Take a look at this fun video and let us know what you think. The video features Jesse Kheeler from DFA 1979. Jesse produced the girls first full length album.

studio.adbeast.com

         

the last thing these gurls need is this sort of top-heavy, aimless two-bit baroquery.

the unobfuscated quicktime link, on the other hand, is muchly appreciated, spycamp.

         

stupid!

         

Not very good. But better than that MSTRKRFT video he did. Pete Dionne did a far better job pulling this look off for Black Rice -- and the story in their video was much more interesting.

         

the cardigans' video also did this look way better... probably a different budget, but: if you can't afford to do it well, come up w/ something else.

         

That Cardigans video is great. Plus the direction and the character portrayal is MUCH better than this one. Convincing acting.

         

Crap.

I hate "odes to". I hate HOMAGE.

If you are a fan of the genre then you are adding to it...not stealing from it. Look at Guy Maddin's work.

This video is their worst yet.

         

ya ya ya... some of you make some good comment and others just have no clue about what film making is all about. Yes, the Black Rice video is amazing and i assme they had some money or had alot of time to complete this project. Do you know what kind of time labels give directors these days to complete projects. You all fail at so many times to see through this, instead you just compair every video to another one.... its all been done before firends there is really not much more to do. take an old idea and make it that much better. i guess for this one you all dont feel its better rather then a bunch of crap as you describe. oh ya the non convincing acting, we wanted it to have this feel.

         

The Black Rice video was done for next to nothing by one of the guys in the band. He worked for a post production company in Vancouver, had access to the equipment, called in favors, and evidently posesses a lot of talent. So the story goes.

I'm pretty sure the guys at Paper Bag are very easy to deal with when arranging videos. And of course their budget is low.

         

I agree that the Black Rice video is great, i had never seen it before and really enjoied viewing it. Yes this video was low budget as I fell we really spent the money well.

You seem to know quite alot about the scene north of the boarder "Famillar" R U a Canadian and if so do we know each other ?

         

I don't think I know you, although I am in Canada. I do a lot of music industry work on the side (working on videos, managing bands, putting on shows, writing, etc.). I'm located in Toronto. If you're here, chances are we've been in the same place at the same time at least ;).

         

i would assume that we know each other as there are only 2 of us in the video wing of Spy... do you work on our videos and if your a writter we might have a great project for you at Spy ?

         

spyguy I think a lot of people are jealous/resentful of the Candian music video industry because of the Government funds that we lack in the USA. So American directors don't stand a chance to work w/ Canadian artists, and then feel that many Canadian directors just get the jobs 'cause they're Canadian.

         

The difficulty with securing a VideoFACT grant is greater than you think. And it's often the bands who don't need it who succeed at getting them most often.

Details here: VideoFACT

We also have FACTOR and BravoFact but VideoFACT is the first choice. Also, once you have secured the grant, you still need to come up with the cash to front for the production (hence the existence of companies like Spy).

Spyguy: Email me at areyoufamiliar (at) hotmail.com

         

I did not know that American directors are jealous of the work we do in Canada. We are always always always open to new American talant in Canada..... Bring it on... send us a reel

Not all Canadian music videos have grant money attached to them. We do very little work with grant money attached. The CRTC made it law that Canada has to play aprox 20-30% Canadadian content on there music video stations and this is why these grants have been established here. The labels claim have never han enough money to make enough content needed to fill the CRTC's regulations, who knows if this is true.

         

I agree - While I was doing a music video show I saw a lot of VideoFACT vids, and I was always impressed at how many cool vids were coming out of that little grant system. America could use something like that.

         

Spyguy: I'm a bit surprised you don't do that much grant work, although your director roster is mature enough that I can see why.

Kevathens/Otaku-house: These grants are far from guarantees, but they are very nice to have. It's kinda like a lottery where the guys with the big names have more tickets offered to them.

         

I've got to disagree with spyguy on his notion that it's all been done before and therefore one should just take " take an old idea and make it that much better". This is a dangerous notion to be putting forward on behalf of your company and I would hope that label people don't get wind of it.

The BIG problem with this video is just that same idea that you've espoused...and I see it over and over with certain directors. They're just rehashing old ideas...their heart isn't there. They steal openly from other people around them and just hope that it somehow fits together into something interesting. And don't give us that horseshit about how short a time directors are given these days. This video with this song and this same director given a month of extra time would have ended as CRAP too.

         

yeah, thanks for posting the video and keeping it up. i'm a big fan of magneta lane and i was really looking forward to see what direction you guys were gonna go after the beautiful ugly socialite video but i'm sorry to say that this is nowhere near the level of Grismers' work. this is like taking two steps backwards I guess.

         

I think the vid is okay. Not terrible. Kind of like when they do "old movie" stuff in Leons commercials.

         

I got an idea maybe all of us including "WALTMINK" can reveal our true identities instead of hiding behind these fake names.

         

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it." Jim Jarmusch

         

i don't think spyguy is making excuses by mentioning how short a time videos sometimes have to be made in - that's just the reality of the situation (often) and it does affect what you can and cannot do with the concept, treatment of the concept, and final piece. unless you are actually working in videos (or film in general), it's very easy to say "yeah well so and so made this video in 2 days with $500 dollars and it's way better than what you did with 1 month and $20k so obviously time and money have nothing to do with it". and sometimes that's true and sometimes it isn't, but it's very naive to apply that sort of thinking to filmmaking in general. even when you are working with videofact, it doesn't add up to a hell of a lot of money once you decide to shoot on 35mm (which you pretty much have to do any ways in order to get videofact), and pay everybody (because when you have 20k you can't exactly start asking everybody to work for free, no matter how art heavy your project might be). you're basically left scrapping everything together the same way you do when you make a video for $500-1,000 dollars, except you get to shoot on 35, which is nice of course. anyways, whatever, budgets are boring and not really all that worth talking about anyways. but spyguy is right...the pressures put on making a video are real and all of them impact the project a great deal. i'm doing a videofact right now and i've probably revised the treatment about 15 times here and there in order to make it work from what it originally was. do i like what i'm now doing equally as much as what i wish i could do - no, but it's just impossible for me to do it that way, so i'll make it work the best i can.

anyway, i guess all i'm saying is a video with a budget and a video without a budget both have their own frustrating pressures. actually, i'm probably just ranting, but i understand what spyguy is talking about.

         

To ArnoS:

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

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