Alright, I thought I'd put my two cents in while Marc is getting a lot of attention here recently. I've worked on quite a few of Marc's videos (crew member). He seems to be a pretty decent guy first off. Right now, he's probably one of the most prolific directors in the Rock/Alt genre and is now delving into pop/beauty too. I think that's a smart move on his part to step it up. People on this site really tear him apart, but I think a lot of him being dismissed on antville is unjustified. He's a smart guy and I'm sure he's well aware of what he's doing when he put's out a "fluff" piece. Marc delivers what the labels and most artists want. A well done promotional piece. He still does quite a few low budget videos where he tries interesting things, like the Brand New video and his one for Sparta. I think the video he did for Brand New is great! My main complaint with his videos is that he rips off too many movies, but unfortunately that's what a lot of bands will buy into when going through treatments. Maybe because they can visualize it because of the movie it's referencing? I can't say that I wouldn't do the same. Check out his video for Incubus that was a tie in for the movie "Stealth." Besides the portions that he was forced to cut into the video from the film, it was a great performance piece. I think that Marc would like to do more videos that aren't just fluff, but it's hard to do that in the music video industry. Especially if you want to work and pay the bills. Sad to say for a lot of bands that people on antville respect, but even when he's directing a video for a small, credible indie band, they will say, "he's the guy who directed the Ashlee Simpson video." What would you do?

Don't hate the player, hate the game!

         

francis lawrence kicked webb's ass with the previous incubus video even if webb ripped romanek's audioslave video down to tom morello's hat (it ain't just the movies he's stealing from). francis shits out better pop videos than all the stealing marc can eat. the reason why readers of antville dislike him isn't player hate. we give it up to those who deserve it. we think he's a hack because we pay attention. prolific? like an oyster birthing a thousand other oysters. standardized mediocrity.

         

Well put. Does DNA have a PR team working Antville. I've seen more support than dissent in the last 1000 Marc Webb postings.

         

I highly doubt "rossman" is Webb. Though I can almost guarantee "crymercy" has lost a video or two to him.

Marc's a solid director. He does some good shit and he does some shit shit. I actually really like that first My Chemical Romance video.

What Marc does better than anyone on this board though is play the game. He's a nice guy, he delivers a good video where the artist looks great, and he can handle the politics of the dealing with the labels.

To say "Mark's style is dictating what USA commissioners are expecting from directors as far as narratives, coverage, cinematography and telecine. If you want to survive as a music video director you have to consider the Mark Webb formula every time you write on rock act, or else you won't be considered." is misguided and reeks of jealousy. Just cause you can't get a track, don't blame it on Marc Webb. Guy paid his dues, and you need to to. If you do an amazing low budget video and write a good treatment for the next band, guess what, commissioners will give you more work. If your shit bites, they won't. But it ain't cause your idea isn't "marc webb" enough.

And this poll shit about whether a director is a hack "vote here" is fucking mean-spirited bullshit. This is seriously antville at it's worst. I've met Marc, he's a down to earth humble guy. I really hope he doesn't read this cause it will break his heart.

         

fell, it would be mean spirited if the choices were "sucks" "totally sucks" and "total suckfest." But it was simply "on a scale of 1 to 10... spelled out. It's hard to quantify these things; but how is this any different than an imdb rating or metacritic? We're not voting on whether he's a good person or donates to charity, but rather what is your opinion of his body of work? What's your opinion of the body of work from Kevin Smith? or Uwe Boll? Or Martin Scorcese? It's a valid question. I can't fathom Webb's heart would be broken. He already knows that 90% of teenagers LOVE his videos 1000x more than they love Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry combined; I think he would be pleased to see that 1/3 of these holier-than-thou antvillers really like the videos he's done for artists they would never listen to.

         

I love that the best we can say is that he plays the game better than anyone else, talk about a legacy!

         

Art, Craft and Commerce. Somewhere in there one has to feed the family, practice one's craft in a marketplace and satisfy one's artistic pretentions. Webb is obviously successful at the Craft and Commerce quotients, all that is up for grabs is the Art bit. That is always shakey ground. Webb makes consistently clean, visually assertive music videos that are of high quality. Do they borrow? Steal? Perhaps. If you have worked in the world of the massively funded, you would know exactly what kind of language the moneymakers understand (see Inatree.) I have read more than a few comments on this thing that complain of "stealing" and "copying" that are so liberally defined they are laughable. It belies a startlingly shallow knowledge base at times, a rather short-of-experience base at others.
I am not a lover of Marc Webb, I simply think there are charges levelled by some here that smack of juvenile art school snobbery lacking an appreciation of the artisanal nature of the endeavor.
We are lucky when we get a beautifully crafted peice that is both high budget and full of the kind of creative content we long for. Enjoy them when they come along.

