Motion Theory

“It’s dedicated to the portrayal of women in the realm of Hip Hop videos. We wanted, for a change, to place the girls in the center— to be the principals. Yes, we love girls and of course they are sexy, but they are not just bodies. We made it a point put their names inside the video because these girls are not just nameless tits and ass, they deserve recognition.” — Clément Oberto, director

This video for rapper Lofty305 and beatmaker Torus is certainly sexy and NSFW — we're talking lots of nudity — but director Clément Oberto also has an amazing eye for stylish set-ups and a post Suicide Girls sensibility where the models come across as being more empowered than most video vixens.  

Nearly 50,000 people have signed a petition for YouTube to removed the Katy Perry "Dark Horse" video because:

At 01:15 into the video Dark Horse; a man is shown being burned, whilst wearing a pendant (also burned) forming the word 'Allah', which is the arabic word for God.

Such goes to show, that blasphemy is clearly conveyed in the video, since Katy Perry (who appears to be representing an opposition of God) engulfs the believer and the word God in flames.

Got that?

Three thoughts:

1. If you have to cite timecode and circle the object in question (see above) to make people notice, then you're likely calling way more attention to it than necessary.

2. Have Rick Ross and the Maybach Music Group also started a peition since their medallion is also clearly present?

3. There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world. 50,000 is less than .004% of them. 

If you're going to trudge into the jungle and challenge some of the most iconic film motifs ever, there's probably not a better choice than the Motion Theory creative team, which has previously tackled the high seas, candyland and way more over the course of many music videos.

Directors Grady Hall and Mark Kudsi — two independent directors at Motion Theory who collaborated on this project — took Katy Perry's "Roar" as a call to empowerment, leading the pop star on a journey from damsel in distress to queen of the jungle.

We recently chatted with the directors about everything from how.PETA recently hijacked a press cycle by questioning the treatment of the many animals in the video, and the general usage of animals in film production — claims which were rebutted by Katy in a statement and further countered in our interview — plus film inspirations, art directing nature and the truth about Junglescope.

A great recap of the complexities involved in making director Grady Hall's "history of dance" video for Capital Cities "Safe And Sound." Lots of insights — bet you never realized the Charleston and the Kid N Play dance were so similar — and footage that takes you from initial rehearsals, to the shoot location and then the post process.