Directed by Yoann Lemoine
Cinematography by Mathieu Plainfosse
Produced by Mourad Belkeddar
Styling by Ellen Af Geijerstam
Post production by OneMore Production
3d Artist : Jonathan Benabed
Music by Woodkid

Even though “Iron” is the title of a music video, it contains all the details of a grand and impressive fashion film. Director Yoann Lemoine, who is also lead singer and songwriter of Woodkid, tells us a story about the animal strength in us. In all human beings.
We see the beauty of mother nature, melting together with the big black smoke of rouge bombs. Screaming warriors (one of them is wonderful Agyness Deyn!) and powerful animals, fighting side by side on a harsh battlefield. The magnificent piece of music and the use of slow-motion support the mystical atmosphere from the beginning. MAJESTIC!

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Direction and Production by David Stringberg and Johan Bring of PUNX STHLM
Music by Goose
Styling by Max Eriksson

Not a fashion film, but a mind-blowing music video. Directors David Strindberg and Johan Bring just throw in some glitter, sequins and magnificent costumes and hit the record button. And after a few seconds of recording comes out this video for Belgian electro act Goose.
We see lots of mysterious characters running in all directions and slowly revealing a bright object hidden in the beackground…
You’d think the super-slow-motion-effect is getting kind of tiring nowdays, when something like this comes around. Simple, clever, impressive. And now let yourself be soaked in into this crazy synthesizer-glitter-maelstrom.

… and after that, be sure to visit the blog of magnificent stylist Max Eriksson who seems to deliver excellent work on a regular basis.

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Directed & Produced by Eoghan Kidney
Rotoscoping by Magdelena Turnier, Jairo Neto, Camilo Rosas, Brett Bittner, Atsushi Yamamoto, Eoin Whelehan and Chris Mooney
New York Shoot Line Producer: Theo Avgerinos
Steadicam Operator: Ian Woolsten-Smith
New York Shoot Assistants: Kris Petersen and Jennifer Kelley

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Split-screen, speed ramps, twilight imagery, mirror and kaleidoscopic efx… it has to be a fashion film!! Well, it’s not, just the latest music video by Lykke Li. It’s a pitty you can’t find any credits on make-up&hair or styling (Lykke’s actually looking good here!) or art direction (fantastic!), because that’s just how music videos are promoted, with only the director’s name: Johan Söderberg.
We get some fast paced, elegant editing here – no wonder, since he used to be an music video editor in the first place. Nicely done, Johan!
Btw, you can exchange your email-adress with an direct download of the song from Lykke’s homepage. So, get some!

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This is the first in a series of interviews with some of today’s most exciting artists and filmmakers. Whether they are upcoming talents or established professionals, whether they do fashion films, music videos or art films, in a digital or analogue way, whatever etc. What we’re looking for are just great PASSION & STYLE.

We kick off VISUAL AUTEURS with Jacqueline Castel, a multi-gifted artist from Brooklyn, NY. Her amazing music-videos for subculture heroes like Zola Jesus, Blank Dogs and U.S. Girls revitalized the underground-chic-aesthetics New York is famous for. Right now, she’s working on her full-feature debut. But let’s hear from her…

Jacqueline, you work as a designer, photographer, stylist, filmmaker… Does a modern visual auteur have to master a lot of different crafts?

I wouldn’t say that it’s essential for modern filmmakers or artists to master multiple skill sets – everyone has their own process – but I do see it as an advantage. I view all work that an artist creates, regardless of the format or craft, as an extension of themselves and their creative output, and I’ve always been drawn to artists who cross mediums and skill sets to create their own world and visions. Traversing between crafts and experimenting has always felt intuitive to me, perhaps out of a natural sense of curiosity to create and learn. It also makes the creation of projects easier in many respects, especially on low budgets, and it fits into my own sense of DIY ethos. I think it also makes you a stronger director when you know and understand how things are created; it gives you a better understanding of what is possible.

How do you decide whether to do a particular artistic assignment by yourself or to team up with a fellow artist resp specialist?

Every project is different. I think I default to working alone, but there are some projects, such as the music video for U.S. Girls (directed with Preston Spurlock), and the short Twelve Dark Noons, where I collaborated with other artists in different capacities. I think the desire to collaborate always stems from the recognition of someone who shares a similar attitude or aesthetic who can challenge you to do better work, and can bring their own voice and skill sets to a project that will strengthen it. It’s an interesting balance, and I’d say I’m generally very particular about who I work with, but I’ve had very positive collaborations in both cases.

Are there recurrent themes, visual and plot-wise, which pop up when you work in different visual fields?

Paranoia. And more recently, natural and otherworldly phenomena.

What are the main influences for your work?

I’m visually and conceptually influenced by a variety of things – traveling, Czech cinema, cult fashion brands like Biba, underground music, mythology, Roman Polanski, the apocalypse – I can’t pinpoint a main visual reference beyond the cinema itself, but my influences are by no means limited to that. My work represents me, my obsessions and preoccupations, and the way that I view the world. While that often leans to the surreal and fantastical, it is all sourced from a strain of truth, a personal experience, a nightmare, a migraine hallucination, or a real event.



What are your thoughts on the technical aspects of modern film-making, like DLSR vs film stock, digital vs analogue, etc?

