Music video director Marc Klasfeld has done it all. So, we will let the work speak for itself.
Humor and buzzworthy clips? Here ya go:
Rock? You bet.
Hip-Hop? Please.
Pop? Of course.
And that's just scratching the surface of his videography — which can be viewed in higher res versions at his Rockhard Films site — and not mentioning such big hits as Foo Fighters "Times Like These," Shop Boyz "Rock Star" and many others.
So, now that the work has spoken, it is Marc's turn to speak for himself.
name: Marc Klasfeld
company: Rockhard Films
job/title: director/owner
first video: Jimmy Santis "In Jesus Name" - I was still in film school and saw an ad on the NYU board that a guy had $1500 to shoot a Christian rock music video. I showed Jimmy this short S&M film I made in class and although he frowned upon the content, he loved the execution and hired me. The video sucked, but it opened up the world of music videos to me: Romanek, Jonze, Hype, Gondry, Bayer and others who were all making the career of "music video director" something noble. I was so turned on by vids, I actually wrote a book at the time called "The Art of Video," which was a vain attempt at a Cahiers Du Cinema-like Auteur Theory for video directors. I never did anything with the book, but it stored an encyclopedia of video knowledge in my head and gave me a deep creative pool from which I'm still inspired. I also started Rockhard Films around this video and Rockhard is easily the thing I'm most proud of because its a company run from a director's perspective, where now other directors can fully realize their visions.
strangest video: I'm kind of known for strange videos, so you can just throw a rock at my reel and hit one, but I'll just pick my Enrique Iglesias "Don't Turn Off The Lights" video because it was so outrageous and deemed in "bad taste" by the label that they declared it never be seen again. You can see it on YouTube now, and some people think its one of my best. The video was also the inspiration behind my Bears documentary. We had Enrique making love to an amputee, being chased in a gay bear bar and getting a rectal exam in a doctor's office. Even by today's standards of pop stars gone wild, its still really strange for people to consider Enrique like this, but it makes me smile every time I watch it.
what's next: Becoming a black belt in jiu-jitsu. I've been working on it for 5 years. Jiu-Jitsu is a huge source of inspiration for me and it gives me perspective on the music video industry. Everyone is down on the industry these days but I'm now involved in commercials, TV, movies and docs and I'll say this: Separate from indie film and docs, there is no place with the freedom and creativity level of music videos for directors. The video industry will rebound and be much stronger for it. The history is too rich. The form too special. A technological invention will come along and change everything. The record industry is by nature excessive — it's rock 'n roll after all — and things can happen quite quickly. When I try to describe what I do in vids to people outside the industry, its difficult to keep a straight face because it doesn't really sound like a job. In fact it sounds quite ridiculous when you say it out loud. My Dad sold hats for a living, my Mom was a secretary — every time they see a video of mine, their reaction is always the same: I can't believe that you get paid to do this.
