JUNKFILM

Making a documentary is tricky. It’s not as easy as making a narrative film where you introduce the characters and have them say and do exactly what you want to create a type of character that the audience will love or despise. You don’t have full reign over what events will happen. However, a good documentary will steal some aspects of a narrative film to use in the swaying of emotions. Planet B-Boy does this perfectly.

The film presents us with 5 different groups of B-Boys (break dancers) and their arduous trek from their home towns in their home countries to the final stage for the world championship. The five groups consist of America (Knucklehead Zoo), South Korea (Last For One), France (Phase T), Japan (Ichigeki), and the returning world champions from South Korea (Gamblerz). All having different styles, elements, and emotional attachments to the art form they perform, the combination in presenting these five groups in juxtapostion is amazingly crafted and at the end you feel your own muscles weak and tired after watching these artists spin their hearts out.

The film effortlessly proves the debate that break dancing is indeed an artform and not random, spur of the moment movements. Break dancing is the dancing form of Jackson Pollock: it may seem sporadic and misguided, but each paint drop, each stroke, each spin, each movement is perfectly calculated. 1 part gymnastics, 1 part cheer competition, and 98 parts hiphop.

The film guides the viewer on a visual ride through what is hiphop, how it came to be and moves us directly into b-boying as competition. With flashy graphics along the way that never cease to stray from the 4 elements or from the style of the art, the movie is paced beautifully and slides you along the story as we become attached to characters, their stories and even wow the hell out of us along the way with breath-taking, neck shattering moves.

I give this bad boy an “A”. And highly recommend this to anyone.

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The Capt Gets a Capt
Joe Johnston has been picked to helm the director’s chair for the Captain America film, The First Avenger: Captain America. With a background in Lucas Arts and moving on to do a fantastic job with October Sky, Johnston has a pretty incredible track record with visual effects films, although we’ll keep quiet about the crotch-punt that was Jurassic Park III.

Along with the director being picked, The Chronicles of Narnia scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are in negotiations for helming the script. I’m worried that this might be too big a film for them to handle (being a World War II piece). You might say, “Junk, Narnia was a huge film.” Then I would sigh and smile, shaking my head, retorting, “Did you even watch the movies?” You then turn away bashfully, “Well, I stayed through the first hour of the first movie,” and I would clap you on the back of the head and laugh like a mad Russian superhero with a gigantic left forearm of doom, saying, “Yes, Yes, I would rather be anally raped by barb wire squirrels as well, my friend.” Then we’d go get coffee.

So far the official synopsis of the film has been:
“Born during the Great Depression, Steve Rogers grew up a frail youth in a poor family. Horrified by the newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to enlist in the army. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected. Overhearing the boy’s earnest plea, General Chester Phillips offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a special experiment… Operation: Rebirth. After weeks of tests, Rogers was at last administered the ‘Super-Soldier Serum’ and bombarded by ‘vita-rays.’ Steve Rogers emerged from the treatment with a body as perfect as a body can be and still be human. Rogers was then put through an intensive physical and tactical training program. Three months later, he was given his first assignment as Captain America. Armed with his indestructible shield and and battle savvy, Captain America has continued his war against evil both as a sentinel of liberty and leader of the Avengers.”

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He-Man Not Dead. John Stevenson Gets Head.
I’m liking these titles. About 3 months ago I posted on my previous blog site about the killing off of ahref=”http://www.slate.com/id/2141626/”>He Man’s latest script property. It seemed that the backlash of a few script reviews were too much to handle. The script was called dark and edgy with poor character development and weak story telling. I laughed. I laughed hardily about it.

But now, it would seem that He Man is getting a new director to head the film adaptation of the 80s cult icon. John Stevenson, the director of Kung Fu Panda, supposedly “went in to the Silver offices, came in and did this killer take on He-man and the Masters of the Universe and got himself the job.”

While Stevenson has an impressive background in animation and puppetry, does he have what it takes to take charge of a grisly and dark version of an 80s cartoon muscle-bound latent homosexual? (This begs an entirely different post at some point)

Now…to leave off this somewhat intelligent conversation with some crude, toilet humor. Yay. Squirrels with barbwire and salt packets.

It’s the American tradition to shit on other cultures, take what looks good and make it our own. In some aspects, like Americanized Chinese food, it works pretty damn well… however, in the world of cinema it usually fails miserably. I mean, abysmally, awfully and painfully failing.