I tend to gravitate towards creating ambiguous worlds that operate on their own sense of time and have an organic quality to them. I’m not so much interested in reconstructing reality as I am in creating a sense of unreality. That being said, I like when you can’t tell how something was shot, when it was shot, or what equipment was used. I like when there’s mystery in an image. I’ve shot 35mm and VHS, PXL 2000 and Super 8mm, and have run HD footage through old analogue TVs to get a certain effect. Basically, I’ll shoot with anything you give me – it’s not a question of digital vs. analogue, it’s a question of what works for your needs, aesthetically and practically, for the project at hand. Any format can be compelling if used effectively.

Where is the main audience for your work right now and what trend do you see for the future, like in the next 3-5 years?

I think the main audience for my work is online at this point. MTV has banished the music video, so the only real outlet at this point for music video work is online. Short films have more of an audience at festivals, and likewise for features, although as bandwidth increases, it will likely turn to a larger online audience as well. Unfortunately, the amount of distributors and independent cinemas that exist has radically decreased in the last 20 years, due in part to dwindling audiences, the introduction of multiplexes, and online distribution and downloading that takes the audiences out of the theaters. Economics drive everything, so my only worry is that in the lack of economic support for industries that have in the past survived through box office and record sales, the new media future will find itself becoming more of a hybrid of commercialism – more product placement and more corporate creative control which looms dangerously close to intellectual censorship.
On a positive note though, I do think that there is a lot of potential for new short form content in events, especially when you create a community-based, social environment that cannot be replicated online, so hopefully the trend starts to veer in that direction.

Are you aware of the fashion film phenomenon? If yes, what are your thoughts on it?

I’m intrigued by fashion films, they’re an interesting cross section between art house films, fashion print ads, and music videos. They’re essentially experimental mood pieces that are more willing to take risks than traditional commercials. My main observation, from the limited amount of experience that I’ve had working on them, is that they seem to have very low budgets, which seems to be something I’m good at being attracted to! But as they gain in popularity and general use, this will probably change.

Can you tell us something about your next projects?

Before the end of the year I have a couple more music videos coming out, a special music documentation project in Italy, and the completion of the short film Twelve Dark Noons. Beyond that, there are more music videos, a couple short film/music collaborations that are kicking around, and I’m working on a feature film script that I will be taking into serious pre-production in 2011.

What have you been reading/watching/listening to this week?

Reading: “Mercury” by Anna Kavan
Watching: Paul Verhoeven’s1973 film “Turkish Delight”
Listening: Phantom Payne Days “Phantom Payne Daze” Reissue LP on De Stijl Records

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Director: Nicolás Méndez
Director of Photography: Marc Gómez del Moral
Producer: Alba Barneda
Art Director: Maruxa Alvar
Costumes: Carolina Galiana
Make-Up: Gina Ros
Choreography: Les Filles Föllen
Colorist: Xavi Santolaya
Post-Production: Visitor BCN

If you haven’t seen it yet, here comes the coolest music video of the year. Witness an ultimate plethora of funny, sexy, witty, inventive, stupid, light-hearted, surreal, supercool film miniatures. It’s like a film-tumbleblog. I read somewhere, that it stirred some controversy. I guess some people just don’t like it easy and fun.

Seems like it’s also a film trailer for the director’s full feature debut. Can’t wait to see this one!

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Music: Gil Scott-Heron (remixed by Chris Cunningham)
Video: Chris Cunningham

Visual über-artist Chris Cunningham does for New York, what Gaspar Noe did for Tokyo: transforming a city into a never-ending nightmare. Get into the void with this rigorous piece of video art.
(Please do excuse the commercial before the video starts – please go to http://chriscunningham.com/ for a commercial-free stream

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London-based designer and film director Simon Owens was named by ID Magazine one of 200 most important creatives for the future. I couldn’t agree more! Simon has done some interesting work for artists like Tiga, Whomadewho and LCD Soundsystem, but it wasn’t until his beautiful film for CARIBOU that he caught my attention.

D.O.P: Sam Brown
Wardrobe: Mimi Milburn Foster
Hair and Make-up: Cate Hall
Editor: James Rose at Cut and Run
Grade: Andrew Daniel at Molinare

I like a lot about it. The casting, the directing, the location, the styling and first and foremost the guts to shoot a song called “Sun” in the half-light of a living room. It’s original and daring and has a nice and unexpected turn midway through it.

DOP: Marcus Domleo
Editor: Julian Eguiguren
Effects: Joel Gethin Lewis, Michael Trott, Simon Owens

This one for Dave.I.D is more experimental and visually challenging. I like how the 80s-videomixer-like effects blend in with real projections and 3-d-animation so that, in the end, you can’t tell what’s what. The dizziness kind of pulls you in and doesn’t let go easily…
Of course it fits the atmosphere of the song, which is all longing and lament and very beautiful, too.
The overall look is adapted (and imho perfected) from an earlier Dave.I.D Video by director Danny Sagra.

UPDATE: This last passage needs to be revised. Simon told me that “the ‘I like the sound of them without me’ video idea wasn’t adapted from the ‘Why weren’t the message sent?’ video, it was actually conceived way before WWTMS, it just took longer to come out.” Sorry, Simon!

I’d also like to believe the look&feel of this video is part of an anti- “clean, clean & crisp” video-aesthetic (which predominates since the upcoming of DLSR-film making). I probably just make this up, but it seems to me, that a lot of people who cheered (and rightly so) when the Canon 5D was introduced in 2005 (it’s that long ago!!!), are getting kind of bored by it now (or is it just me?). I mean, how many “beautiful” panoramas and pull focus arias can you do before it gets stale altogether? But I digress…

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