the attitude given by the music and whenever this is attempted it doesn't always work so props to them.
And finally, I give final props for using clothes in your every day drawer as animals and set pieces. Not everyone would have thought of that and because of their imagination I can't wait to see what Merav Nathan and Yurav come up with next.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Emo
An idea that I just had was what if you had to eat all of the emotions you felt earlier during the day.
Full Length Movie ideas
Well, maybe.
So there is "Try And Catch The Devil" a movie idea that I have had in my pocket for a while now about a detective who is trying to get back on the wagon and climb the ladder of success in order to reach his former spot of glory that he unfortunately fell from because of a past girlfriend that left him in shambles. She wasn't really healthy for him and he didn't care because she was gorgeous and made him feel alive. Or whatever. God, the more I type out this plot synopsis the more film schooly and bull-shity I think it sounds.
Anyway.
He is then hired by some ordinary simple guy who thinks that his wife is cheating on him and when he starts to follow the suspected wife he starts to really fall for her. He lies to the wife and says that his husband is trying cheating on him, husband finds out that the detective did this and confronts the detective saying that he's gonna tell everyone what happened and this white knight crusade that the detective is trying to waltz through is just a mirage. The detective thinks that he can intimidate the husband into leaving him and his lover alone and thinks he can convince the wife to leave her husband.
Husband does have the balls after all and hires a rival detective to go after horrible villain.
After that I don't really know what happens. All I know is that I want this film to be a screaming victim piece and no one can be innocent. Cept the woman I guess. I mean. It sounds like she's just being manipulated.
Idea #2...
And Old man or woman looks back at her glory days and just keeps getting more agitated because she isn't as young as she was. She/he then says upfront that I was beautiful and amazing back in the day and now all I am is just an old woman waiting to die and she kills herself or something. Again, work in progress and the more I think about this one the more I think that I just need to see my grandma and leave this idea in the old brain box.
Lesser Ideas
The other ideas I had was the Desert Sci-Fi dream movie about the utopia that can only exist if people are separated, unaware of other peoples existence and live in a world where they have everything they want. All of this takes place in an abandoned hospital. That is a secret government program and blah blah blah it sounds really lame and I think it is, but if I had to make a film that I was just going to make for the exploitation it would be this one.
Lastly my Super Hero film.
A 2 Parter.
Pt.1
Two superheros try to bring down the forms of government and create a new system where they are in charge. They're ideas are extremely unorthodox and almost insane so they are not given the power they want. The superheros are still convinced that they are doing what needs to be done so they take what they think belongs to them. In the process one of them dies and the other can't do what the group originally intended.
Pt. 2
After the over throw. The one meta human is left and the world he tries to save is falling apart. He has no idea what he is doing, and his powers seem to be dissolving. Because of his loss of his super powers he goes...I hate saying this, but, insane with rage and uses his diplomatic powers to try and make everything the way he and his college once saw the world. He can't in the end and ends up killing millions.
A resistance grows.
The end.
I like all of them and I would love to flush them out more but I dunno at this time if they are even worth flushing out.
So there is "Try And Catch The Devil" a movie idea that I have had in my pocket for a while now about a detective who is trying to get back on the wagon and climb the ladder of success in order to reach his former spot of glory that he unfortunately fell from because of a past girlfriend that left him in shambles. She wasn't really healthy for him and he didn't care because she was gorgeous and made him feel alive. Or whatever. God, the more I type out this plot synopsis the more film schooly and bull-shity I think it sounds.
Anyway.
He is then hired by some ordinary simple guy who thinks that his wife is cheating on him and when he starts to follow the suspected wife he starts to really fall for her. He lies to the wife and says that his husband is trying cheating on him, husband finds out that the detective did this and confronts the detective saying that he's gonna tell everyone what happened and this white knight crusade that the detective is trying to waltz through is just a mirage. The detective thinks that he can intimidate the husband into leaving him and his lover alone and thinks he can convince the wife to leave her husband.
