One of the bigger archival gets at Spectacle: The Music Video, a traveling exhibition on the history and art music video that's touched down at NYC's Museum Of The Moving Image through June 16 is some of the original art from the classic A-ha "Take On Me" clip.
"Take On Me" actually holds up fairly well today, presaging the Ken Burns Effect in its illusion of motion on a series of still comic book panels, and usining a rotoscope technique that allowed the pencil sketch world to collide with reality. A fairly elaborate concept, especially for the time, but one that was executed flawlessly and played a huge role in driving the song up the charts and further cementing the legendary video careers of both director Steve Barron — who has previously directed both Michael Jackson "Billie Jean" and would go on to do Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" — and music business creative Jeff Ayeroff, who was instrumental in Madonna's early career, co-founded Rock The Vote, ran several record labels and was involved in more classic album covers and videos than you possibly realize.
