JUNKFILM

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.