The Art of Music Videos, Parts 1 and 2

A long post (or series of posts) about music videos from late last year:

I love the new Jack Johnson song, “Sitting Waiting Wishing.” That comes as no surprise since I really like his album Brushfire Fairytales, and I absolutely love his album On And On. So based on “Sitting Waiting Wishing” I’m sure you can guess that I will be buying his new album on March 1st. Well and also picking up the new Mars Volta for Darrell.

So back to “Sitting Waiting Wishing.” I love this video. I know that Coldplay had a backwards video a few years ago, but Coldplay bores me so I never really got into the video much. Anyhow, I think that as usual The Malloys have done a good job on Jack Johnson’s new video. Yes it’s got the whole backwards thing which has already been done, but it’s fun and goofy. And I just really like Jack Johnson.

This does tie into movies in a minute, well sort of. Darrell has said that his dream job would be to be a movie director. That makes sense, I guess. I’m sure that there are tons of waiters in Los Angeles who feel the same way. But seriously, a lot of people talk about how cool it would be to be a director. I had a friend who went to NYU to the Tisch School with hope of becoming a director. I know she made a short film about a lesbian couple who have a baby. However, I don’t know what else has become of her. We sort of lost touch. However, I never really felt that desire to be a director. I love movies, but I don’t like to be in charge. If I were to work on a film set, I would rather do the editing or the cinematography. Not the directing.

If I were ever to direct anything, I’d want to direct music videos. I love music videos. I watch MTV, VH1, MTV2, VH1 Classics, and FUSE just with the hopes of seeing a new and exciting video. Or a new and exciting band. Granted on MTV it’s getting harder and harder to find videos to watch. So sometimes I will Tivo chunks of videos overnight and scan through them the next day. I love music videos, well good music videos. I love the whole idea of taking 3 or 4 minutes and making a feast for the eyes set to music. When I say “feast for the eyes,” I don’t mean scantily clad women, bling-bling, and expensive cars. I mean something new and fresh. Something that catches my eye. Something that draws me in.

When I watch music videos directed by the likes of Mark Romanek, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry, it’s a real experience. I would love to direct something that was half as absorbing or inventive as the video that Gondry did for Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World.” And I’m not even a fan of Kylie Minogue, but I still love that video. A great music video director can get me to sit through a video by an artist I hate just based on the fact that the video is good. Now that takes talent.

And then Romanek, Jonze, and Gondry went on to make successful movies. Mark Romanek directed the wonderfully chilling One Hour Photo. This is the same guy who directed dark, moody, disturbing Nine Inch Nails videos. One Hour Photo is also moody and disturbing, but very bright. Almost too bright. And Robin Williams is amazing.

Spike Jonze directed music videos like The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” and my personal favorite “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim. Then he made the wonderful, fresh movie Being John Malkovich. And now he is working on turning one of my favorite children’s books, Where The Wild Things Are, into a cinematic experience.

Then we come to Michel Gondry. I’m not going to lie and say that I have always been a fan of his because honestly until The White Stripes’ “Fell In Love With A Girl,” I had no idea who he was. Now I’m obsessed. Usually I can easily pick out a new Gondry video when I see one. He’s a visual genius. However, his first try at film, Human Nature, isn’t very good in my opinion. It’s cute and funny, but not nearly as good as the stuff he’s doing now. Now Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of my all-time favorite films. He does things in that film that just make my head hurt when I try to think about how he did them. Wow! Right now he’s working on something with Dave Chappelle, so I’m kinda worried. However I was worried when I found out he was working with Jim Carrey and look how that turned out. I trust him.

So what’s my point? I don’t know if I really have one. I guess what I’m saying is that a really well-crafted music video can be just as captivating as a good movie. It’s just that the director has a lot less time to draw the viewer in. Therefore good music videos are often very flashy and eye catching. And well worth the 3 or 4 minutes that it will take to sit down, watch, and get lost in the visuals.

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Darrell is still not a very big fan of music videos, and that is fine. To each his own. However, based on conversations we had yesterday, I felt that I should post another post about music videos and some of the other directors that have crossed over from directing music videos to directing on the big screen. And then I got lazy as I often do and I found an article online that I found to be really entertaining. It is from Slant magazine and it is their 100 Greatest Music Videos.

There are a lot of videos on the list from Romanek, Gondry, and Jonze, all of whom I was writing about yesterday. Also on the list is a slew of videos from the very talented director David Fincher. He has done a whole bunch of videos. When he was signed to do Alien3, all he had previously done was music videos. And now look at the guy. He has a whole ton of incredible movies under his belt.

Also on Slant's list is Mark Pellington. He is best known for directing Pearl Jam's video for "Jeremy." Then he went on to direct such movies as Arlington Road (which I consider awful) and The Mothman Prophecies.

Also on their list is Jonathan Glazer who has done videos for Radiohead and Jamiroquai. Then he went on to direct the very entertaining, but not as good as I had hoped for Sexy Beast.

Then comes Garth Jennings. That is a name that I am sure a bunch of people will recognize this year. He has worked on videos for Blur and REM, but this year his big screen directorial debut comes out in the form of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

There were some videos on Slant's list that I had never heard of, and some that I thought should have been on there. For the most part, though, the list is pretty good and well worth checking out.

Darrell and I still disagree about using a career as a music video director as a way to launch a career a feature film director. I think it is a very good way to start. He thinks that directors should start with short films, and work up from there. I guess I can see that too. However, though, I guess it's all good as long as they can get to where they want to go. The good thing about music videos is that you can take things with special effects and crazy ideas and put them to use. Ideas that would never work in a movie. Like the video that Michel Gondry did for Steriogram's song "Walkie Talkie Man." That was the video with the band made out of yarn. That idea was brilliant for a music video, but I can't imagine that working into a film. That is where directors find music video can help them get their ideas across, I guess.

Okay. Enough about music videos from me for a while. It is just that they are near and dear to my heart. I guess it comes from the fact that when I was growing up I didn't have cable until my senior year in high school. I used to watch MTV, though, whenever I went to see my grandma. She didn't care. So now I am making up for all my years that I lost without music videos. Oh, and it helps me feel young.  ¶ 4:23 PM