Husband does have the balls after all and hires a rival detective to go after horrible villain.
After that I don't really know what happens. All I know is that I want this film to be a screaming victim piece and no one can be innocent. Cept the woman I guess. I mean. It sounds like she's just being manipulated.
Idea #2...
And Old man or woman looks back at her glory days and just keeps getting more agitated because she isn't as young as she was. She/he then says upfront that I was beautiful and amazing back in the day and now all I am is just an old woman waiting to die and she kills herself or something. Again, work in progress and the more I think about this one the more I think that I just need to see my grandma and leave this idea in the old brain box.
Lesser Ideas
The other ideas I had was the Desert Sci-Fi dream movie about the utopia that can only exist if people are separated, unaware of other peoples existence and live in a world where they have everything they want. All of this takes place in an abandoned hospital. That is a secret government program and blah blah blah it sounds really lame and I think it is, but if I had to make a film that I was just going to make for the exploitation it would be this one.
Lastly my Super Hero film.
A 2 Parter.
Pt.1
Two superheros try to bring down the forms of government and create a new system where they are in charge. They're ideas are extremely unorthodox and almost insane so they are not given the power they want. The superheros are still convinced that they are doing what needs to be done so they take what they think belongs to them. In the process one of them dies and the other can't do what the group originally intended.
Pt. 2
After the over throw. The one meta human is left and the world he tries to save is falling apart. He has no idea what he is doing, and his powers seem to be dissolving. Because of his loss of his super powers he goes...I hate saying this, but, insane with rage and uses his diplomatic powers to try and make everything the way he and his college once saw the world. He can't in the end and ends up killing millions.
A resistance grows.
The end.
I like all of them and I would love to flush them out more but I dunno at this time if they are even worth flushing out.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
10 Best Music Videos of 2008
DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT SEEN EVERY MUSIC VIDEO OF THIS YEAR, BUT I DID TRY AND DID NOT SUCCEED. THIS IS WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT.
I also encourage people to look up music videos for this year from artists they like, post a reply and say why you liked this music video. It's a little bit more friendly that way. Yay.
10. "If I Ever See Your Face Again"-Maroon 5 Feat Rihanna
Dir. Anthony Mandler
One of the only music videos I've ever seen shot in Widescreen. Now, let me explain why I picked a Maroon 5 song before no one takes me seriously anymore (not that most of you did). In this world that we live in now, where most music videos aren't really seen as works of art anymore there aren't many directors that see a typical pop song as something else. This is a song about a one night stand and in the back you can hear some of the worst synth you've ever heard. But here's what the directors did. He used Maroon 5's huge amounts of money to not only make this video look professional but the background looks like it came from a Park Chan-Wook sex film. The editing is done in a way where you don't really pay attention to Maroon 5 but to Adam and Rihanna and the huge amounts of sex that they are producing through out the music video. It's just nice to see some directors making something incredibly professional out of a pop song about a one night stand that isn't the best.
9. "Dancing Choose" - TV on the Radio
Dir. Micheal Kuhn
You don't see a lot of music videos like this anymore. Music videos that just go off the wall with anything they can get away with. Here we see some sort of collage animation stumbling around this iconic world and since the song is about materialism and society today I think it fits. Kind of. Anyway. I just think it's nice to see something really risky in making music videos today. It's not the best video but the song is good enough to keep you interested and the editing it just fascinating. Sure, this animated story is a little cluttered and a little too confusing but just like the song you have to use your brain to really understand it. Never really seen too many music videos approached from this angel before.
8. "He Doesn't Know Why" - Fleet Foxes
Dir. Sean Pecknold
A great thing about Fleet Foxes is that their sound is old and folkish which reminds me and a lot of my friends of xmas. But the best setting for this music video would be like, an abandoned torn down room of yesteryear or maybe a barn. WHAT?! DONE BOTH?! BUT HOW?! GOATS?!
