If I were to give some form of advice to budding filmmakers it would be to: keep your day job. By “day job” I don't mean holding down some other occupation, I mean switching gears and directing other stuff that allows to to flex your creative muscles. The video clip is the perfect venue for just that.
As many of you are fascinated by the moving image, I thought it would be cool to point to the music videos that have made a mark on the 07' calendar. The folks over at Pitchforkmedia.com made a fairly comprehensible list (there are some unofficial fan videos and concert selections) which includes some already established veteran filmmakers and some burgeoning new talents. Below I've included some of those names.
We'll be featuring director Jeff Nichols in the new year – especially since Shotgun Stories will be finding its way into theaters after a long festival tour. Here he directs the vid for Spoon's “Don't You Evah”: (Watch it here)
Bryan Barber saw his film Idlewild get the boot by Universal, but those who came away from watching the film were quite impressed by his visual talent. Here he continues his Outkast association with UGK [featuring. Outkast]'s “Int'l Players Anthem”: Click here to view the video.
Best reflected in Kirikou et les Bêtes Sauvages (2005) and Azur and Asmar (2007), Michel Ocelot's particular animated style that is reflected in Björk's “Earth Intruders”:
Thumbsucker isn't working on any new feature film projects – so in the mean time the multi-talented Mike Mills had fun with another director/multi-tasking Miranda July for a Blonde Redhead video called “Top Ranking”:
Just like how Deepa Mehta features her beloved homeland in such films as Water, it was perhaps second nature to film a videoclip there. Here she finds a common ground with artist M.I.A and her song called, “Bird Flu”:
Vid-director Jamie Thraves will be filming Cry of the Owl (a high profile adaptation of the 1962 novel by Patricia Highsmith) in the near future. In the mean time you can watch his skills at work with Róisín Murphy's “Overpowered”:
Director Johan Renck is bringing Downloading Nancy to Sundance this year – and the editor of this film is actually a music video helmer Johan Söderberg – he directed Swedish group Familjen's “Det Snurrar I Min Skalle”: