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I had this 125 greatest music videos of all time project thing I was doing that pretty much ran aground before it even made the top 100. That doesn't much surprise me (attention span and all that), but I've still harbored hopes that I could pick it up again somewhere down the line, largely because yammering about film in general and music video in particular is a Thing for me. The problem is that I made a vow to myself that I wouldn't go rearranging the list, and I keep finding stuff that's worth rearranging the list for. To wit, I give you "Unconditional Rebel" by Siska:
https://vimeo.com/118738368
The director, Guillaume Panariello, claims it's the shortest video shoot ever, and he's probably right—principal photography was completed in 5 seconds flat (with a few items digitally spliced in during post-production), stretched to meet the full 3 1/2 minute running time. It's an idea that's been done before (Spike Jonze's clip for "California" by Wax is very high on that aforementioned list), but man, what a gorgeous piece of work this is. The weirdness factor is through the roof, a combination of middle-of-nowhere bleakness with pure gleeful destructive entropy and madness, slowed down into a ballet of the end of the world. Panariello's greatest stroke of genius is his willingness to use negative space; he's got some 80-odd extras giving it their all, but as we pan ever sideways he's got the courage to have stretches broken only by one or two distant figures, no less insane than everyone else, just enjoying their insanity alone. And that's even before we get to that vertigo-inducing carnival ride at the 2/3 mark, so startling that we don't even notice where the black smoke is coming from, until it's too late to change the fact that yes, we are all going to die.
Oh, and the song is frickin' amazing. Give the clip a look.
https://vimeo.com/118738368
The director, Guillaume Panariello, claims it's the shortest video shoot ever, and he's probably right—principal photography was completed in 5 seconds flat (with a few items digitally spliced in during post-production), stretched to meet the full 3 1/2 minute running time. It's an idea that's been done before (Spike Jonze's clip for "California" by Wax is very high on that aforementioned list), but man, what a gorgeous piece of work this is. The weirdness factor is through the roof, a combination of middle-of-nowhere bleakness with pure gleeful destructive entropy and madness, slowed down into a ballet of the end of the world. Panariello's greatest stroke of genius is his willingness to use negative space; he's got some 80-odd extras giving it their all, but as we pan ever sideways he's got the courage to have stretches broken only by one or two distant figures, no less insane than everyone else, just enjoying their insanity alone. And that's even before we get to that vertigo-inducing carnival ride at the 2/3 mark, so startling that we don't even notice where the black smoke is coming from, until it's too late to change the fact that yes, we are all going to die.
Oh, and the song is frickin' amazing. Give the clip a look.
