30frames

Like an infant burping up his dinner, the internet offers up new content and then it goes away – only to reappear on another site where Mommy comes in and wipes it off again.

The most recent one of the ‘watch this link before it goes away’ clips is the Kanye-Spike Jonze collaboration for ‘We Were Once a Fairytale.’ I gather this is a mini-movie and not technically a music video, but that hardly matters.

Kanye does some of the most interesting things in popular culture today – whether it is his wide-ranging blog, his ALL CAPS rantings or his awards show appearances. On that note, what do we want Kanye to do at the VMAs? In my mind we need him to act like the Lord of the Egos. Of course that is what ‘Ye is gonna do, that is his role. Did we want the 1989 version of Axl Rose to come to the VMAs and sit quietly in his seat like a good boy? No, we wanted Axl to swig from a bottle and make a messy fool of himself. In that vein, I praise Kanye’s lack of self restraint. Hooray for rock stars!

Kanye also does some of the most interesting videos. This clip with Spike certainly falls into the ‘I’m glad they made this’ category – even if it does go on a bit long. The link is below (or it was at the time of posting) so watch it and mind the spoilers.

‘Fairytale’ is a lengthy set-up with a pay-off that is both surprising and somewhat expected. I was a little bored by the end and the ‘twist’ was not really a shocker. The main problem was the eight minutes of the part leading up to that. In stand-up comedy, the phrase is ‘a long walk to the store’ – the kind of set-up than can render any punch line muted because the audience has ceased to pay close attention.

And the very end, where ‘Ye offers his inner furball a miniature knife, and I kept expecting the little guy to pull another internal tormentor out of his own miniature gut. The point of that (imagined by me) ending would have been, ‘All of us have us have our own demons,’ but the ending Spike and ‘Ye went with instead says, ‘Poor Kanye, it’s not his fault.’

On the other hand, I guess that re-twist I suggested may have been avoided to lessen the already inevitable comparisons to another ‘pulled out of the chest’ clip.

watch: Kanye - We Were Once a Fairytale - dir: Spike Jonze

watch: Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul - dir: Chris Milk

In any event, the above is probably better than your beauty/rock climbing video making everyone think of a Marine Corps recruitment commercial.

watch: Alicia Keys - Doesn't Mean Anything

Labels: Chris Milk, label, leaks, music video, Spike Jonze, video link

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