The Willowz - See in Squares
MOV of Jon Watts' "We Live on Your Street"
The Willowz' DVD See in Squares is on store shelves. Comments inside..
A review: Sadly, See in Squares isn't as successful as Directions. As expected its production is lower-fi, which doesn't have to be a hinderance. Indeed as the DVD commences, things work pretty well. Ace Norton's and Jon Watts' respective videos are slammin' (I'll remember "car" for a while), and the rest are each creative and quite enjoyable overall.
However, around "Horn Song," the 13th track, the music becomes interminable, and so do the videos. Should the Willowz just not make songs longer than 2.5 minutes? Things pick up a little bit with Walk Straight's treated photography (The Beta Movement) and We Can Die Now's old-film treatment (Richie, Amanda Milius). Michel's cute video "I Wonder" becomes ho-hum in this setting, although it is the peak of this valley. The most telling point is during Emmy Collins' "Questionaire". She gives us a 25 second-long static shot of the band looking incredibly bored while they play. 25 very long seconds.
Things finally pick up again once the band gets a break in the bonus section. Best of these is Michael Sladek's creative take on pharmaceutical companies for his version of "We Live on Your Street."
Props to the band for appearing in all of the album's videos. I hope the White Stripes give this video album thing a go-around once.
Everyone loves to break down the efforts of a project that was created on a shoestring budget. Everyone's a critic.
Directions was funded by Atlantic Records, Seeinsquares was self-financed. Putting these two DVDs up against each other and then praising Directions is ridiculous. The idea is similar - Directions success is based on exposure using big label monies.
I'm personally involved in the Willowz DVD and think its pretty funny to read your rant. I'm proud of the band and all the directors of this project. from ace to gondry to collins to stoddard to artificial army. blood, sweat and low budgets carried this project to the end. i think the end result is impressive. i have more respect for artists that take risks rather than stand on the shoulders of Corporate Record Label Money.
n.b. I should have added I took the DVD as a whole 'video album' experience, not each vid individually.
For instance I thought Equation #2 was good when I took it as an individual piece back in March.
Duly noted about the Directions comparison.
Anything I write here aims to be constructive criticism. (Has anyone else watched this yet?) I agree everyone worked hard for squat on that DVD and deserve kudos for their work.
I cannot agree with you less Kevathens. Directions was universally crap. at least this vid is fun and cool. I rate this effort far higher than the DCFC stuff
cute and hilarious
how amateur is this video? it's like some idiot neighborhood kids played with their dad's video camera for half an afternoon. this whole DVD must be pure crap.
Blah Blah Blah Salad Fingers!
which video did you make?
I've only seen a handful of the Willowz videos. I dunno. There's not that much of a difference between $5000 budget and a $1000 budget. In both cases, you need to come up with ideas to make up for lack of resources.
"Talking Like Turnstyles" is a good example of a zero budget video that's a pretty dope idea. Is there anything like that on the Willowz DVD?
If anything, See in Squares was unhindered by some of the constraints of a major label putting out a DVD to be at Wal-Mart & Best Buy.
which videos have you made salad fingers?
the answer to that question would shock you to your very core.
shock me. i would love to know who everyone is here. i hate false identities
you and david bowie...
...leave me out of this?
isn't Watts' video a direct rip off of 'waynes world' when they are playing hockey in the street. for the budget i think this dvd is pretty cool overall.