Wow, I'm suprised nobody has posted this video yet. This video is personally one of my favourites from the 90's. It shows Mark Romanek at his best and how sexy Fiona Apple can be. It's probably one of the sexiest music videos ever made. Once you see this music video, it will stay in your head for quite a while. It's that amazing.

That's a cool image.

WMV: www.directorslabel.com

         

Yeah its a cracker, every time this comes on I watch it all the way through. I think this is a good example of how far we have got from good mainstream video making. I dunno how much this was made for or what kind of brief was given to Romanek but I’m assuming neither factor had much of an effect on the outcome which is a classic music video. Am I being sentimental and nostalgic or were videos really just better made back in the mid nineties.? I’m mean you could slot this in with hundreds of clips produced recently and I think it would still stand out. What is it that makes this video so good,? I think its the subtext that Romanek has created combined with the "just enough" but still technically well executed nature of his visuals. This video is a treat that respects and entertains the viewer whilst still functioning at its most simple level as a promotional piece for the artist

         

oh yeah. i love this video.

two things always bugged me about it. when it cuts inside some weird machine. is that supposed to be the VHS player?

and then i always thought that it really doesn't look like she's singing. i can't tell if it's the lip synch or if i can't believe such a sound coming out of that skinny woman.

         

She has a purple car? Heh. I don't like her voice for singings. :(

         

Fiona regrets taking her top off and in her underwear the video but I still think it is one of her best (after Paper Bag and Fast As You Can). It's what catipulted her into superstardom, maybe not for the reasons she wanted, but it did the job just the same.

         

Always been a fan of the video aswell but never liked the cg soap thingie. It didn't really match the rest for me. In an interview with Apple, she stated that at first she really didn't like the video but in the end came to terms with it and now loves it. I think this was on the Director's Label dvd somewhere.

         

To me videos are suffering from a lack of good music these days. It's difficult to make a classic video when the song is unlistenable. Every genera in the 90's had amazing songs coming out of it. Most of the wicked records nowadays are being released by indie bands with no money and as such I expect a new wave of wicked work by indie directors who've learned to create without a budget. There'll be far fewer superstar directors too I'd think; simply because it's imposible to be prolific when you're not getting paid. -j

         

Romanek and other A-list directors have said the same thing recently about today's musical climate.. (Honestly: Romanek + Iron & Wine? That would be a very interesting new take for Romanek, who mostly doesn't go indie/low budget.)

         

The last two commenters seem right on, in my estimation. It would be fun to see what Romanek would do with one of the cool new indie bands - but that will never happen. Professional video directors cannot survive on the budgets proffered by low budget videos. Hell, these days, the "big" budgets make it tough to pay the rent, and god forbid you have kids or a real, adult life.

Here is my question; In the past, directors were willing to do favor jobs or direct for interesting bands or work on concepts they found exciting, even if the director themself was paid little or nothing. Certainly some directors (and other talented folks) did that only for the love, but I believe many/most directors did small/intriguing projects in the hopes that they would get noticed and their careers would move "up" to the point where they could make a good living or get rich. That's what we all want, no? Okay - now here comes the question. Will young, new directors keep doing those shoestring jobs if there is no ladder to move up? If the "middle class" budgets for music videos hover in the mid 100ks (if not lower), will people still want to do tiny-budgeted "love" jobs in the hope they will someday reach that middle class? Obviously, many directors in MV have their eye on commercials or features - but will new talented people even leap into the difficult and taxing game of MVs if the brass ring, is really a rusty old "Milwaukee's Best" pop top?

         

Here's a question that keeps me up at night: Why is it that MV budgets aren't going up despite the fact that music videos are recoupable commodities now thanks to itunes and dvd sales? And furthermore, why aren't indie labels forking over a little more now that their videos have a wider audience thanks to youtube and links from music blogs?

         

In response to spit: Budgets aren't going up, because the labels are keeping the extra income from iTunes and DVDs to themselves. That seems very unlikely to change.

All the new "outlets" for videos like cell phones and websites further splinter the market, and in my opinion, drive budgets lower. The labels might make more videos, for a wider variety of artists in response to the wider variety of outlets for the videos. Budgets were high when there was ONE place to see videos - MTV. More outlets might mean more videos, but - in response - less spent on each video. With the death of MTv as the dominant outlet for videos, any single video now reaches a much, much smaller slice of the audience. That "wider but shallower" marketplace seems like the future. Videos used to be a big budget commercial on during the Super Bowl, now MVs are becoming the cheapo "craft matic adjustable bed" spots on during Tuesday afternoon re-runs of Law & Order. Budgets are tied directly to the number of eyeballs being reached.

         

for me the music video and the creative music packaging crashed at about the same time in the mid-90s. i've talked to some people who used to do a lot of album/cd covers and the financial offers they are getting now are equal to what i would get for about a week's worth of work. not that i make a lot because i don't, but it is about 1/10th of what they used to make and the deadlines are ridiculous. they just want things cranked out much like the whole hollywood movie poster business. what pisses me off more than anything is that no one in the big music business realizes or will even consider that the visual part of music is as important as the actual song and all equate sales. instead they would rather blame downloading. but they need to take a long-hard look at what they are giving consumers. the artistry of music is pretty much dead except for those few interesting things that come up here, but packaging-wise there is even less interesting things. it's all disposable. disposable videos, songs, packaging.

         

oh yeah, love romanek and this video. his director's series dvd is one of my favorites as is his book of video stills.

         

lol. I had to laught when the less than 100K frigure was thrown up. Here's the future as I see it; small shops of multi-skilled director/illustrator/compositor/editors working for budgets of around 5-20k that are funding directly by the independent musicans. Just as the musicians have started to find ways of recording and producing their albums in their bedrooms so to will the directors.
Fuck getting rich. There's no stress and you can be as creative as you like because there are no middle men. -j

         

responding to jesse- I don't disagree with your thought but that leads to this question. How small of a shop is it if the budget is 5-20k? Sounds real small. This is my view of the future of MV as well, but it makes me wonder lots of other things. How much time can that one or two person shop spend on that particular video if they are earning 15% (for example) of the 12k production budget? I guess one could survive if they live in a VERY cheap city and are way more interested in art than paying their bills. I'm sure that sounds like heaven to many antville types, but to me that sounds like most of the talented creative types with options will have moved on to commercials or web ads or flying cars - or whatever the future holds.

         

Considering most if not all shops already dabble in multiple fields, not just music video, I'd say both of you are correct. MV's just tend to be more pet projects while ads and flying cars in some ways pay the bills.

Big budget directors are simply getting squeezed out, for the most part.

I'd love to do a study, graphs and all, of mv budgets over the years. Perhaps the 90's bubble will be just an anomaly in the course of mv history.