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MVPA Awards 2007

Wayne Isham received the lifetime achievement award at the MVPA Awards Wednesday night. There have been twelve other winners, and all of them deserving (Fincher, Julien Temple, Jeff Ayeroff, etc). But look at Wayne’s credit list and marvel that it took as long as it did. My guess is that this is the first night in 12 years worth of award shows that MV’s Falstaffian clip machine has not been working and thus able to attend.

Seriously, look at the list of Wayne’s credits – the only thing longer was the pre-taped intro given by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. Side note – Lars finally finishing his lengthy spiel may have drawn the biggest cheer of the night. Wayne developed so many trademark music video moments it was shocking to see them all chopped together into the tribute reel. Then Wayne gets up and makes a classically rousing Wayne-style speech – pumping up the crowd on how great and important music videos are, an antidote to the eyes downcast “big changes for the industry” talk from many others on the podium.

The other big winner was Chris Milk. No real surprise there. Milk won several awards (try videostatic for the full list) including director of the year. He spoke about the Kanye “Touch the Sky” clip and reminded the real Evel Knievel (who is suing the production for something) that the clip was an homage. I am not sure how many videos Milk made last year, but there were few (okay zero) weak links.

Another interesting bit was Jonas Akerlund accepting the award for “Smack My Bitch Up” going into the MVPA Hall of Fame. Akerlund said that during the edit Prodigy sent him a fax saying they hated the direction of the clip and they would never use any of the footage under any circumstances. Akerlund finished the edit on his own and an ultra-influential clip was born. Classic story of the long path creativity must always walk. And usually alone.

Labels: Chris Milk, insider, Isham, music video, Prodigy, videostatic