While the song is so Melancholic here we have a director who looks past that (???) and just thinks what would be funny. How about them playing a really serious song in a room full of goats. With this change the tone of the entire songs changes and the words loose meaning. The song is no longer so depressing and the viewer falls into a world surrounded by the folksy floaty sound of Fleet Foxes. Which also sound a lot like Xmas.
7. "Mr. Pitiful" -Matt Costa
Dir. The Malloys
The "Backyard Rock" or "Mellow Music" genre is dying and I can't wait for it to go. With the over hype of Jack Johnston and the annoyance of hippies from art schools playing his songs and other like it most of the time they sit out in the quad, most people have grown bored of the simple style and moved on.
I was surprised to see the Malloys direct this catchy, hollow, indie backyard pop song. They're most famous for working with The White Stripes and other Alt-Rock bands with heavy rock influences. Last thing I would associate them with is some Back Yard acoustic guitar player who seems like he's so chill 24/7 That if he was given any responsibilities he would just drop them and go back to...doing nothing, I suppose.
But because it's Matt Costa and he does everything himself The Malloys saw an opportunity. They thought, you know what people don't see anymore, one man bands on the street begging for change while they play six difference instruments at once. While some would refuse to call that a lost art, the video makes that one man band look like the next indie movie and with the Malloy's style of stop motion and clever use of puppetry we have a music video that has a cute little heart while I still stand on saying that it's nothing more than a little indie pop song. Nice job guys.
6. "Violet Hill" - Coldplay
Dir. The Malloys and Tim Wheeler
Music videos now a days really forget what people like me want (but why should they remember really). We people who love music videos and see them as another artistic medium are always interested in the potential that a director could do with a song. Usually it's nothing more than make a person stand around and sing they're own song but from different angels and those are the music videos I hate the most. Why? Because they're not really interesting are they. I'm not a tween girl. I don't need to pay $10 to see a movie I know will be bad because the lead actor is dreamy and I fantasize about him whisking me away to some kind of vampire land of dreams. I want something interesting. Here, we're given the usual music video but the catch is the editing is really sharp. The editing is so to the rythm of the music that it blends together very well and you can't look away past the first 45 secons. After that the video owns you.
5. "Electric Feel" - MGMT
If the link doesn't work
http://court13.com/electricfeel.mov
Director Not Listed
Ah. Here we have a song from a band that looks like they just came out of Neverland with other lost boys and girls. With the bands indie synth pop sound MGMT decided to go with a Peter Pan theme that they're stayed true to in two of their videos (Time to Pretend and Electric Feel). At first the video really reminded me of a bunch of different club music videos that are all about dancing and making out. You know, usually club music video. But then MGMT's lost boys theme comes in as well as there LSD/Ecstasy fueled imaginations. Not only is a CG bear playing a long with them, but they crack open the moon and paint the girls with a kind of pain that looks like it's made up of Microchips. Because I am a fan of seeing what one can get away with I was very please to see how they used the usual club music video, but then made it the more imaginative video I have seen in years.
4. "Champion" - Kanye West
Dir. Neon
(I know, right?!)
Nabil Elderkin and John Pina
Kanye West has made, about 4 humorous music videos including Champion (Heard Em' Say Directed by Michel Gondry, Can't Tell Me Nothin' Directed by Zach Zach Galifianakis and Kanye West's Workout Tape directed by the stangely named "Lil X") and Champion is the second one that has been picked as the official music video. During the end process of making a music video the record label watches the music video and rates it's appeal. If the record heads don't think the music video advertises their singer/musician/product well and they still want to throw money at the artist, then they just ax the music video and never talk about it again. The two times they've done this, the videos that have replaced the so called "lesser" music videos, have been awful. (Can't Tell Me Nothing's video quirky video was turned into Kanye walking through the desert which made the song seem 10 times longer than it actually was and Herd Em Say remake seemed like the production team didn't have a lot of money left so they just made it in an hour).
