When the nominees for the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards were released earlier this week, we were impressed. And mostly because they finally brought back our favorite category, the Breakthrough Video Award which in years past lauded great video filmmakers who went on to become excellent feature-film directors. So with Breakthrough video back, we were pleasantly surprised with the directorial talent who were recognized. It is such a strong group of filmmakers nominated that we almost think someone knew what they were doing with the VMA nods this year. So we thought we’d take a closer look and let you know who lensed what.
Bat for Lashes – “Daniel”
directed by Johan Renck
Renck is a veteran of the music video, helming projects ranging from New Order’s comeback video “Crystal” (which inspired The Killers to take their name), Suede’s “She’s In Fashion,” Kylie Minogue’s “Love At First Sight,” Madonna’s “Hung Up” and many more. He’s also the recently first time feature film director of “Downloading Nancy,” the intriguing movie starring Maria Bello and Jason Patric. To top it off he is a once-upon-a-time Swedish pop star in his own right. Natasha Kahn, of Bat for Lashes, has developed quickly into one of the strongest new presences in the music video format and wisely chose to partner with Renck, who shares her dark, substantive video vision.
Cold War Kids – “I’ve Seen Enough”
directed by Vern Moen
The VMA website lists this video as being directed by Vern Moen, which is apparently an alias for director Sam Jones. You’ll recognize his work directing the great Wilco rock doc “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” and his website indicates he’s currently on board to direct the adaption of David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” (my word, best of luck on that). Jones is also known for his celebrity photography, shooting magazine covers for everyone from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair to Time. He’s also the brains behind the photo campaigns for “The Hangover,” “Star Trek,” and “Smart People.” This artist/director pairing is another great one, as Jones’ is wise. Cold War Kids have an on-going film noir aesthetic to their entire visual presentation and Jones delivers them an upgraded version of the live performance video.
Gnarls Barkley – “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”
directed by Chris Milk
Milk is another superstar video veteran who has helmed noteworthy videos from Modest Mouse’s “Ocean Breathes Salty” to multiple projects for Kanye West to that amazing Chemical Brothers f/ Flaming Lips “The Golden Path” video. Outside of the music video world Milk’s work is most often seen in commercials, specifically Nike’s “chancellor of basketball” campaign, Nintendo and L.L. Bean. Milk recently completed his first short film, “Last Day Dream,” for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival in Beijing. This is his second collaboration with Gnarls Barkley – he was also the director of their video for “Gone Daddy Gone.”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Heads Will Roll”
directed by Richard Ayoade
This is not Ayoade’s first foray into music videos. He has been the man behind multiple videos for the Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend and the Super Furry Animals. He’s equally famous in the UK for his work in front of the camera as behind, as a featured player in “The Mighty Boosh,” “The IT Crowd” and Garth Marenghi’s “Darkplace.” He’s sort of the uncoolest cool British comedian going, as you can tell from the tenor of this Yeah Yeah Yeahs video, which is a huge stylistic departure from his previous work. For this one Ayoade really puts his comedic leanings on display and it pays off in the form of a VMA nomination.
Anjulie – “Boom”
directed by Adria Petty
You know Petty first and foremost as the daughter of Tom Petty (himself a winner of several Moonmen). She also lensed the documentary “Paris, Not France,” an inside look at the life of Paris Hilton, which recently debuted on MTV. She also shot Regina Spektor’s video for “Us.” As you can see, basically her entire career thus far has been intertwined with Warner Bros. Records. Her father has long been on the label, the head of WBR introduced her to the idea of shooting a Paris Hilton documentary and gave her access as Hilton is on that label and one assumes the same is true for Spektor. So this Anjulie video, on the Starbucks’ Hear Music label, is her first foray out on her own. The most interesting thing about Petty’s aesthetic so far is that it is wildly different for each project. We predict she will grow into one of those directors who can attack a project in any genre and nail it, because of her detached eye. You won’t niche her in.
Matt and Kim – “Lessons Learned”
directed by Taylor Cohen & Otto Arsenault
These two directors form the collective/production company FVMMO (a Latin expression meaning “fortune has changed my life in the city” which Hannibal posted on the side of his family crest). This is their first music video, but what a first go around. They say there’s nothing new under the sun and “Lessons Learned” proves that is true by emulating the concept of a Blink-182 video from 10 years ago, but apparently some things are still shocking as this quickly became one of the most buzzed about videos released in 2009.
Death Cab for Cutie – “Grapevine Fires”
directed by Walter Robot
Not to start off making the other nominees feel insecure, but this video has already won Best Music Video at the L.A. Film Festival. It was created by multimedia artists Bill Barninski and Christopher Louie, who were the creative minds behind Modest Mouse’s “Missed the Boat,” Vitalic’s “U and I” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Mystery Man.” The video was commissioned by Death Cab bassist Nick Harmer, who’s been handling their visual direction for some years now, and features an animated cameo from the band.
Passion Pit – “The Reeling”
directed by Humble
This is the first music video for the Humble collective of three (who emailed me that they now refer to themselves as Hydra…jokingly we hope). They’ve created a definitively New York video, shot on the streets of Brooklyn and the clubs of the Lower East Side (The Delancey specifically), for a definitively Bostonian band. We are told the torn paper effect on the video is, “Inspired by the worn away layers of street art, advertising, and fliers plastered around downtown New York, they set out to create a world of distressed, animated paper. Think: Cases of spray glue, 2 video projectors, a couple of workhorse color copiers, untold reams of paper, 2 mannequins, 4 Mexican wrestling masks, a stage full of cardboard Moogs, and one 1971 Charger, covered in 3000 sheets of torn fliers.” It all adds up to a very clever debut music video.
Major Lazer – “Hold the Line”
directed by Ferry Gouw
Gouw has shot videos for the “who’s cool” of the UK indie rock scene, including Lightspeed Champion, Bloc Party, Emmy the Great and Simian Mobile Disco. This particular breakthrough video is Gouw’s only fully animated music video, although it carries the same sort of tongue in cheek humor that we’ve seen in all his work. He specializes in a deceptively simple style that alludes to the lo-fi comedy of B-movies with touches of childhood references for Gen X.
Chairlift – “Evident Utensil”
directed by Ray Tintori
Is Ray Tintori angling to be the official music director of Brooklyn? In addition to this Charlift video he’s also the man behind all of MGMT’s video visuals. Is he the next Spike Jonze? Jonze has endorsed him on his “Where the Wild Things Are”-centric blog and tapped him to direct the adaption of “Light Boxes” that Jonze acquired. Is he the Wizard of Oz? His short film “Death to the Tinman” would indicate he’s at least considering it.
That’s a lot of new talent popping up in one category. We’re also fairly impressed with the 2009 VMA Best Director category too, with nods for “500 Days of Summer” director Marc Webb’s work with Green Day and Jonas Akerlund’s video for Lady Gaga. Music videos themselves may be getting less airplay and more web-play, but the talent working on them seems to be growing exponentially.