IN DEPTH: Cadence Weapon "Sharks"

Having spent the bulk of my free time recently playing with my Wii (hey now!) I am starting to see video game potential everywhere. An afternoon drive is not nearly as fun as a game of Out Run. Why walk down a city street when you could create all sorts of mayhem in Grand Theft Auto? In fact, most sporting events and action flicks would be better played than watched. If I can use this severely fun video as evidence, then the affliction is wider spread than I thought. Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon finds himself in the midst of several video game fantasies, including emulations of such classics as Rampage, Frogger, Donkey Kong and many others.

Video co-directors Chris Grismer and Duane Crichton join the VFX team of J. Lee and Matt Bilewicz for a Video Static exclusive commentary on the inspirations and technical expertise that made this video possible. be sure to watch to the end for a little "rewind" segment and a parting quote that just might reveal a glimpse into the dark, scary place that is Chris Grismer's imagination.

Cadence Weapon "Sharks" (Epitaph)
Cosmonaut (aka Chris Grismer and Duance Crichton), directors | Marc Millard, producer | Spy Entertainment, production co | John Choi, DP | J. Lee and Ross Birchall, editors | J. Lee and Matt Bilewicz of 1188 Films, vfx | Greg Langham, art director 

PROFILE: Meiert Avis, Pusher

 There are Rock Hall Of Famers like Bruce Springsteen, U2, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and Van Halen. Current hitmakers like Avril Lavigne, All-American Rejects, Jennifer Lopez, Damien Rice, Audioslave, Josh Groban and Macy Gray. And then there's Warrant. Meiert Avis has directed videos for them all, plus a whole lot more, over an impressive and still growing career.

name: Meiert Avis  
company: Pusher
job/title: Director of music videos and commercials

First Video: My first video was for an Irish cult band called The Virgin Prunes. It was a long time ago. This was followed by a boat load of seminal U2 clips, peaking with the Grammy winning "Where The Streets Have No Name" video shot in downtown L.A. This video established U2 as the main contenders for "the next greatest rock band in the world," and didn't do my career any harm either. I have been making videos for musicians I love ever since.

My most recent clip is "Finally Made Me Happy" for Macy Gray's new album.

Strangest Video: I am an introverted person, so the whole directing process is strange for me. I remember going to meet Killing Joke after a gig in a bar somewhere in northern England to pitch them an idea for a video. Jaz got my treatment, hopped up on the bar and read my ideas to the whole bar in different character voices, to hoots of drunken laughter. I learned that videos should be entertaining. While I go into a shoot with a plan, I also enjoy that it's an inherently spontaneous medium, being performance based. You have to sculpt the uncertainty, work with the performers to spit lightning into a bottle.

What's Next: Right now it's a crazy time. The entire music distribution system is in play because of the internet. Music video is right at the front of all of this anarchy.

Everybody will get to be Andy Warhol.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the latest band to open the directing process to their fans.

I love this, everyone should be so lucky as to create and be heard.  Maybe now they will have a competition to write the next Chili Peppers song, for free. Hopefully the concept that we all entertain each other for free, while legal snaps up the intellectual copyrights is a temporary aberration.

However, I am optimistic, short and long term. There is no other visual format where you get to create with so much freedom and at the same time reach a global audience.

Even with the current postage stamp online viewing windows videos have never been more relevant. Avril Lavigne's "Boyfriend" video has over three million hits on YouTube in three weeks and is their "most viewed" media this month. Avril is closely followed by the My Chemical Romance and Beyonce/Shakira clips. So, even though the business model is in flux and everyone is cutting budgets, videos are MORE important than ever and people want to watch them and talk about them more than ever.

Once the bandwidth issues have been worked out and we can watch videos, full screen, on-demand, there will be a huge renaissance in high budget music videos. Verizon has had fleets of guys out laying glass fiber all over the country. It will be mostly done by the end of the year. Then everything changes. One day everyone will be their own publisher.