So here we have Kanye's puppet music video and not only is it funny, but just like the Zach Galifianakis version of Can't Tell Me Nothin the video treats itself as a real music video. This isn't like, a Foo Fighters joke music video like "Learn to Fly" or "Long Road to Ruin." "Champion" has the idea of, "okay, what if a puppet made a music video to a Kanye West song, but the video is really good." Realizing that the joke isn't in the actual humor, but it's in the fact that it treats itself so serious. Honestly, try to replace the puppet in this music video with Kanye and it seems like a real rap music video.
3. "Phantom Pt. 2" - Justice
Dir. Roman Gavris, So_Me and Justice
Now, while I'm a sucker for dance music and the genre. I also love it when editors and directors try to mimic the style of short beats a with their own tools. Some times it's colors but in this case it's editing. Here the editor really played with slug and how it would effect the song that is pretty much fantastic all around. The editor used footage from the new Justice doc, "A Cross The Universe" and made that into it's own little song with the help from Justice and So_Me. Not only do we have a music video, but we have a whole different thing all together. We have a song that the movie is playing as well as the song the video is trying to advertise. I've never seen anything like this before.
Oh, and yes. That was Kanye West for like, 0.5 of a second.
2. "Handlebars" - Flobots
Dir. Dirty UK
(Seriously?)
The summer hit of 2008 also made a fantastic music video (suck it "Paper Planes"). Because Flobot's songs are so political that you wounder if they've ever heard of the term subtlety, the music video takes a slightly different approach to the song. While the song itself is about a nice person turning corrupt over new found power, the director decides to split up the message into two people instead of one and almost make a short film out of a song. Very clever since the song is so likable and catchy. I read an article in a Stanwood news paper and heard this music video blurbed on NPR. Both saying that this music video is the best music video in years. And people wounder why I call this form of medium an art.
1. "House of Cards" Radiohead
Dir. James Frost
No music video has ever experimented like this. Ever. No camera or film were used when making this music video. Everything that was captured was done by a computer and all of the images that were taken were from a scanner. Radiohead has always been at the front of the media world, but I'd never thought they would go this far. I honestly think that if we start to look into this kind of technology film and cameras wont be needed at all in the future. If that's not revolutionary I don't know what is.
AWARDS:
Most ADD Video:
"The Age of the Understatement" - The Last Shadow Puppets
Nice Job With Found Footage:
"Violet Hill" -Coldplay (Dancing Politicians Version)
Wasted Potential:
"No One Is Ever Gonna Love You More Than I Do" Band of Horses
Horrible Video but AMAZING Ending:
"Viva La Vida"-Coldplay
A 2008 Video Disguised as a 1990's Video
"Rhode Island Freakout" - Kinski
Most Unsetteling Video I've Ever Seen:
"Molten Light" - Chad VanGaalen
Least Favorite Video of 2008
"The Youth" - MGMT
Dir. Eric Warehiem of Tim and Eric fame. Yes. That one. Has now decided to take up directing music videos. Now, I don't know how this started, but I bet it started the same way Zach Galifanakis's career in directing did. Some guy (KANYE) called him up and told him, "I FIND YOU HILARIOUS! MAKE ME A MUSIC VIDEO!" Before Zach could explain, "Wait, I barely know how to work a camera." Kanye hung up and went back to doing Kanye things. So here we have a director that is know for doing poorly produced skits on purpose and taking the only talent he has (making something horribly awkward) and trying to mesh that with music. I can only assume since MGMT is know for taking LSD and Ecstasy that they would call Eric Warehiem up and ask him for a favor because the only people who I know that think Tim and Eric Awesome Show. Great Job! is funny are those who do copious amounts of drugs.
I just hope people keep calling this guy if they want to make a funny video. What happened to Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry? Where they busy, and you had to use your 44th choice? Or do you just refuse to do anything that doesn't seem to be hipster kind of.
I don't know. All I know is that I hate Tim and Eric Awesome Show and anything else Eric Warehiem touches. Cause lets face it, what he just touches is shit. Maybe funny shit on the off chance that it is, but it's still shit cause he makes it that way.