If you have read anything up to this point you probably know three things about me:
1. I love Panda Express and Dr Pepper, often at the same time
2. I love movies
3. I FUCKING HATE remakes

With disasters like Unfaithful, Lakehouse, The Vanishing, The Ring, The Grudge, Point of No Return, Nine Months, Scent of a Woman, Catch That Kid, The Birdcage, The Eye, Sommersby, My Sassy Girl, Vanilla Sky, Solaris, Quarantine, Three Men and a Baby, True Lies, Shall We Dance, Magnificent Seven, Taxi, The Running Man, City of Angels, No Reservations, and much much more…and to a lesser extent, Departed, Insomnia, In The Bedroom, Fist Full of Dollars, Victor Victoria, and EdTV all being remade from the original foreign films into American bastards (let’s say 98% of the time)…Why the HELL does Hollywood keep raping the rest of the world?

1. Money - It’s easy to take something already created, redo it, and sell it off to idiots who can’t think for themselves.
2. Lack of creativity - it’s easy to take something already created, redo it, and show it to audience who refuse to watch subtitles.
3. American Ignorance - When I worked at a video store it baffled my mind how many people refused to watch a movie simply because it had subtitles and was not in English. BAFFLED MY FUCKING MIND!

Movies like Run Lola Run, Love Me If You Dare, (Any movie by) Kurosawa, Infernal Affairs, Breathless, Old Boy, 2LDK, 9 Souls, Blue/White/Red, The Decalogues, Kikujiro, Battle Royale, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Tunnel, Amelie, My Sassy Girl and tons and tons more will never be enjoyed and deeply loved as they have with so many other people…simply because they are in a different language.

That is until a cheap American company comes along and says, “Hey, let’s not take a chance on an innovative up anc coming film maker’s idea, but rather let us bastardize another great work of art and call it original.”

“Yaaay!” The court jesters all praise the executive in hopes of moving up the socio-economical food chain in the company.

Sigh…

Which brings us to the beginning of today’s news:

Looks Like The American Remake of Old Boy Is A Go!
Steven Speilburg and Will Smith have been cooking ahead on the American remake of Korea’s master film, Old Boy. However, now it seems they have drugged and murdered the family of Mark Protosevich, the scribe behind yet another couple of remakes of titanic shit-stained-underwear proportions, Poseidon and I Am Legend.

As my friend John has said, “There is no way they can make Old Boy in America. Specially with Will Smith.” If they do this film right, this might scar Smith’s soccer mom friendly image, if they do it wrong, we’ll get another Hancock.

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Host To Be Remade….AS WELL!!!
Staying on the same emotional devastation as above, Bong Joon-ho’s awesome 2006 monster movie, The Host, is being green lit to be remade for American sheep. The director is choosing? Fredrik Bond. As I can not vouche for a feature films category his commercials are quite impressive.

Still, having a wicked set of commercials along side of a script writer, Mark Poirier, who has done one movie (Smart People…I can’t judge it, I have yet to see it) and a producer, Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean…movies I have seen and will happily ridicule at the drop of a conversation), does not excuse the fact of remaking an awesome movie like The Host. Let’s put our collective web-savy minds together and pray that electronic pray to the Almighty Webasaurus and hope this one doesn’t get made….and while we’re praying and sacrificing techno-virgins, throw in a “please kill off the Old Boy remake” too.

Here is what Bong has to say about the subject:
“Maybe three or four years down the line, if The Host [remake] comes out, and there’s a cool director who takes it on and makes it a real great film, then I’d be very happy,” Bong told SciFiWire in an interview, through a translator. “On the other hand, if it’s just crap, I think I’d be happy, too, because then people would be like, ‘Oh, yeah, Bong’s original was really good.’ So, for me, it’s a win-win situation. But Universal has a tradition of doing horror and creature films, so I anticipate that they will do a great film.”

The new Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince trailer has been released online over at the Official Fan Site where you can download a variety of versions for keeping and rewatching. Everything from Flash to 1080p Quicktime files are available.

While the first teaser trailer was released about a few months or so ago, shown below, this will be the 3rd trailer to make it’s rounds on the internet before the official campaign for advertising has started.

The second trailer (The International Trailer) was number 2 in the series, which I posted about on it’s release date about a month or so ago. Now, this 3rd trailer deals with much more of the story elements (similar to yesterday’s 3rd Watchmen Trailer).