         

Can we please officially put an end to this conversation now, until someone comes up with a something to say besides a variation on either:

1. He sucks.

2. He's good but...

I think its really weird that this guy has somehow become the litmus test for where antvillians stand on the art/business debate. I also think its kind of mean, especially that poll, which just seems really undignified and cruel. I'd love it if we could somehow all agree to use this site as a place to talk constructively about new videos, and not just use them to justify or explain their frustrations with the industry.

         

I've enjoyed hearing this and that commentary. toddyokoh, you get a drink from me - that was super-fine analysis. In terms of basic human needs, art is one of our luxuries.

Perhaps antvilleans can better relate to Jon Watts' side of the creative/commerce line?

         

My main complaint about antiville (which I generally love) is the attention mainstream videos get in terms of receiving comments.

If it's a mainstream artists with a big vid director you can be sure there will be alot of comments -- even if they're negative, it still shines the light on some videos that aren't worth discussing (I know, this is just an opinion, but the comments themselves usually ferret this out).

I understand many of you who peruse and comment are professional vid makers and so I dig why you take an active interest in the specs. of the industry itself, but still...

Personally, I'm interested in sustainable art. The flipside of the digital revolution, which has laid waste to the music industry, is that production costs have PLUMMETED.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for 1 single itty bitty comment on a video I posted here a month ago: videos.antville.org

I know I already mentioned that I got no comments on another post and I suppose I should be glad that no one flamed it, but at this point I'd like to know that the work I do (after my job of being a nyc double-decker brooklyn tour guide) has an echo of some kind in this forum.

         

The scale of Gondry or Jonze = god and all commerical work = crap is just annoying at this point. I'd like to challenge people on antville to see if they can not mention either of those 2 names on the site for just a month. Its not that I don't love their work; its simply boring that they are hailed as gods that others should reach to be. Its annoying that they are the bar. Or that all work should be contrasted to them.

Marc Webb is a solid director. I won't be looking to him for creative inspiration, but he fulfill's a certain industry need and does it well. While on this topic I also must point out something that I have before. The fan or viewer response that if a director fails to live up to your expectations on a project, that they have fallen is just stupid simply put. I don't think that I need to explain why sometimes videos turn out bad or that its ok if they do.

Lets have a look at the 3 possible choices on the poll about Webb. They're pretty stupid choices. In fact the very question and poll itself is pretty stupid. I don't expect hugely intellectual approach in analyzing and discussing videos, however, if we are going to get into the art and commerce bit, I think polls like this by nature reflect the essence of common reduction for the masses. Whatever happend to chocolate, vanilla etc.

"Hack" is just wrong. How do we define a hack? I mean most directors need a good amount of experience before they develop their style, craft, and confidence. Finding those developing opportunies is a whole other issue. So if you aren't out of the gate super talented and offered great opportunity one is a hack it seems??? I'll be the first to admit that there are two young directors whose work didn't impress at first. Both seem to have been quite forunate with opportunity early on, and I've been impressed by them both more than once now (John Watt's & Ace Norton). And if they happen to make a not so great video I wont be disappointed either. Its ok to not always be perfect. What is perfection?

The discourse on here has really seemed to decline. And I think as Coady above me points out, people seem much more interested in commenting on the big namers work here much more than anything else. Did anybody happen to notice the Prims video a few postings back? It was nice and simple, and really well matched to the song. I really liked it and am guessing it was done for the cost of a lunch (thats pretty creative). We should get behind that. But those strings get like 2 comments if any usually. Also recently posted was WIZ's clip for Kasabian. It is interesting to hear other people's perspectives. But I really do find it hard to understand how people rail a director with his level of accomplishments for essentially being cinematic.

I don't mean to be too serious or preachy. Considering that this site seems to be the web's largest home of music videos, I feel compelled to try to engage in participation. However, I often feel like I'd rather just say nothing at all. Judging by the amount of regular posters verses the god knows how many come to look at content here, I'm gonna guess there are thousands of potential antville community participators who'd rather be flys on the wall.

O well ..thats all just my view.

         

What is my side of the creative/commerce line? I'm not sure I even know myself.