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 Post subject: Play it by Eye--SFIAF
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:03 pm 
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3D CGI androids rock in "Stylo" (Gorillaz) video by Jamie Hewlett, Peter Candlland

Music videos: the search for originality

In judging the SF Animation Festival 2010's 11 new music video choices of course it's hard not to notice the music. But the question is, how original is the video, and how neatly does it contrast with, supplement, or harmonize with the music?

Music videos can be cool just showing the band in action, though that has been jazzed up a million ways by now. Other videos work better as counterpoint, and if they tell an independent story, that's often cool. Gorillaz goes that route. Gorillaz has its "'virtual band' of comic book characters," and the biggest Wikipedia entry of any of the groups. Their song "Stylo" has guest spots by Bobby Womack and Mos Def. The video by Jamie Hewlett and Peter Candlland of England is a Mad Max road chase with the band's creations Murdoc, 2D, and the android Noodle (with a bullet hole in her head) speeding down the road in a bullet-riddled, smoking 1969 Chevrolet Camaro with the word "Stylo" on the front grille. They waste a fat highway cop -- only to be pursued by (quoting from Wikipedia) "Bruce Willis, in a red 1968 Chevrolet El Camino." "The video ends with the Stylo car running off the side of the road and into the ocean, as Bruce looks on contently. The car, submerged underwater, transforms into a shark-like craft and swims out of view." Very satisfying, and the best of the collection.

Here are some that go the more conventional route. Chairlift's "Evident Utensil" video by Ray Tintori of the USA shows the band outdoors singing their song but digitally distorted by new software -- pretty, trippy, but still pretty familiar stuff. Darwin Deez's"Radar Detector" video (by Ace Norton of England) blends in shots of Deez singing his song with a variety of ingenious images of him and stuff: it maintains a lighthearted air, but are the images illustrative or just distracting? Samo-samo, yo? Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" video by Patrick Daughters, The Mill LA, USA, just shows the band head-on staring at you, singing, but their faces slowly altered. Very arresting, creepy. If you like zombie-nerds, you'll like it, otherwise maybe not: it holds your attention, but also pushes the gag button. CT- PO- Paul Oakenfold's "Starry Eyed Surprise" is a very listenable song, but the USA video producer Honey's approach feels standard issue. The prolific English DJ Mark Ronson and the Business Intl's "Bang Bang Bang" video by Warren Fu of England starts out very high concept with a Japanese guy with a weird wand-like mike speaking French and an Anglo guy speaking Japanese, but the rest is conventional -- digitally ornamented performances shots -- -- except for a tennis match in which heads literally roll, which lingers for a bit in our overstimulated brains. The song features rapper Q-Tip and singer MNDR and was in the top ten on the UK singles charts.

Gossip's "Pop Goes the World" video by Philip Andelman of the USA is straightforward footage of the band performing on a stark, dramatically lit stage with bands of colored light behind them. This time the filmmaker doesn't get in the way of the performance, just makes the lighting and color stylish. Gossip looks sort of like Diviine in a John Waters movie. Again software comes in to distort the figures and instruments as if they are sort of exploding. But the pulsations of the image follow the beat and never get in the way of the forward momentum of the peppy song. This is not earth-shaking, but it works, and looks stylish.

Now for more counterpoint. Knalpot is "probably the best rock duo to surface in the Netherlands in 2009. Guitar, electronics, drums and an immense dose of energy," said Stream Magazine. You can watch them separately performing their instrumental piece "Casio Halbzeit," two men in identical red watch caps and green T shirts (are they twins, or what?) manning a big drum kit, a guitar, and lots of electronics. "Casio Halbzeit" has a clean, abstract techno sound. The video by Martha Colburn of the USA is hand-drawn animation and collage of political protest that lightheartedly takes issue with the way the world is going and how the will of the people is overridden and how life is generally going -- back to the dinosaurs, it suggests. This is a refreshing combination, better than either sound or image might be by itself.

Das Racist is an offbeat 3-man rap group based in Brooklyn that has some cred now. Their "Who's That? Brown" has an aggressive style. The video is an elaborate, stylized animation fully of symmetry and little rhymically jumpy figures in video-game-like NYC city scenes, while text messages flash below or over the image in a box. Example: "Kool A.D. Jay Z and Justin Bieber's shared stretch Hummer got hit by a meteor on the way to their show." Rap lyrics include: 'I swear I sell like wet sell, sell like sex sell, smell like sex smell/I swear I go like cars go, move like cargo, so retardo/Always move forward, never sleep, like a shark, bro/Always with my people like yar, bro, y'all glo. . . Who's that? Brooown!" Yeah, whatever. Another good example of good counterpoint, video-against-music, though, and anything that makes fun of Sarah Palin is okay, I guess. Edith Sitwell might like the internal rhymes and referential nonsense.

What else? Myles Cooper: "Gonna Find Boyfriends Today" (Skye Thorstense video, USA), is a gay boy smiling and singing with pretty dayglo animation. It's fun, and cute, and so darm pretty. Rage Against the Machine's "Guerilla Radio" sounds a whole lot like the Chili Peppers. The video (by Honey, again) is traditional: clean-looking studio performance film with various illustrative images, easy PC protest, a plug for Mumia, a jab at "pigs" who "try to silence my style" and "vultures who thirst for blood and oil"; "cut the cord" with a picture of an American Express card. We might feel we've seen this all before. But both the song and the video are rife with energy and RATM caused controversy in Brazil: the images of sweatshop workers at sewing machines mean something so this isn't totally routine. But call me a Tarantino freak, but what I'm going to take away from all this is Bruce Willis chasing androids in a 1969 hot rod. That man still epitomizes badass.

Play It By Eye is a presentation of the San Francisco International Animation Festival of 2010, showing Saturday, November 13, 9:45 pm at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema.

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Bruce Willis in "Stylo" video

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