The home studio to Harry Potter, Warner Bros, has sent the trailers to various high-traffic fan sites. It has been confirmed that the trailer will appear in theaters on what was originally the release date of the film, November 21, attached to Twilight. The film opens July 17th, 2009, more than half a year after it’s original scheduled release.

Slash Film is calling Ridley Scott’s OFFICIAL (allow me to stress) adaptation of Hasbro’s popular board game Monopoly, “the worst idea ever.” With a powerhouse scribe, Pamela Pettler, (Corpse Bride, Monster House) helming the script, hopes at the studio are high…and I have no idea why they would be. Scott has been working on preproduction since June 2007….I shiver.

HBO has greenlit the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy novel series A Song of Fire and Ice into a pilot for an ongoing series. If you have yet to read the series, I highly recommend it. A Game of Thrones is looking like the title for the series, named after the first book in the series. Martin has planned seven books in the series, and the plan is to turn each book into a full season of television. I will be anxiously awaiting this beaut…

It’s about time. It would seem that the push for the Arrested Development film is “a go.” After much ado about the fire burning around the truth of the film, we have been let down and buolt back up on ly to be let down again. However, over at Collider there seems to be an interview discussing the possibility of a film version with actor Steve “Frosty” Weintraub,Shockingly,

“We are going. It’s a go. I just actually this week talked to Mitch Hurwitz, so we’re doing it.”

When asked about a script, he responded:
“No, but when the writer calls you, the director and the executive producer calls you, it’s a pretty good sign.”

New Simon Pegg and Nick Frost movie, Paul, is bustling with news at Variety, since the new director, Greg Mottola (Superbad) will be helming the direction. The movie is about two guys who go to Comic-con, decide to go on a road trip to Area 51, meet an alien named Paul and hijinks, I would assume, ensue.
What about Wright, you ask? Edgar Wright is busy working on the film adaptation of one of my favorite comics to date, Scott Pilgram. Yay! With Michael Cera (Superbad) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof, Sky High) as the two main leads, it’s looking like this will be an adaptation well worth seeing over and over again.

Hello Heavy Metal fans. And no, I am not talking to your older brother who still thinks King Diamond is the living shit and is waiting, leather stud collar is tow, for those Iron Maiden tickets. I am referring to the beautifully crafted 1981 masterpiece animated film. Those familiar with the film know it for it’s adult themes and it would seem that Paramount has cast 3 directors thus far in the tangle of artistry that is the upcoming version of Heavy Metal: Zack Snyder, David Fincher, Gore Verbinski. Huge names for a potentially huge film.

Awesomeness.
The Fine Brothers spoil 100 movies in just under 4 minutes.

The first official photos from the upcoming Millar (Wanted) comic-adaptation, Kick-Ass.

AND TODAY’S BIG NEW…if you haven’t already peeked it…

THE NEW WATCHMEN TRAILER (#3).

Sounded re-god-damn-awful last summer, and it sounds even worse now…Variety has confirmed that Jaden Smith (son of cinema-destroyer, Will Smith) will be playing the role of Daniel in the upcoming remake of the Karate Kid. With Stephan Chow (Shaolin Soccer) set to direct and star as Mr. Miyagi, this is the tell tale sign of the coming of the Mayan Apocalypse.

New Watchmen posters are circling online. With the already impressive amount of skill going in to the making of the posters, I don’t doubt this film will destroy the box office. While the posters so far have been epic city-scapes and detailed renderings it looks like this series of one-sheets are the individual characters themsevles: The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson). Now, I can’t wait for the solo smiley face button with blood on it.

Looks like the X-Men Origins series will continue with the much rumored about film, Magneto. David Bentley got his hands on the official studio synopsis of the film. The following is from the film magazine, Production Weekly:

“The original X-Men film began with a prologue that showed the character as a child being led to a concentration camp by Nazis and that is the period in which the Magneto film will take place. This setup will allow a future villain to at least flirt with the designation of protagonist since the character will be seen almost exclusively in his formative years. The storyline will heavily involve Professor X, the wheelchair-using X-Men leader. That character was a soldier in the allied force that liberated the concentration camps. The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realization that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies.”

Sir Ian McKellen will be reprising his role from the previous 3 X-Men movies while David Goyer (Blade Trinity, (the fucking retarded) Invisible) will be helming the direction.