If I Had to Pick One Girl Pop Singer Who I Thought Made Good Music Video:
"Just Dance" - Lady GaGa
She's not great. But better that most. Also, this is to show that I'm not too into the Seattle alternative scene that I haven't been watching Britney videos. I have been. I just think this one is better than Pieces of Me, Womanizer and Circus. And like X-D6 times better than Katy Perry. I hope that person dies in a plane crash and is then constantly stabbed in hell. Like, with 20 knives. Sorry. I got a little wound up there.
Runner Up:
"Touch My Body" - Mariah Carrey
Let's face it Ms. Carrey. You've never really gotten the entire crowd on your side. You've always been upstaged by Jennifer Lopez or some other lady pop singer that looks similar to you and here, your album, E =MC2 is you last feeble attempt to grab the spotlight and you try to make yourself look like the diva you want to be seen as. Heads up, I don't think that's gonna happen. Sorry. Now with the trend of being Hipsters which seems to go hand in hand with being a music elitist. Not only do you have a crowd that couldn't care a shit about you, but the popular kids that listened to you as young people have grown up and turned their backs to you because who wants to sing along to you when they're audio radar has broadened so much. Also, your popularity has plummeted so much because of new talent like Rihanna and Beyonce that not only are you seen as old hat but unfamiliar and oblivious to what your demographic wants. Pumping bass, boom-chick drums, and robot voices. So, you tell your stand by audience that you're making a new album, and what do you hand them? An album that is so bland it's amazing. If there was a grammy award for "Blandest Album of the Year" I'm sure not only would you win but you would be the only one nominated. But some how, this album is so bland, and so pointless that your audience and it's popular friends eat it up and asks for more. Because, if anything, that's all that pop music fans like, right? Bland shit that they just want to sing along to so they can pretend that instead of you chewing out your back up singer it's them.
So, because your new album is surprisingly popular what do you do, Mariah Carrey. Direct a music video. Obvious really. You take other things that you seem to think are popular and funny. You get that guy from 30 Rock and tarnish him up the Kenneth character, a nerd who is so bewildered by celebrities that he just has fantasies on the spot, which, since you directed a large portion of the video, just seems like an ugly form of masturbation to me.
Great job, Ms. Carrey. Not only have you taken a horrible and strangely creepy song (the verse, I will hunt you down always seems to follow me wherever I go) but you put it up with the most cliche idea of a fan meeting a star that you yourself have co-directed. Nice. I'm so astounded by your want-to-be-diva-ness. You've just...just made something already horrible and made it worse.
So I ironically appoint you second best pop-diva music video because even though you try to paint yourself as something different, that's what you'll always be Ms. Carrey. Second rate, and overall forgettable except when some clever DJ uses a sample of one of your bland songs in the background.
Wow, that went on for a while.
A List of 2008 Movies Coming Soon. Cause I know you guys love lists.
I also encourage people to look up music videos for this year from artists they like, post a reply and say why you liked this music video. It's a little bit more friendly that way. Yay.
10. "If I Ever See Your Face Again"-Maroon 5 Feat Rihanna
Dir. Anthony Mandler
One of the only music videos I've ever seen shot in Widescreen. Now, let me explain why I picked a Maroon 5 song before no one takes me seriously anymore (not that most of you did). In this world that we live in now, where most music videos aren't really seen as works of art anymore there aren't many directors that see a typical pop song as something else. This is a song about a one night stand and in the back you can hear some of the worst synth you've ever heard. But here's what the directors did. He used Maroon 5's huge amounts of money to not only make this video look professional but the background looks like it came from a Park Chan-Wook sex film. The editing is done in a way where you don't really pay attention to Maroon 5 but to Adam and Rihanna and the huge amounts of sex that they are producing through out the music video. It's just nice to see some directors making something incredibly professional out of a pop song about a one night stand that isn't the best.
