but have you seen his director?

Usually when I find a kick ass music video it prompts immediate searching for information about the artist behind the song - I’m always curious about peoples’ stories: where did they come from? where do they live now? how did they meet? While I generally cruise around for a while, watching lots of videos, reading interviews and listening to lots of music, this is usually as far as I get - who is the singer/songwriter/band. Recently though I’ve started seeing the same names popping up in the “producer” or “director” spot for some music videos I’ve been watching, which caused me to stop and take notice - who are the other creative forces behind these videos?

I came across this video Tuesday night on Gorilla vs. Bear and was instantly in love.

Memory Tapes "Yes I Know" from Najork on Vimeo.

The drippy man is kind of creepy but interesting and some of the other visuals are just captivating: the black and white pictures that flip and fold and turn upside down revealing one another, the strange disruptions in the streetlights/moon, and the flock of birds that drift into the word “GONE.”

I wanted to know more about the director behind the video and found Eric Epstein’s site with a couple demo reels and other fun studies. The reel from 2009 is pretty bad ass and makes me remember there are all kinds of amazing artists out there doing things that we don’t even necessarily notice. For example, in that reel, there were tons of animations from Food Inc. Not once during that movie did I stop to think about the animator behind those images but seeing them out of context in Eric’s reel made me realize how cool they really were.

Another person that recently peaked my interest is David Altobelli whose ability to tell a story in a music video is commendable to say the very least. I first noticed his name on the recent Cults video for “Abducted.”

Cults - Abducted from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

Then I came across another great example of his maybe less creepy but very heartfelt story telling for The Belle Brigade song “Losers.”

Belle Brigade - Losers from Jonathan Wang on Vimeo.

Watching Kanye videos for my post yesterday I noticed Chris Milk’s name in my Vimeo search for the “All Falls Down” video. It turns out Kanye also worked with him on the video for “Touch The Sky” - I loved this video back in college with its 70’s throw-back concept and the hilarious confrontation between “Kanyevil” and afro-clad “Nia,” with her ass-promoting side-kick hating on the Kanyevil’s girlfriend played by the Pamela Anderson.



More recently Chris Milk created an “interactive film” that had everybody at KCRW crying a few months back. That’s right - remember that video for the Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown”? The one where it asked for the address to the house you grew up in and then proceeded to have all these google shots of that house mixed with tear jerking images of vague figures running and neighborhood shots (i.e. birds against the sky). Oh yeah - that with the Arcade Fire lyrics of longing for youth in the background and an ending asking you to write a letter to your former child self...instant tears.

If you didn’t partake in the crying, you can go here to experience it yourself. You can also check out the song against the kind of cool story board Chris Milk posted below.

The Wilderness Downtown - Original Animatic from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Usually there many, many people involved in the creation of something great. Working on production teams for events has given me some insight into “it takes a village” nature of most events. These music videos are great because of the songs and the artists that made them but they’re also great because of the team of creative people making it happen. While director is by no means an entire team, it feels good to acknowledge somebody besides the singer/songwriter/rapper/star sometimes.

kanye love...i said it

Ok so, I’ll say it out loud...

I’m a Kanye West fan.

I know. I know. You don’t even have to say it. Pretty much everything I’ve ever seen him do or anything I’ve read about him is just further proof that he’s an egomaniacal douche bag. I’m not going to argue that he’s really a sweet guy. I’m also not going to say it’s okay that he seems to act like he’s above it all.

But I mean...I love this song...



...and this one...

∙Kanye West - All Falls Down from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

...both of which feature Kanye’s midas touch - first as producer and then as producer/rapper.

I’ve kind of always been a fan and thus always kept a half ear on what Kanye was up to. But I started taking a more active interest after he showed up at the MTV Music Awards a few years back and performed “Love Lockdown.”



I was totally hooked. Something about that tribal beat with Kanye talking about heavy stuff struck a chord with me.

Then the thirty minute video featuring songs from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was blasted out into the universe in various forms. Most commonly in the nine minute, ultra vulnerable, intricately choreographed portion for the song “Runaway.” I actually only recently watched the entire 30 minutes and took in all the meteor crashing, forest in flames, phoenix lady, deer in the back yard greatness.

Kanye West "Runaway" from JLP on Vimeo.

Ok so maybe the Kanye acting isn’t greatness. But those opening notes for “Lost In The World” are hard to beat thanks to Bon Iver as is the banging touch Kanye puts on it for the shots of him running through the woods.

This is all really just background leading up to the newest Kanye video for “Monster” also from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I feel like it’s always a good sign when a video starts with a disclaimer that it isn’t meant to be “misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people” and that “it is art and it shall be taken as such.” I mean...you have my attention already.

Kanye West - Monster (feat. Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Bon Iver) from Thomas' Official Blog on Vimeo.

There were petitions circulating asking that this full length video not be released after a teaser was leaked earlier. It’s obvious why. When you stand there calmly reciting your lyrics with the severed head of a girl in one hand you might make a few people angry.

I haven’t decided exactly how I feel about it yet. It’s definitely a little graphic for my taste but I also can’t stop watching it. Not in a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-the-giant-scar-on-her-face way but in a sucked in, hypnotized way.

What I can say I like about this video and really about Kanye in general is the way that he makes me think. I don’t always agree with or like what I’m thinking about but I can’t deny that the videos Kanye makes and the songs he writes force me to contemplate. With this video it’s about whether I like it, whether it’s redeemable as art, and if I’m okay with the images as art even if they are violent and only violent for the women in the video. How about the question of what the job of an artist is today. Are 30 minute videos with a story and several of your songs covered in one swoop going to be an expected standard going forward?

I further appreciate Kanye as a fellow boundary explorer. It’s like being a kid, when you slowly lowered your hand closer and closer to the burner on the stove just to see how close you could get before it started to burn. Sometimes you’d go too far and a nasty blister was your reward.

It’s the same with Kanye. He pushes to the far edges of what’s acceptable, what’s expected, what’s can be done and sometimes he goes too far. But most of the time, he lands in the middle of something I’ve never thought I’d see (taiko drums for “Love Lockdown” on MTV??!) that is really undeniably brilliant if we were all being honest with no bias toward Kanye-hate. In all of his forms of expression Kanye impresses me as an explorer of art and how we make it.

So I get it - it’s easy to dislike him. And there’s a big part of me that wants to say I don’t like Kanye...but I’d be a liar if I said that. So even as he writes verses like the below (about 1.5 minutes in) that make me continuously question my allegiance, I mostly just appreciate that he’s still doing things that make me question how I feel about him.