benroll, 25. July 2006, 15:34
Kasabian - 'Empire' | Director: W.I.Z.

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(Source: Antenna / Video-C)
         
beautiful, beautiful video. It humbles almost everything else around...WIZ seems to take his videos very seriously and that shows in each and every frame...
         
Well done indeed. Love the WIZ all-star cameos, Can't fail if you have General Wasserman on your side. Seriously though the brother should be doing features. This kind of reminds of Klimov's Come And See.
         
you psychophantic twat. This is about as close to "come and see" as as a pig is to a spaceship. visual cliches abound in this silly video. I would say that WIZ is taking his videos a little too seriously. Maybe forgetting that this is only rock and roll.
         
Awesome production value, I can't even remember the last time I saw a video this involved for a mid level act like Kasabian. I'd say that the video doesn't really mesh very well with the song, but fuck it - it's awesome anyways. At least it's something genuinely different and original.
         
Perhaps Mr Bowie should learn to spell.
         
Don't worry, I wouldn't know how to spell sycophantic either. I may be just a Yank and I know I'm probably going to piss off everyone by saying this but I think the kids got skills and he's wasting them on music videos. I do agree that this idea doesn't match the song exactly, all the more reason to stop trying and start doing talkies.
         
I could do better on my sister's mobile phone.
         
load of tosh is right. fucking hell. I could do better on your sisters mobile me self. Psycho Powerless Another Man's Sack!
         
And what music videos of yours would we have seen Mr. Bowie?
         
scorn = yawn...go find something better to do in your summer holidays. As for Bowie, I'd like to see your work too, just to validate your comments. Why don't you meet up with scorn and film yourselves on a mobile phone trying to get the lens cap off a real camera...grow up.
         
I loved "Dancing in the Street"
         
at least it 'looks' nice... DP did a great job.
         
come on then scorn.. bring it on
(Great video, when is Wiz going to make a feature?)
l
         
right...give me 5....and Bowie, can you give me hand with the lens cap? ta.
         
Maybe scorn is a spambot that comes into antville every 2 weeks and makes the same argument. Or maybe he's related to this guy:

This should be entertaining, regardless.
         
actually i'm a fan of the WIZ generally speaking. this is a bit too much though. He's in his own moonage daydream.. as for my vidz.. feel free to surf my site. My personal fave is the one that Floria did for us. she's so talented.. and... I managed to make love to Chris Soos in Floria's bed where I met her husband from the Living Things and now we're going out.
         

         
Yes!!!
         
go WIZ for managing to sell that idea to the band
         
No!!!
         
lol, scoop - WIZ's video's really good, y'all are weird. I agree the song-mesh isn't exact.
         
To you Mr Bowie I say

Fructu non folis arborem aestima
         
Non streaming (AKA download) link:

a160.g.akamai.net
         
admirer - i totally agree, but then again

Ne teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum
         
Anyone want to try to estimate the budget on this? Really bold. Didn't really play out the way I would've wanted, but cool set-up.
         
I was expecting to see Kevin Costner play all of the band members, and Jesus.
         
Ioco optimo delactamur
         
irritating how it takes itself so seriously (and definitely an awkward fit with the tune).
         
Illud iterum dicere potes!
         
Rident stolidi verba Latina.
         
No, no, I swear antville isn't just a bunch of dorky, stale white grad students.
         
Tripe. What a complete waste of money. I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with the naysayers here. What's the point? This is a rehash of old, worn-out ideas only with different faces. It's sad to see so much money thrown at such tired concepts. There are so many contributors to this site that could have done so much more.
         
I sat down and watched this just now (not at work) and so here's my quick and somewhat studied opinion, fwiw.

scooper & progosk mentioned WIZ's trademark style: he takes his work very seriously. Much of his work exudes a careful classicism, at times incredibly studied and refined. He often deals with archetypes in film. He is also a very talented storyteller.

You can see elements of a strong story happening here, but the visual command isn't present. Perhaps it got lost in the edit?

Regardless, the visuals at times don't mesh with the music. The song is very urgent, yet the images don't carry that.