9. "Dancing Choose" - TV on the Radio
Dir. Micheal Kuhn
You don't see a lot of music videos like this anymore. Music videos that just go off the wall with anything they can get away with. Here we see some sort of collage animation stumbling around this iconic world and since the song is about materialism and society today I think it fits. Kind of. Anyway. I just think it's nice to see something really risky in making music videos today. It's not the best video but the song is good enough to keep you interested and the editing it just fascinating. Sure, this animated story is a little cluttered and a little too confusing but just like the song you have to use your brain to really understand it. Never really seen too many music videos approached from this angel before.
8. "He Doesn't Know Why" - Fleet Foxes
Dir. Sean Pecknold
A great thing about Fleet Foxes is that their sound is old and folkish which reminds me and a lot of my friends of xmas. But the best setting for this music video would be like, an abandoned torn down room of yesteryear or maybe a barn. WHAT?! DONE BOTH?! BUT HOW?! GOATS?!
While the song is so Melancholic here we have a director who looks past that (???) and just thinks what would be funny. How about them playing a really serious song in a room full of goats. With this change the tone of the entire songs changes and the words loose meaning. The song is no longer so depressing and the viewer falls into a world surrounded by the folksy floaty sound of Fleet Foxes. Which also sound a lot like Xmas.
7. "Mr. Pitiful" -Matt Costa
Dir. The Malloys
The "Backyard Rock" or "Mellow Music" genre is dying and I can't wait for it to go. With the over hype of Jack Johnston and the annoyance of hippies from art schools playing his songs and other like it most of the time they sit out in the quad, most people have grown bored of the simple style and moved on.
I was surprised to see the Malloys direct this catchy, hollow, indie backyard pop song. They're most famous for working with The White Stripes and other Alt-Rock bands with heavy rock influences. Last thing I would associate them with is some Back Yard acoustic guitar player who seems like he's so chill 24/7 That if he was given any responsibilities he would just drop them and go back to...doing nothing, I suppose.
But because it's Matt Costa and he does everything himself The Malloys saw an opportunity. They thought, you know what people don't see anymore, one man bands on the street begging for change while they play six difference instruments at once. While some would refuse to call that a lost art, the video makes that one man band look like the next indie movie and with the Malloy's style of stop motion and clever use of puppetry we have a music video that has a cute little heart while I still stand on saying that it's nothing more than a little indie pop song. Nice job guys.
6. "Violet Hill" - Coldplay
Dir. The Malloys and Tim Wheeler
Music videos now a days really forget what people like me want (but why should they remember really). We people who love music videos and see them as another artistic medium are always interested in the potential that a director could do with a song. Usually it's nothing more than make a person stand around and sing they're own song but from different angels and those are the music videos I hate the most. Why? Because they're not really interesting are they. I'm not a tween girl. I don't need to pay $10 to see a movie I know will be bad because the lead actor is dreamy and I fantasize about him whisking me away to some kind of vampire land of dreams. I want something interesting. Here, we're given the usual music video but the catch is the editing is really sharp. The editing is so to the rythm of the music that it blends together very well and you can't look away past the first 45 secons. After that the video owns you.
5. "Electric Feel" - MGMT
If the link doesn't work
http://court13.com/electricfeel.mov
Director Not Listed
Ah. Here we have a song from a band that looks like they just came out of Neverland with other lost boys and girls. With the bands indie synth pop sound MGMT decided to go with a Peter Pan theme that they're stayed true to in two of their videos (Time to Pretend and Electric Feel). At first the video really reminded me of a bunch of different club music videos that are all about dancing and making out. You know, usually club music video. But then MGMT's lost boys theme comes in as well as there LSD/Ecstasy fueled imaginations. Not only is a CG bear playing a long with them, but they crack open the moon and paint the girls with a kind of pain that looks like it's made up of Microchips. Because I am a fan of seeing what one can get away with I was very please to see how they used the usual club music video, but then made it the more imaginative video I have seen in years.
