Spellbound by Beck's new video "Girl?" Wondering how they managed to pull off those amazing "fold-in" effects? Looking for the solace in knowing that you weren't the only kid with a Mad Magazine subscription? Well, I was. So, I reached out to the Motion Theory directing team and struck up a little email interrogation about the video.
ps: If you haven't seen it yet, watch "Girl" in Windows Media or Real Player.
Video Static: As someone who had a subscription to Mad Magazine for many years growing up, I can't tell you how cool it was to see the Al Jaffee Fold-Ins come to life. How did you arrive at that idea?
Motion Theory: We loved the magazine, too -- and, like everyone, especially Al Jaffee's fold-ins. The process really started with the song. Beck instilled it with this great duality -- a pop sound on the surface, but lyrics that point to darker themes underneath. Jaffee's fold-ins were often like that -- seemingly about something funny, but then revealing some deeper political or philosophical truth. That might sound high-minded, but when we went back and looked at all of the Mad fold-ins over the years, we were really amazed at how many social issues Jaffee hit upon over the years. The way he managed to combine a joke with a statement, month after month, for decades, was really a sustained act of genius.
VS: Did you collaborate with Al Jaffee or anyone from Mad Magazine on the video? Has there been any response from anyone from Mad?
MT: We didn't collaborate with Al Jaffee or anyone from Mad Magazine, but we did get Jaffee's blessing before the whole thing started. His only request was that it be something that he could show to his grandkids. Unless his grandkids are especially sensitive to pinata violence, we're in safe territory. We've heard through the grapevine that at least some people at Mad really like the video, which is a great thing for us.
While we're on the subject of collaboration, we did really count on the talents of a lot of people to get this video done. It all started, and was made possible by, the dedication and hard work of Beck, who never once balked at our crazy demands to do countless takes of innumerable scenes. He worked as hard as anyone out there, and on a film shoot, that's saying quite a lot. An idea this complex, mixing so many practical and CG effects, takes a lot of small miracles to make happen -- and without dozens of people giving up anywhere from days to months of their lives, this video wouldn't have happened like it did. After we finished the original pitch, Kathy Angstadt over at Interscope made it her mission, and everyone just stepped back and trusted all of us at Motion Theory to get where we needed to go. The preproduction took an army, the production was a choreographed riot, and the post-production was only possible through great sacrifice and massive over-caffeination of the 3D animation team and effects team at Motion Theory.
VS: How involved was Beck in the overall idea? Since the references to Mad Magazine get more explicit (so to speak) as the video progresses, I would assume that he was totally cool with giving credit where credit was due?
MT: Once Beck was on board with the idea, he was 100% supportive of what we were doing. With all of the pre-planning we had to do, it wasn't one of those ideas that we could easily change at the last minute, so we ran all of the ideas by him before we started building props and shooting. We did our best to make sure that we presented him with our best ideas, and so those meetings went smoothly. The whole process, in fact, was seemingly graced from the beginning. The idea matched the song. The label loved it. Beck loved it. We all knew that it could be something special, and so everyone seemed to give their very best. And just about everyone seemed to have fun doing it, too.
VS: The fold-in transitions are all very seamless. How did you create them?
MT: The hardest part was coming up with fold-ins that could live up to the great fold-ins that had come before -- and also have a sense of escalation in the video, where the folds get bigger and better as the song goes on. We explored a lot of locations and imagined what it would look like to fold them, and what concepts worked for each place. The actual execution of the fold-ins was a delicate balance of live-action and CG work, preceded by a period of meticulous planning. It starts in-camera, with us shooting two different camera moves of the same scene. We design these camera moves so that they match exactly, except one is the reciprocal of the other. So, for instance, one move goes right, and the other goes left. Then we composite those shots together in a way that brings the perspectives together. After that, we replace the center section with CG, using the textures and materials we shot in live action in order to create a believable setting. As the scene folds, we use entirely CG objects to flatten and fall into the fold. The final little touches, like the dust on the chalk scene, falling dirt, and candy exploding from the pinata, really make the difference in fooling the eye that it's all actually happening.
VS: Any last words?
MT: The only thing we'd like to add is that we really tried to capture a different side of Los Angeles in the video. Often, people think of Los Angeles as being the land of plastic surgery and superficiality -- sort of the Beverly Hills and Hollywood mentality. But we really wanted to depict the cultural diversity and artistic vibrance the city has. We wanted to show the L.A. where most people really live -- and coincidentally, it's very close to the L.A. where Beck himself grew up -- out near Echo Park and East L.A.