So have some faith, and  remember, as Anthony Kiedis paradoxically said in the context of the Peppers' fan video competition, "Videos are harder than they look. It's very, very rare and beautiful and monumental when someone makes a truly good video."

SHOT: The Shins - Matt McCormick, director

Why, it's Shins keyboardist Marty Crandall dressed as a tree on the set of the band's new video, "Australia!"

artist: The Shins
song: "Australia"
label: Sub Pop
director(s): Matt McCormick
production co: Food Chain Films

SHOT: My Chemical Romance - Marc Webb, director

artist: My Chemical Romance
song: "Teenagers"   
label: Reprise/Warner Bros.
director(s): Marc Webb   
production co: DNA

BOOKED: The Used - Lisa Mann, director

artist: The Used
song: "The Bird And The Worm"
label: Reprise/Warner Bros.
director(s): Lisa Mann
production co: The Revolver Film Co.

NEW RELEASE: Charlotte Gainsbourg "The Songs That We Sing"

The progeny of famous musicians are always in a tricky position. Expectations can be ridiculously high and everything is compared to mom and/or dad. As such, it's no surprise that it's taken Charlotte Gainsbourg — daughter of the legendary Serge Gainsbourg and his muse/chanteuse Jane Birkin — approximately twenty years to follow up her last proper album, released back when she was only 13. The lyrical and visual content of her new effort "The Songs We Sing" is certainly less creepy than her best known recording "Lemon Incest," which was a dance-pop father/daughter duet with papa Serge that had a video perfectly engineered to shock or offend nearly anybody. This time the music is an approximation of her dad's famous cut "Bonnie And Clyde" and the video showcases Charlotte in a studio with collaborators and known Gainsbourg acolytes Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin of Air (not included here is Jarvis Cocker, who penned the lyrics). In the end, however, this video does a fine job proving what it has to: Charlotte inherited the musical sensibilities of her dad and, thankfully, the looks of her mom. --> watch "The Songs That We Sing"

ps: Gainsbourgphiles are encouraged to get their Ye Ye's out with DJ Melody Nelson's radio show La Decadanse on East Village Radio every Tuesday morning 8 – 10 EST. Listen by visiting EastVillageRadio.com and clicking the "tune in" button.

Charlotte Gainsbourg "The Songs That We Sing" (Vice)
Nathalie Canguilhelm, director | Soizan7e Quin5e (France), production co

 

SHOT: Finger Eleven - Gavin Bowden, director

artist: Finger Eleven
song: "Falling On"
label: Wind-Up
director(s): Gavin Bowden
production co: Collaboration Factory
rep: Laure Scott

BOOKED: The Locust - Artificial Army, directors

artist: The Locust
song: "AOTKPTA"
label: Anti/Epitaph
director(s): Artificial Army
production co: Refused TV

NEW RELEASE: Stars Of Track And Field "Movies Of Antarctica"

The white sand beach of Siesta Key, FL and the distant camera angle that's primarily used in this Stars Of Track And Field video perfectly communicates an isolation that's a perfect fit for any song with the word "Antarctica" in the title. Continuing that theme are cutaway shots of my favorite group of social outcasts: Circus freaks. The group on display here are mostly retired, including a septuagenarian fire-breathing dwarf named Poobah, who is the lone surviving Munchkin from The Wizard Of Oz. --> watch "Movies Of Antarctica" in Real, Windows Media or via MySpace

Stars Of Track And Field "Movies Of Antarctica" (Wind-Up)
Eric Tu, director/editor | Bruno Rocca, producer | Roccatu / Good Behavior, production co's | Bobby Eras, DP

SHOT: Lil Wayne - David Palmer, director

artist: Lil Wayne feat. Sizzla & T Streets
song: "The Only Reason" 
label: Cash Money/Universal
director(s): David Palmer
production co: Palmer Productions