Nellie Mckay "Real Life" (by Shafei & Levitz)
Found this on google video after reading about this girl at defamer.com..
(from google) Crazy unreleased video for eccentric singer/songwriter Nellie Mckay. The video is a very inimate mommy dearest sort of thing. I guess columbia shelved the video after nellie got dropped, or maybe they just thought it was a little too telling..who knows..regardless very interesting, especially if you know about this young woman's kookiness..
really refreshing. i enjoy the "slice of life" videos - even that LCD Soundsystem one - it's nice to see a glimpse of the enviroment from which the music emerges.
i keep pitching ideas like this to no avail. no surprises there, i guess.
directed by shafei & levitz, of the not-too-popular-on-antville gift of gab "rat race" promo
I like how this is shot beautifully on film, when usually things of this nature are shot badly on video. In fact, I like the video way more than the song. I've never heard Nellie Mckay but I must say, hearing this now it doesn't surprise me at all Columbia and her had issues.
Ben, you keep pitching stuff in which a guy rips a tear in time and space.
Just kidding, I wrote some with the same aesthetic and got them all turned down, too. What else can you do with a $5k budget and you refuse to shoot on DV?
originally, those death cab treatments weren't ONLY about ripping a tear in time and space. my rep made me take out the murder and under-age sex.
If that's true I seriously want you to send that version to me.
Honestly Ben, it was a really good treatment.
grumble
Guys: "crazy video", "really refreshing", "shot beautifully", wtf...?
erm, yeah, i think i'm abstaining on this one.
shefel & levitz - on the subject of - don't forget the emo boys fighting/making out thread - I just added this "classic" to videoville.
I actually kind of dug this - she's kooky and it had sort of a grey gardens / Todd Solondz Palindromes vibe... though wonder what the directors' thoughts are, seeing as how it's listed at the bottom of their website....
"guys" "wtf" "abstaining" ?
it s sweet and the photography is great. i like it a lot.
I find this charming, especially as a fan of Nellie's who's wanted to see/make a video for her for a while. This was obviously a labor of love, so good for Shafei & Levitz.
In my experience its sort of hard to pitch that for shit money you'll make a slice-of-life video. It's not necessarily sexy on paper, they assume it'll look bad, and often they already have treatments that suggest worse versions of it...or so my rep says. "Your excuses are your own" I say, not that it helps.
ok, dickens: i thought the song was godawful. and that makes it really hard to appreciate her characterisation, since it's so literally entwined with the song. she comes across as high-strung, bordering breakdown, and her purposeful outing/clowning around with the local darkie (that's how it reads!) is just... trite.
shot&edited ok, though.
the local darkie? ha ha ha. that's priceless. maybe i'm just naive progosk. it wouldn't be the first time.
high strung boderline-breakdown is the new black!
I can hear a voice in my head saying "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all". That is why I feel I must start off by pointing out the things I do like here.I like her personality I kind of like how realistic some of the action comes across as and I like the ugly yellow dress she's wearing when she plays the piano and the chorus is almost catchy too.I'm afraid I don't like her voice and when she reaches the "riding the wave" line, it sends shivers up my spine,not in a good way though. Unfortunatly in this case the bad outweighs the good.
She's also attractive, with alison lohman-ey good looks.
I like this. The song is excruciating ly terrible! But the video does make me uncomfortable in that super friendly step-uncle way which I think is what they where going for, so that's good.
As for the "local darkie" comment..she was the best part..great sideburns and faint moustache action going on. Trite maybe but positively delicious.
its fine.
