Starring Scarlet Johansson, written by Nick Cassavetes. Sort of a lot like When September Ends. YouTube (Director’s Cut)
         

i coulda sworn sam bayer said he retired from music videos...about 5 times now.

         

Looks good overall, way better than September Ends. It'll premiere on MTV2 Sunday at 11pm, I believe, then will flood the channels after that. 'fraid there's too much money in this one to get it all on YouTube.

You can apparently get the director's cut at iTunes until Feb 11.

         

I wish more promo directors did this kind of thing. It would really help them with narrative.

The problem here is that the writer is such a non writer and the director is so rambunctious he can't even hold a shot let alone make a beat work - or scene flow. Bayer as a whole has a very watchable, very stylish visual aesthetic. The shots themselves have so much presense that I don't understand why he then tries to super amplify (not super charge) the work with WILDLY melodramatic, undeserved, underwritten, cliche, didactic, and boring dialogue in who gives a shit scenes.

With this and the september ends piece (and a short film he made called MAX), he seems to stuff overly melodramatic junk inbetween slices of sex or action. It's a worthy technique but after a while that pussy sandwich begins to stink.

He's still one of the best DP's around. If this is an indication of wanting to push on into feature world, I'd say he's got a while to go......

         

good song, mediocre vid.

nice to see a big budget promo again but the vid feels very disconnected from the song. this is a classic case of the track being far better than the clip accompanying it.

also, the performance section is drab and feels like dead weight; which is surprising considering justin is typically a very strong performer (i'm gonna have to place the blame on sam's broad shoulders here).

on the plus side though, the lighting is gorgeous, camera work is solid, editing is tight. you can tell there are innumerable highly paid professionals working on this one - it's just a shame the concept let 'em all down.

k

         

zzz

         

I'll bet that shoot was fun... anyone who was on it have any Bayer-isms?

         

lol. I'd like to read the treatment for this. ;) -j

         

This'll premiere at 7:30pm tonight, not 11pm. Before the Grammys, I think is what they're going for.

         

Kev I seemed to have misplaced my TV guide. Do you know what else will be on tonight?

         

Quixoticnyc: There's a new episode of Desperate Housewives on tonight. I think Bree is finally going to get some answers about Orson's hazy past.

         

New episode of Rome on HBO as well.

On to the Bayer-fest. Does Sam have a private stock of swing and tilt lenses in cold storage for a distant furure when he is the only person still using them? Oh wait ...

Good song but, ugh - the story-line. Timberlake is in danger of losing all his new found street cred. Nothing makes an artist look MORE white than having the girlfriend die in a car crash in the video. Maybe JT wants to front Nickleback?

And burning wreckage across the road? Mad Max? Les Miserables? I think JT and ScarJo stumbled across the shoot for Beyonce's "Crazy in Love." You can see the old Vette hurdling Jay-Z if you freeze frame it.

         

don't forget family guy.

         

wow that confrontation fight scene was AWFUL.

Is this the first time a video has advertised a "Written By..." ? Kinda unique.

Yeah performance footage is really bad - really dated.

ScarJo is a pretty good actress! I mean for the material.

         

I was fairly shocked by the "Written By" credit as well, and the fact that Cassavetes also directed The Notebook!?

More importantly, why would you WANT a written by credit for this "script"? I mean I guess it gives the video more credibility (as a film) if it has a writer, but the writer himself, in this situation, is probably actually losing whatever credibility he had (although Alpha Dog was pretty bad anyway).

         

cough

         

mov

         

i thought bayer used cassavetes name to play the generation game... nicks dad changed independent cinema, maybe bayer tried to give the not so great result some more impact, sort of like roman coppola doing a music video about the preparation of a tomato sauce (daft punk was it?), with a legendary father who emphasized trying to put in every one of his movies a food recipe... but didnt really work out (the timberlake one) i thought. but i guess it does become more fun to watch, when comparin the content/style to john cassevetes films, even if you dont find any similiarties ;)

         

...continuing discussion here

         

Aside from the obvious 'isn't this a bit pretentious for a music video?' criticisms, i think this is an outstanding piece of work. It is undoubtedly well made - beautifully lit, edited, and acted (yes, I thought Timberlake actually did a decent job - although it wasn't hugely demanding, but it was ok).

Sam Bayer is a great video director who proves his worth here yet again. I can't wait for him to tackle a feature - if that's where he's headed. Who knows...