Another awesome performance video by the NYC band, the Strokes. The direction of the video is great, too.

High Quality MOV: a856.phobos.apple.com

         

my favourite jake scott video - understated, classy and very cool indeed

         

Thanks for this always loved this one.

         

so clean. some inspired editing (though i could have done without the multiscreen).

         

for me Jake scott was a one hit wonder with THAT R.E.M video. He made the worst promo on the Radiohead collection. Put up against such formidable directors as grant gee, Thraves, Glazer et al we saw how weak he was.........nepotism kept on mind......would this scott boy REALLY be where he was today without being the daddy of Mr Blade Runner. I mean plunkett & Mclean ANYONE........what a waste of lottery money, film stock.......tripe tasted better having left in sun

but i liked this

all my comment above still stand......ha

         

two others of his i liked: u.n.k.l.e. and erykah badu.

         

Thanks for that badu director's cut! Never seen that aspect ratio on an mv before.

I'd add Tracy Bonham "Mother Mother" and Radiohead "Fake Plastic Trees" is worth a note..

         

life is strange progosk...........but then maybe not. I'm thinking of performance videos. Blur beetlebum and Supergrass St Petersberg.If you love the band and song then you will be suitably captivated by the performance. I dont really like Sophie Muller but of the dozens she has directed only that (beetlebu) and song2 stick out for me......and i love blur. I also love radiohead, since the drill EP, and love ALL the videos on the collection i mentioned......EXCEPT fake plastic trees. So lazy, so amateur, bad production design, poor performance. Even thom yorke in trolley couldnt save that one. So who makes or brakes (sic) the performance video......director or band / artist?

I guess what i'm saying is that if you have a powerful singer/frontman he/she can carry the dullest of ideas into somewhere special.......see what Richard Ashcroft does with john hillcoats lovely looking steadicam promo. See what he does with the luckyman video..........BUT if you hate the man then chances are you WILL hate these videos.

We all HATE will young.....i think bt cannot deny a smidge of love and admiration for his recent choices of directors........and yet these same directors then go on to make self-absorbed over priced rubbish for a band you love..........its all very confusing.......do you hate a promo because of the BAND or the SYNOPSIS/idea

         

does hating ever need to be qualified?

its a visceral response and should be respected as such

i hate richard ashcroft but i love walters bitter sweet symphony video

its easy to recognise a good idea for a video or a particular artist but its never going to make me buy a record

         

the strokes got boring after about 30 seconds, the unkle one was boring after 20 seconds & the badu one was laughably terrible despite championing the new Sidescreen format. Dunno which rem vid he did but if it led to all these it better be good. Poop poop.

         

No offense, putty, but who/which videos inspire you?

         

Since Jakes work has come into question and perhaps passed off as nepotism I thought Id mention a few other videos that are fantastic:

George Michael/ flawless - and I cant stand GM but great video

UNKLE/ Be There - might want to watch more than 30 secs its a great narrative

Space Hog / In the meantime - who could ever forget the slow motion spinning hour glass

Smashing Pumpkins/ disarm

Live - he did 2 live videos both with amazing art direction.

U2/ staring at the sun - wowing FX

REM - btw is for Every body Hurts

Like these videos or not this guy is an outstandingly smart director. Who cares if his dad is Ridley ... he makes amazing commercials and rarely shoots a clip and usually does something unique

         

a good bit of all this is beyond me, suffice it to say that yoking js and deichkind together strikes me as pretty pointless. as regards la badu: the video's void sounded a moebian note with me. admitted, the end shot was a bit gratuitous

         

I did a bit of revisiting Jake's working throughout the day, and I would agree that Jake in a way didn't develop his 'voice' in music video. Perhaps he is better with ads, though I am not an expert there (Nike 'Move' is great, copy/paste that link).

UNKLE, the Strokes, Erykah Badu, REM, and Tracy Bonham, are Jake's best. I agree on including Disarm, Staring at the Sun, maybe Flawless (I'm not a fan, really), Natalie Merchant's "Wonder", perhaps Fake Plastic Trees, and those two Live vids for posterity. I wish that Tori Amos vid had been more impactive..

But overall there's no strong voice throughout even his best videos. Dramatic and perhaps dark and cinematic, but rarely alive. Meanwhile, Jordan Scott made two very impressive, highly stylized clips for Telepop, whetted my appetite then dropped out.

putty: I understand as a director not to look for mv's for inspiration, but for me, I'm all over it, baby. That Badu vid is really beautiful and elegant on TV. Interesting, and winning, pick of directors there. If only Pleix, ne-o and SSSR would pump up their output.

         

where'd i go?

         

Shit, antville is totally going schizo. It's been doing this for a couple days. That comment disappeared(!) (Which reminds me, when do we create an archive of antville posts? Occasionally an old post will disappear..)

         

I guess just for posterity, you said you dug Cunningham, Gondry, hammer&tongs, neo, Pleix, Dougal Wilson, SSSR, Shynola, the usuals. .. Said you don't watch that much new work, perhaps you should, but why bother looking to mv's for inspiration when there's (my words) such a high rip-off quotient .. You said the Badu vid was "truly truly bad", and that Jake's work was largely dull, and speculated judiciously on expectations/advantages as Ridley's son..

         

"..."

         

Did progosk say it's pointless to put Jake Scott and ridley together?

You are right.......to a point BUT the proof is in the pudding. There is a way up the ladder to the ultimate goal. You make short films then go up to low budget promos, maybe make agood short film that gets noticed, make a bigger promo, another one, another one..............one more before your first ad.........then another...........you see where this is going...........until that first feature.......and if it flops you will not get a second chance.......unless you directed Alien3 (box office flop.......superb film) or human nature.......box office flop and a right french shambles.

         

no, i believe i didn't, but don't let that stop you, you're on a roll...

         

To add some perspective, Jake does better work than many other directors, but perhaps not enough to be a Directors Label contender; not as singular a vision.

         

God I put down Jake Scott what an ass

         

kifi: You sound suicidal