4. "Champion" - Kanye West
Dir. Neon
(I know, right?!)
Nabil Elderkin and John Pina
Kanye West has made, about 4 humorous music videos including Champion (Heard Em' Say Directed by Michel Gondry, Can't Tell Me Nothin' Directed by Zach Zach Galifianakis and Kanye West's Workout Tape directed by the stangely named "Lil X") and Champion is the second one that has been picked as the official music video. During the end process of making a music video the record label watches the music video and rates it's appeal. If the record heads don't think the music video advertises their singer/musician/product well and they still want to throw money at the artist, then they just ax the music video and never talk about it again. The two times they've done this, the videos that have replaced the so called "lesser" music videos, have been awful. (Can't Tell Me Nothing's video quirky video was turned into Kanye walking through the desert which made the song seem 10 times longer than it actually was and Herd Em Say remake seemed like the production team didn't have a lot of money left so they just made it in an hour).
So here we have Kanye's puppet music video and not only is it funny, but just like the Zach Galifianakis version of Can't Tell Me Nothin the video treats itself as a real music video. This isn't like, a Foo Fighters joke music video like "Learn to Fly" or "Long Road to Ruin." "Champion" has the idea of, "okay, what if a puppet made a music video to a Kanye West song, but the video is really good." Realizing that the joke isn't in the actual humor, but it's in the fact that it treats itself so serious. Honestly, try to replace the puppet in this music video with Kanye and it seems like a real rap music video.
3. "Phantom Pt. 2" - Justice
Dir. Roman Gavris, So_Me and Justice
Now, while I'm a sucker for dance music and the genre. I also love it when editors and directors try to mimic the style of short beats a with their own tools. Some times it's colors but in this case it's editing. Here the editor really played with slug and how it would effect the song that is pretty much fantastic all around. The editor used footage from the new Justice doc, "A Cross The Universe" and made that into it's own little song with the help from Justice and So_Me. Not only do we have a music video, but we have a whole different thing all together. We have a song that the movie is playing as well as the song the video is trying to advertise. I've never seen anything like this before.
Oh, and yes. That was Kanye West for like, 0.5 of a second.
2. "Handlebars" - Flobots
Dir. Dirty UK
(Seriously?)
The summer hit of 2008 also made a fantastic music video (suck it "Paper Planes"). Because Flobot's songs are so political that you wounder if they've ever heard of the term subtlety, the music video takes a slightly different approach to the song. While the song itself is about a nice person turning corrupt over new found power, the director decides to split up the message into two people instead of one and almost make a short film out of a song. Very clever since the song is so likable and catchy. I read an article in a Stanwood news paper and heard this music video blurbed on NPR. Both saying that this music video is the best music video in years. And people wounder why I call this form of medium an art.
1. "House of Cards" Radiohead
Dir. James Frost
No music video has ever experimented like this. Ever. No camera or film were used when making this music video. Everything that was captured was done by a computer and all of the images that were taken were from a scanner. Radiohead has always been at the front of the media world, but I'd never thought they would go this far. I honestly think that if we start to look into this kind of technology film and cameras wont be needed at all in the future. If that's not revolutionary I don't know what is.
AWARDS:
Most ADD Video:
"The Age of the Understatement" - The Last Shadow Puppets
Nice Job With Found Footage:
"Violet Hill" -Coldplay (Dancing Politicians Version)
Wasted Potential:
"No One Is Ever Gonna Love You More Than I Do" Band of Horses
Horrible Video but AMAZING Ending:
"Viva La Vida"-Coldplay
A 2008 Video Disguised as a 1990's Video
"Rhode Island Freakout" - Kinski
Most Unsetteling Video I've Ever Seen:
"Molten Light" - Chad VanGaalen
Least Favorite Video of 2008
"The Youth" - MGMT
Dir. Eric Warehiem of Tim and Eric fame. Yes. That one. Has now decided to take up directing music videos. Now, I don't know how this started, but I bet it started the same way Zach Galifanakis's career in directing did. Some guy (KANYE) called him up and told him, "I FIND YOU HILARIOUS! MAKE ME A MUSIC VIDEO!" Before Zach could explain, "Wait, I barely know how to work a camera." Kanye hung up and went back to doing Kanye things. So here we have a director that is know for doing poorly produced skits on purpose and taking the only talent he has (making something horribly awkward) and trying to mesh that with music. I can only assume since MGMT is know for taking LSD and Ecstasy that they would call Eric Warehiem up and ask him for a favor because the only people who I know that think Tim and Eric Awesome Show. Great Job! is funny are those who do copious amounts of drugs.