One of my strongest thoughts: I can't help but feel that lead singer Tom Meighan shouldn't have sung here - the performance footage undercuts the storyline. Either make his voice the narrator, or focus more of the piece on him. Here, it's a bit cloudy.

The video works best during the choruses and bridges, especially when Tom takes command of the screen, and the storyline.

Nice work, overall, though. WIZ and his crew are certainly valiant in their efforts. Again though, I wish I could see this on TV.
         
agree with above post, i really couldn't have put it better.
         
yeah, i'm a sucker for wiz' stylez. and: double-yeah, the singing just felt wrong.
         
this is great. a pleasure to view. so sick of the haters on this site. how one could say this is "tripe" i can't understand. i'd take 1 frame of this video over another boring stop motion animation video any day of the week. as kev said, WIZ takes his craft seriously. the way he blocks and shoots is impeccable. for my money he is one of the few people out there making narrative videos that actually work. generally speaking, music video narratives tend to be pretty weak, often relying on bullshit "O Henry" twist endings and whatnot. I can understand how some might say that the video is mismatched with the song. I don't personally agree, but... more importantly i think this video is a perfect match for the band itself, keeping with their grandiose vibe, exactly what they needed to up the ante.
         
awesome video from Wiz - again.

I really don't understand some of the comments on this site. Its like when anyone dares to be different you want to piss on their chips

A talentless no mark like Joseph Kahn turns in a turgid mess for Muse and half of you want to stroke his cock but Wiz makes a Napoleonic war story with a point - and also a beginning, middle and end - and half of you think its a waste of time.

Jeez - what's a director supposed to do to get props on here?

Wiz is top of the class and this is another cracking video.
         
just read presidentofvoice comments and couldn't agree more - how many videos that look exactly the same are on this site?

I know stop motion is a good low budget solution but how many are actually interesting beyond some student project level?

This time a director has a bit of a budget, moves the plot on and does something really interesting in a generally conservative market and this should be cause for celebration!

and of course the singer has to lip synch - this is a fucking video not a short film!
         
Hear Hear for the Hassinator!

The viewer will take away more from this video than is presented, there is a spirit and depth and life to Wiz's work which is a production value that you can not budget for or fix in post.
         
I liked Muse and WIZ's! Reread the comments, there's one or two haters, a few 'well it's not mindblowing' - but overall a great response.

Epic videos! They're back!
         
hass: WIZ is adventurous, no doubt.

Fwiw, WIZ gets his cock stroked a lot more on antville than Joseph Kahn does. I agree, WIZ is better than Kahn - better than most out there. Knights of Cydonia is a tighter video than Empire, though WIZ has done better than Cydonia numerous times.
         
Love or loathe it, you can't ignore this, which I think is probably the point. No-one working in videos today has the photographers eye and ability to get the best out of the subject that WIZ has, even if you think the subject is cliched or daft. I think we should be glad that videos like this are being made - unless we all want to be shooting everything on phone cameras.
         
Storytelling - wonderfully told

Visual Content - beautiful and completelyhigh lights the track

Great integration of performance into a cinematic video.

Production Values & Art Dir - top notch


Final Outcome = fucking awesome video.


I guess I don't share the same math as everyone else here but some of the reductionist comments on here are just completely perplexing.
         
I guess it's a stalemate. We'll have to give the vid a month to rest and revisit it, if anyone cares.
         
C'mon now, how boring would it be if we didn't have the haters. It's more fun than the hun.
         
Frankly, I'd love to bring all the Antvillers to a battlefield just like this and duke it out, once and for all!! Knights of Mulcahy vs. the Barron Barons
         
Kev did you just have some sort of public nerdgasm? LOL
         
You're a very funny man. ;)

As you can tell I've spent way too much of my worktime at the computer today and yesterday.
         
yeah.. is here anyone left who believes davidbowie is the man?
         
My dear Mr Bowie, why on earth are you bringing up your conquests, Floria Sigismondi and her husband in a thread about WIZ?
         
I don't see why all the hate on this one. Maybe I'm missing something?
         
hmmmmm... lots of money spent on cliche, bad storyline & sad to say... boring. the timing & rhythm of the vid doesn't flow... couldn't get thru to the end... more to watch on youtube