I think Kevin Smith and Miramax just got pissed and decided to be ironic (after all, if you can’t be funny, irony is your best friend). After the heated war held by numerous theaters, television stations, and ad companies that all refuse to show the correct title for Kevin Smith’s new film, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” it would seem that their new poster is one to shake a stick at.

After the stick figure campaign this seems like the logical next step. It’s clever and funny and has 100% nothing to do, beside the two main actors, with the film.
On a side note, the film is funny as shit. I will be reviewing this later with my pros and cons.

Danny Boyle, director of 28 Days Later, has come out and sounded very interested in rehashing his zombie-lore in 28 Months Later:

“I’ve got an idea for it, so I can’t really tell you any more than that at the moment, but hopefully that might happen. I’d certainly like to…I feel the idea is quite a strong idea, and it could well involve directing it. Yeah, absolutely.”

And for those of you who have not yet seen the wonderfulness of the new trailer, FAN BOYS. It’s funny and Star Wars-esque, but there are slight problems with it.

The trailer makes the movie look like a high school kid road trip movie, which I know, technically it is, but they failed to mention about the story with the friend dying of cancer and where is Kristen Bell mentioned? I think the trailer is designed for initiating people who aren’t that big into Star Wars to get in to the theaters… while the hard core Star Wars fans (cough cough…raises hand slowly) are looking at it with some wearisome worries.

I have read numerous accounts from the people who got a chance to see the film these last couple years and everyone loved it, as long as it wasn’t the recut edition where the cancer friend was taken out. Crossing my fingers and hoping.

Ah, Old Boy. The movie have all come to love and love again. The ultimate revenge story with a twist so fierce it’ll knock the wind out of you. Korean mastermind, Park Chan-wook, made a brilliant, delivering film about redemption, revenge, and wicked relationships built on mistrust. Not to mention some amazing cinematography and camera work. Centered on the plot about a man who is kidnapped for seemingly no reason at all and held in a dank, dirty hotel room for 15 years with absolutely no contact with the outside world, the story drives in such a fashion that you dare yourself to look away, and find yourself not able to, even during the slow parts.

But…this tale of woe and action comes with a cost it would seem. Not so much on the original, but on Hollywood’s new trend to bastardize and destroy foreign films. And this cost is a hefty one. It would seem that Speilberg and Will Smith want to remake Oldboy into a flashy American cash crop. (Junk shivers in his seat writing this)

The pair have been looking to create a story for quite some time now, and talks have gone under way, according to Variety, discussing the remake of Korean genius, Oldboy.

As much as I am anti-remake, it would be an interesting ploy to bring this movie into the hands of Steven Spielberg (family friendly director) and Will Smith (family friendly actor). If you have not seen the movie yet, do yourself a bit of pleasure and go rent this monstrosity of wickedness. It’s a dark movie. And to see these two plunge into this dark of territory would be fun to watch. The “eating-the-live-octopus” scene and the brilliant ending with the twist that would make Will Smith into a Soccer Mom hated ally of the dark force… would be awesome.

Plus, we can then make fun of all the people who say annoying tripe like, “Hey, Spielberg’s a genius. That was a 100% original movie.” Just like everyone did when Departed came out… If you’re unaware, the film Departed was stolen from, Infernal Affairs, was ten-fucking-fold better.

I hate it when Hollywood remakes some of my favorite films, but I know, they are running out of concepts and want money. They don’t want creativity or originality, that’s fine. I understand the ideals they hold. I just don’t like them. This is why you see the same dreck, week after week, month after month, genre after genre, reappear on the screen. Meh. I can’t wait to see the horribleness of the Battle Royale remake. I will be in the theater laughing my ass off.

Now, let’s clear the air first and foremost… I am a HUGE Star Wars fan. And when I use the term “fan” I refer to utmost definition of “fanatical.” I have my father to thank for this obsession. And yes, it is an obsession.

Every time I walk into a Target or a Wal-mart I look to my girlfriend, whom I am with most of the time, with wide doe-eyes, she sighs (if she is in a good mood) and says, “fine.” I then race to the toy section where I push little kids out of the way in order to rifle through the Star Wars action figures hanging, tauntingly on the wall next to GI Joe and some other toy I wouldn’t buy. 9 out of 10 ten times I walk away in defeat, depressed that there isn’t a new Imperial, Sith or Bounty Hunter figurine. Once I found 3 McGuire concept Boba Fetts in a row…suffice to say, I snagged all 3.