I just hope people keep calling this guy if they want to make a funny video. What happened to Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry? Where they busy, and you had to use your 44th choice? Or do you just refuse to do anything that doesn't seem to be hipster kind of.
I don't know. All I know is that I hate Tim and Eric Awesome Show and anything else Eric Warehiem touches. Cause lets face it, what he just touches is shit. Maybe funny shit on the off chance that it is, but it's still shit cause he makes it that way.
If I Had to Pick One Girl Pop Singer Who I Thought Made Good Music Video:
"Just Dance" - Lady GaGa
She's not great. But better that most. Also, this is to show that I'm not too into the Seattle alternative scene that I haven't been watching Britney videos. I have been. I just think this one is better than Pieces of Me, Womanizer and Circus. And like X-D6 times better than Katy Perry. I hope that person dies in a plane crash and is then constantly stabbed in hell. Like, with 20 knives. Sorry. I got a little wound up there.
Runner Up:
"Touch My Body" - Mariah Carrey
Let's face it Ms. Carrey. You've never really gotten the entire crowd on your side. You've always been upstaged by Jennifer Lopez or some other lady pop singer that looks similar to you and here, your album, E =MC2 is you last feeble attempt to grab the spotlight and you try to make yourself look like the diva you want to be seen as. Heads up, I don't think that's gonna happen. Sorry. Now with the trend of being Hipsters which seems to go hand in hand with being a music elitist. Not only do you have a crowd that couldn't care a shit about you, but the popular kids that listened to you as young people have grown up and turned their backs to you because who wants to sing along to you when they're audio radar has broadened so much. Also, your popularity has plummeted so much because of new talent like Rihanna and Beyonce that not only are you seen as old hat but unfamiliar and oblivious to what your demographic wants. Pumping bass, boom-chick drums, and robot voices. So, you tell your stand by audience that you're making a new album, and what do you hand them? An album that is so bland it's amazing. If there was a grammy award for "Blandest Album of the Year" I'm sure not only would you win but you would be the only one nominated. But some how, this album is so bland, and so pointless that your audience and it's popular friends eat it up and asks for more. Because, if anything, that's all that pop music fans like, right? Bland shit that they just want to sing along to so they can pretend that instead of you chewing out your back up singer it's them.
So, because your new album is surprisingly popular what do you do, Mariah Carrey. Direct a music video. Obvious really. You take other things that you seem to think are popular and funny. You get that guy from 30 Rock and tarnish him up the Kenneth character, a nerd who is so bewildered by celebrities that he just has fantasies on the spot, which, since you directed a large portion of the video, just seems like an ugly form of masturbation to me.
Great job, Ms. Carrey. Not only have you taken a horrible and strangely creepy song (the verse, I will hunt you down always seems to follow me wherever I go) but you put it up with the most cliche idea of a fan meeting a star that you yourself have co-directed. Nice. I'm so astounded by your want-to-be-diva-ness. You've just...just made something already horrible and made it worse.
So I ironically appoint you second best pop-diva music video because even though you try to paint yourself as something different, that's what you'll always be Ms. Carrey. Second rate, and overall forgettable except when some clever DJ uses a sample of one of your bland songs in the background.
Wow, that went on for a while.
A List of 2008 Movies Coming Soon. Cause I know you guys love lists.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
