Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness (alternate version)
Dir. Megaforce
Is this new? Or have I just missed it? Anyhow... great video.
pretty effective video. though i can see why it was scrapped, cudi looks lost & shiny. bit one-note as well.
Yeah, I think I prefer this version. Even if it does seem unfinished in some ways. Notice somebody move Kudi's light at the very end? Couple other weird things here n' there too - like people breaking eye contact with the lens to look at somebody on set (Asian girl a couple times)...
But those trippy set tricks were cool, and they were designed to go in a certain order from what it looked like, as opposed to the cut-y new version where it jumps around. Harder to pull off.
Plus - a real cameo from Ratatat - worth the price of admission alone.
Here's the problem: Really bad performances by every human being in the video. The couch hits its' mark with more conviction than cudi, ratatat looks lost, and the random girls look confused. Even though some of the tricks are nice, it feels like no one spent any time giving direction to anyone with a pulse, and that makes the whole thing feel slow and uncomfortable. Not like the 2nd version was a masterpiece, but I can see why they wanted to reshoot.
I feel like this is a problem with a lot of hip-hop artist/alternative director pairings. Kanye's Dethurah and Gondry videos suffered from the same lack of energy/personality. It's like the director was spending all of their time planning their next big trick and forgot about the talent. Maybe that's ok on an indie video, but in hip hop its really apparent when the artist looks anything other than completely comfortable and confident.
watcha talkin about, kudi's performance might be nonchalant, but it goes with the dreamy confused vibe of the song. as for the girls unsteady gaze, that has more to do with editing than directing. This video is mega solid, don't be nit picking...
video is cool but cudi does look "off"
Obviously we are all looking for reasons it was rejected. The negatives are the uninspiring performances and the sprawling nature of the clip.
Otherwise though, really quite an ambitious move by Megaforce and I commend them for that.
Obvious comparisons to Spike Jonze's Adidas commercial and Gondry's Let Forever Be video... whether thats a bad thing or not.
So is this now officially released as an "alternate version"? or did someone get a anonymous file delivery from France?
Quite liked this despite complaints about the performance. Definitely more interesting than the official version.
Only complaints are the obvious referral to the afore mentioned Spike Jonze Adidas commercial. Also have seen all of these techniques and similar concepts in other Megaforce videos... especially Late of the Pier 'Heartbeat'. Not to mention the whole Gondry similarities... but is this just heightened because they are French?
BTW The Art Direction hit the spot for me. Nice work.
i like the video a lot the artist does look like he was having a stone-over and a hard time getting off the sofa, but his performance is a bit lacklustre indeed; maybe if it was more dazed & confused like this:
love everything about it! art direction, cinematography, the characters... really nice to see that they can also do these transition-tricks with a slower song/editing... cudi's performance also feels way more intresting and mysterious than in the other version.
The video doesn't seem to have the same energy as the song. I know the song is barely mid-tempo but visually we still seem to lag behind the music. The tricks are cool but they also feel rough and unpolished. Sure, this was almost assuredly the intent but I don't think it's a positive thing here. I also didn't find the video particularly entertaining and I'm on this big 'entertain me' kick lately.
'Thou shalt entertain' has been espoused as the first commandment by more than a few heavies in show business and like another frequently uttered mantra in long-format world, 'it's all about the story', it may be as close to a truism as you can get. In a lot of less-than-awesome videos it's also the first thing that gets passed over - mostly in favor of trying to be extra unique, technical, ground-breaking, deep, etc.
Perhaps this makes it sound like I'm against pushing the envelope. I'm not. I just think that all envelope pushing should be prefaced with the question, 'does this entertain?' After all, our currency is entertainment while our value is found in the communication of ideas through that entertainment. My argument, I guess, is that if you don't entertain you definitely won't be effectively communicating your ideas.
And, when I say entertain, I guess I really mean engage the audience in an experience. Fincher says he's interested in experiences that scar (that's why he liked Jaws). Stephen King says, "I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud." To him, in his genre and in his craft, he sees this as his hierarchy of entertainment. Or we have Dave Matthews' take on music, "...One of the properties of music is to entertain and to, I don't mean this lightly, distract us from the things that pull us down. Music should be not only a source for political ideas but also a source of hope." Thus, entertaining can take almost limitless shape but I'd say, in show business, it should always occupy first place in a creator's list of priorities.
On the other hand, entertainment, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So, maybe the director(s) of Cudi's video had entertainment as priority number 1. They just didn't entertain me.
K
p.s. - sorry for the rant and really not all of this is about the video anyway. the video just got me thinking and i hope you don't mind that i purged all over the comment section. ;)
back on vimeo for now... vimeo.com
kalstark out of work. wondering why his 'entertaining' treatment wasn't chosen over the one the band felt was more 'unique'.
both are sloppy, but this video is way better and way more ambitious than the first one (the party video).
Late to the party,
Man, I can't see why this was rejected other than "not enough t and a". For me it was pure entertainment, usually not a fan of gimmick videos, but I don't think this was a purely gimmick-driven video. The track has no energy whatsoever, and yet I didn't get bored or feel the urge to skip forward.
I don't think any performances were bad at all, it's seems to be about a comedown after 'the pursuit of happiness', the actors behave as the vibe of the tracks asks them too. It's trippy and fun and also in someways pretty bleak too.
It's also like a megaforce video with a (half)decent budget, it's what you want.
I like it.
Rather enjoyed it. Sure, this version isn't as glossy and lacks the bling / eye candy of the official version, but this one is fun to watch. Someone's trying really hard to repress this video, not sure if it's the artist or label. They're both full of drug references; what's the problem?
maybe they thought its safer to show people getting liquored up than to suggest they get stoned. but then why doesnt kudi cut hisself open at the end, you know, to check if that inner dmon of his has fallen off the wagon
It's ace! :) Great mood and great choreography of the cameramoves. Kudis perfomance is brave and spot-on for the idea that they were pursuing here.