I’ve been this way with Star Wars ever since I was a kid. I had the bed sheets, the Biker Scout-speeder bike bunker play set, a Tupperware bucket full of toys, Star Wars cereal, the Taco Bell toys for the Special Editions, 3 different versions on VHS, Laser Discs, DvDs, fan films, costumes, designer hoodies, belt buckles, bobble heads, sound tracks, sound tracks on vinyl, reprint movie posters, an Empire Strikes Back original theater poster, books, pens, replica weapons, a cheap light saber, comics, shirts, buttons, a fucking imperial tattoo on my spine, and my god….the list goes on.

I think I have installed the idea that I am a fan of the Star Wars films. Like many other fans of the movies/stories, the prequels were something of a let down. When bad acting and seriously deprived story elements are the best part of the new trilogy, you know you have a problem… however… it seems that they might have gone too far.

Now, I am highly looking forward to the live action TV show, Star Wars, since it’ll be about the bounty hunters and it will take place in between parts 3 and 4, linking the worlds together (which in my opinion, Force Unleashed did marvelously). But the animated, 3-D world of the Clone Wars has never really piqued my interest (the 2-D animated show was wicked). I don’t know if it was the animation style or the art style, but I simply was not that into the new feature film, The Clone Wars.

Beyond better judgment, I bit my lip, closed my eyes and dove into trying the film I did not want to watch. After all, it was Star Wars, even if it was crappy, it was still set in the story universe that I love. Hmm.

There’s not not much I can say about this movie that doesn’t leave me looking like an asshole. I think the best way to wrap up this festering turd is by saying: If you have kids, or even are a kid, you will have a happy youngster on your hands, full of awe and glee and loving the world you love and cherish. If you’re an adult (you know, above the age of you’re going to wish you had a giant man with barb wired boots dripping with salt and jalapeno peppers just go to town on your crotch for about an hour and forty minutes. You would walk away so much happier.

Since I am a fan, it pains me to dis the world I love so much, but ever since 1999, it’s getting too damn easy to crush my amore, character by character, scene by scene, dialogue by shitty dialogue. This movie, The Clone Wars isn’t really worth the review of going into why the story doesn’t work because it’s a fucking pilot for a TV show. It’s a fun opener to a grand story, which is only going to make more plot holes and questions unanswered since they are bringing in new names and situations that are never mentioned again, but as a stand alone film, it simply does not work.

The number one thing that hurts about this movie is the child-friendly atmosphere, much like the prequels were. While the original films were not Scarface or Taxi Driver, they were also not dumbing down the world they were creating for the adolescent audience. It feels like Lucas only wants to sell more toys, as opposed to making good stories. If there were no original films (ie, 4-6) the new character Ashoka (pronounced Ah-So-Ka) would have been a step up from Jar Jar, but since I know the world I have fallen in love with including all the dark characters like Boba Fett, Dengar, and IG88, Ashoka is a kid-friendly waste of film time. Her lines are pathetic at best with her hip new nicknames, bubbling off tripe like, “Hey Sky-guy” and the cringe-worthy “Artoo-ee.”

I feel like I could keep berating the movie until someone remakes Casablanca, but I think I have proved my point. Do not spend your money on this, wait for the live action show, make your choice, then start hating. I will never denounce my love for Star Wars, but it’s getting harder.

Yesterday we discussed the artistry of film director’s doing music videos, some as short films, as we saw with Michael Jackson’s videos. Here are some more videos that are note-worthy in the realm of film directors.

David Fincher
Nine Inch Nails - “Only”
2005

Director best known for:
Fight Club, Panic Room, Se7en

Band best known for:
Shaking the roots of rock and pulling out the dirt togrow entirely new worlds of music. Also, songs like “Hurt” and “Closer”

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Spike Jonez
Beastie Boys - “Sabotage”
1994

Director best known for:
Being John Malkovich, Adaptation

Band best known for:
NO SLEEP TIL….BROOKLYN!!!

____________________________________________Michel Gondry
The Chemical Brothers - “Let Forever Be”
1999

Director best known for:
The Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, Science of Sleep

Band best known for:
Mmmmm. I Loves the Chemical Brothers. I loves ‘em good.

______________________________________________Michael Bay
Meat Loaf - “I would do anything for love (But I won’t do that)”
1993

Director best known for:
Transformers, Bad Boys, Armageddon

Band best known for:
Uh….this song…and a really cheesy phone commercial…sigh.

