by Brian.


I hear a lot of talk nowadays about how nothing's happening in Hollywood. Film isn't going anywhere or doing anything... we're stuck, languishing in a now preset standard of happy ending mediocrity. Films like What Women Want and The Family Man are all we're ever going to get from now on.

Wrong.

There is a new front of filmmakers rising through the ranks this very day to take over tomorrow. They didn't come from studio internships, film school experimentations, or TV show blues. They came from the world of music video.

Michael Bay, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Alex Proyas, McG, Tarsem, Antoine Fuqua, Dominic Sena, Mark Pellington, Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek, and Hype Williams: The Current 13 progenies of the MTV generation, all in varying heights of popularity, all steadily rising. Ten years from now, the quick cutting, fragmented narrative, style-soaked stretching of time, visual flair, and wide-angle lens that originated in music video will all be commonplace in Hollywood. Get Ready.

Good, you say. Many techniques being used in music video make for a more economical use of screen time. A story can be told more quickly. We don't need David Lean pacing anymore; we're ready for the next step.

Bad, I say. These quick visual techniques come at a price. They work in the realm of music video because your story is only three minutes long. When you're confronted with a ninety-minute scenario, flash cuts and whip pans do not tell the story alone. These emerging filmmakers, although they possess a new quality that I will be the first to admit Hollywood needs, still aren't experienced in the ways of feature-length storytelling.

Any MTV fan will state that the best music videos are those that don't just show the band playing in a variety of locales but one that has a story, set to the music; something deeper that you glimpse in those three minutes. Undoubtedly, most of the 13 mentioned above create those quality videos, hence the reason they're getting the film deals over that guy who shot the last N`SYNC video; however, storytelling in music video and storytelling in feature film are much, much different animals.

"Unlike a movie, a music video doesn't have to have a narrative," states Mark Romanek, who likens music video to "highlights in relief, like sculpting in time." Romanek is one of the most promising of this new generation (whom you probably haven't heard of yet but will soon enough), delivering such a wide variety of styles, each fitting the particular song perfectly (video enthusiasts will recall Nine Inch Nails' atmospheric 'Closer' and 'A Perfect Drug', as well as Beck's 'Devil's Haircut', En Vogue's 'Free Your Mind', Lenny Kravitz's 'Are You Gonna Go My Way?' and Michael and Janet Jackson's 'Scream', the most expensive video to date). He continues in saying that with music video, "you have to be graphically catchy. And if it becomes popular, you have to watch it over and over again. Because of that, you have to create from a different context than film, with hints and puzzles of narrative. You are drawn in by being told less, rather than more."

More often than not, these techniques do not work on film. Very rarely will someone see a film three or four times, simply because the time involved is too precious. No one minds sitting down for four minutes to watch a video, but two hours? Clearly the two mediums have different goals for different audiences.

Good students make for fast learners however, as the success of Michael Bay, David Fincher, Alex Proyas, and now McG will tell you. It's clear that there are many different kinds of music videos, made by different kinds of directors. The pure popcorn Bay and McG yield seems very tasty to the audience of today, although the somewhat more dark and dirtier visions of Fincher and Proyas are still bordering on critical rave/public nonchalance. I have confidence that sooner rather than later they too will be accepted. The quirky independence of 'Being John Malkovich' signaled a new thought in the public's consciousness: Original does not necessarily mean bad (Jonze's video library is perhaps the most impressive of all, harboring such MTV classics as Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage', Bjork's 'It's Oh So Quiet', Weezer's 'Buddy Holly', and Daft Punk's 'Da Funk', a long way from skateboarding videos with friends).

It is therefore ironic that I find only a spare few of these music-learned directors' works to date of any note. Certainly the outright spectacle of Armageddon and The Rock is impressive, but both are lessened for me by lack of real meat behind the exotic fur. Many fault Films like Fight Club for having a plain ending, or Arlington Rd. for having only an ending and no beginning or middle. Although there's clearly promise, only a few have hit the mark yet (I'd site 'Seven' and 'Being John Malkovich' as perhaps the best-realized of all current MTV-cum-Hollywood efforts). I'm still pained to remember films such as 'The Replacement Killers' and 'Belly', which are crystalline examples of style over substance worthy of any dictionary definition reference. Don't give up all hope yet though, for the giants of the field have yet to really speak.

Spike Jonze's hard at work on his next: 'Adaptation' (as well as stretching his acting muscle), Alex Proyas is contributing to '10th Victim', and we haven't even heard of what I consider to be the most promising talent in the field: Mark Romanek is writing and directing 'One Hour Photo', Michel Gondry is hidden away with 'Human Nature', and Chris Cunningham will lead us to believe that he's actually filming 'Neuromancer'. These mysterious three strike me as the most intelligent, experienced, and versatile artists of the bunch.

Michel Gondry's experiments with time, dimension, and form still boggle my mind (witness Daft Punk's 'Around The World', The Chemical Brothers' 'Let Forever Be', and Cibo Matto's 'Sugar Water'). He's at once playful (Beck's 'Deadweight), fantastical (Bjork's 'Army Of Me'), and Childish (Bjork's 'Human Behavior'). Every effort of Gondry's takes you to a different place that seems to live just outside of the music's aura, expanding the experience to feed your mind with more than the song contained in the first place. His images and ideas stay with you beyond the viewing experience, returning every time you hit play to hear the song again.

Chris Cunningham on the other hand, seems to revel in the other side of the coin: the nightmare to the Elysian dream, the lurking evil of the unknown to the fantastical journey, and the outright terror to the childish machinations. Cunningham found both uneasy fascination (Autechre's 'Second Bad Vibel') and autonomously sublime fondness (Bjork's 'All Is Full Of Love') in the cold empty face of robotics. He rejuvenated Pumpkinhead and the Poltergeist out of a TV and a gang of young Richard D. James' (Aphex Twin's 'Come To Daddy') only to turn James himself into the unlikeliest of bathing beauties (Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker'). He's visualized Portishead's morose beauty into something you can taste (Portishead's 'Only You'), re-invented Madonna as a sleek creature of beauty (Madonna's 'Frozen'), told an insane tale of an insane asylum (Squarepusher's 'Come On My Selector'), and wreaked both mechanical and emotional havoc with a pedestrian in a motor tunnel (UNKLE's 'Rabbit In Your Headlights'). All this and he worked with Kubrick on AI special effects before it was even a glimmer in Spielberg's eyes.

These two artists seem to reflect similar thoughts of Romanek. "I react strictly to the music," states Cunningham, "I try to translate the emotional resonance of those songs into pictures;" Pictures that communicate and enhance the music, bringing it to life visually as well as musically. Gondry adds to this in saying that he "always [tries] to do something new and amusing, but it's really to serve the point of the story." These three artists certainly seem aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the music video medium, so why haven't we seen anything from them in the Cineplex? My theory would be their unified belief in patience, good judgment, and, as Gondry states, "The quality is the most important."

There is no doubt that the world of music video has finally invaded Hollywood. Whether this is a joyous occasion or not remains to be seen. While certain aspects seem very promising, I am reluctant to set myself too optimistic too soon. Given MTV's continuing popularity and growing clout, it is not surprising to see feature film directors try their hand at a video or two (Mike Figgis' and Joel Schumacher's efforts are notable, but it's Paul Thomas Anderson's videos for Fiona Apple that really need to be applauded), but one can't help but think more than a few "established" Hollywood players are feeling a bit threatened by this newly-graduated class. Who will stay and who will go remains to be seen, proven only with time.

All quotes taken from 'Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video', Steve Reiss & Neil Feineman, Copyright 2000 Harry N. Abrams, Inc.


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