While John Mayer takes a ruminative stroll along NYC's East River, a group of graffiti artists decorate the streets with messages that encourage people to pay attention to the precarious state of the world. And, in a nice touch that should pacify those who disapprove of guerrilla artists and other scofflaws, a final message tells viewers that all the artworks were commissioned and done with permission on private property.
Director Philip Andelman fills in the backstory:
The idea came from a brainstorming session between John [Mayer] and I, which started with his fascination with street art. It turns out he's pretty tight with a lot of the old-school graffiti artists in the city and after a few phone calls we suddenly had this all-star cast. The group of five is the Tats Cru from the Bronx, the guy with the gas mask is Daze, and the one wearing the Mexican wrestling hat is Futura 2000. He actually rolled up to set at around 8am wearing that and I burst out laughing. I thought it was so cool. He gave me this sly smile and said something to the effect of, "You digging the hat, huh?" Needless to say, it stayed on the duration of the shoot.
We shot John's performance on the first day at sunrise in blistering NYC summer heat. I wanted a feeling of old New York street photography, of John feeling a little vulnerable and introverted, so we put him in this big jacket while the rest of the crew sweated away in t-shirts. After that, we spent two and half days running around the boroughs capturing the various artists tagging walls. Though Daze had previously been commissioned to do his mural, the others were all done based on the song — each artist did some sketches based on conversations we had after all listening to the song, but nothing was concretely laid out before hand. All the walls were private property which we had permission to shoot on, but Futura's friend fell through at the last minute and we were stuck with no location. So, we started rolling around looking for a wall. This guy is about 50 years old, runs a clothing and design empire, hasn't tagged in years — he told me the last time he did a wall was at the last Documenta for fuck's sake! — and here we are driving around trying to get a shot. You could tell he was having the time of his life, as if he were flashing back to being a 12 year old kid again in the city. -- watch "Waiting For The World To Change"
John Mayer "Waiting For The World To Change" (Columbia)
Philip Andelman, director | Magali Selosse-Bishop, producer | Partizan, production co | Shawn Kim, DP | Barney Miller, editor