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And as a runner up…here’s another valiant attempt by our favorite whipping boy:

Brett Ratner
Jessica Simpson - “These Boots are Made for Walking”
2005

Director best known for:
Thinking he is talented and continually destroying TV shows and movies…and my eyes.
Band best known for:
A reality show that no one gives a shit about. And her hottie sister, you know…..before the nose job.

And here is an extra little slice of happiness.

Not so much a director’s music video in the vein of this post, but it’s Michael Jackson’s Thriller done in India, and it’s amazing.

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My final thoughts:

Directing music videos seems like a valid, pop-friendly way to create art. While some art pure fun like Van Sant’s video showing an early style of artistic music vids popular in the late 60s, Coppola went out on a limb and made a film similar to 1960s (again, lol) and 70s performance art films. And others go ahead and work with what they know and make a short story that draws you in to the character and makes the song that much more emotionally attaching.

Music videos, like I said before, are a pop-friendly, mass viewership style of art films. While art films scarcely ever escape an art gallery’s wall mounted television, music videos are EVERYWHERE! On MTV, Youtube, the artist’s webpage, the music CD, everywhere! And they are quick to produce compared to feature films. while most films go through a production schedule of about 6 months to a year, a typical music video takes about 1 to 3 days to shoot and up to 2 weeks in editing and however many days for visual FX. While the director is working, let’s say a month on a video, he/she can make 12 in the time they could make 1 film, and more people will have probably seen the video over the film.

I would love to see more film directors take a stab at music videos. Where’s Sam Raimi’s, “Beat” Takahashi’s, Adam Bhala Lough’s, Quentin Tarantino’s, Robert Rodriguez’s, Guy Ritchie’s, Troy Duffy’s, or even (if it were at all possible) Kurosawa’s or Orson Well’s? Imagine an Akira Kurosawa music video. It would have to be an hour long, 100% historically accurate, and probably one of the most excellent videos you’ll ever see.

A little while back, I think all the way back last week, I mentioned the commercial as the new film director’s way of staying in the eyes of audiences by producing quick and powerful ads. Of course, the Brett Ratner commercial was god-fucking-awful with that garbage Guitar Hero tripe… but the David Fincher football commercial and Spielberg’s “Don’t Vote 2″ were both amazing…and, like I mentioned before, the BMW short films were breath-taking…

But what about the realm of music videos? I read an article over at The Shiznit, a really good site for things cool, which discusses the top 10 music videos by film directors, which got me thinking about the quick-to-view type of filming. Typically known in the art world as a film-school-failure, the music video artist has a tremendous amount of power in their little film set to a soundtrack of one song. Some music videos are so amazing they are parts of a communal society (ie most of Michael Jackson’s videos and the cliche of every typical radio rap video). While some…(shaking me head)…and painfully, uh…thinking of a better word…while others are painful shit.

There. Poetic.

While commercials have a much wider range of audience, the music video has a more centralized and specific viewership that feels a kinship and attraction to not only the band the music video is made for, but unbeknown to the watcher, the director as well.
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Sofia Coppola
The White Stripes - “I just don’t know what to do with myself”
2003

Director best known for:
Marie Antoinette, Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation

Band best known for:
A hottie, weird chick and her older brother…and a better known video using legos.

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Garth Jennings
Blur - “Coffee & TV”
1999

Director best known for:
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Son of Ranbow

Band best known for:
The main vocals from Gorillaz and that song named Song No. 2 that is really catchy.

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Gus Van Sant
Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Under the Bridge”
1992

Director best known for:
My Own Private Idaho, (the remake of) Psycho, Goodwill Hunting

Band best known for:
Flea. Socks.

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Martin Scorsese
Michael Jackson - “Bad”
1987

Director best known for:
Casino, Good Fellas, Gangs of New York

Band best known for:
America being the only country where a poor black boy can grow up to be a rich white woman.

The rest of the video.

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John Landis
Michael Jackson - “Thriller”
1983

Director best known for:
Blues Brothers, Coming to America, Animal House, American Werewolf in London

Band best known for:
The creator of a new verb: baby-dangling.

Thriller Music Video …sorry, everyone has the vid disabled from embedding.

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Join us tomorrow for an additional posting of Director’s Music Videos and my final thoughts on music videos as art. Yay.