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Ok so i saw this thread a week or so back - but have been too busy to reply- and then when i tried my computer crashed loosing my lengthy reply in the process.
FYI i work as an editor and sometimes director primarily on music videos and commercials. The two industries are intrinsically linked- most commercials production houses also make music videos- so it stands to reason that from time to time a commercial will come along and knock yer socks off with its music- not always but sometimes.
I dunno where advertising sits in all this though, cos I tend to always view that as evil. I used to like that Gorillaz song until it became attached to Apple.
So by the same logic that you are working on Alex if the directors- who are 99% of the time the creative force behind a music video - have previously made an ad, as most of them have, do their video then become worthless? Chris Cunninghams stuff for aphex twin is shit because he previously made an Orange ad? Michel Gondrys work with Bjork is rubbish cos he worked with Smirnoff?
Don't forget videos are essentially just adverts for bands- a way of selling a product.
Now its certainly a double edged sword having your favourite music used in a bad way- or even having it rammed down your throat/ over exposed/ associated with bad images - a great example of a song i now skip is 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' by Belle & Sebastian- utterly destroyed by being used as the theme music to Teachers. But lets not confuse this with "teh evil Corporate machines!111!' Because on the other hand you have to think of Levis using 'Heard it through the grapevine', 'Should I stay or Should I Go' or 'Heart Attack & Vine'- these songs were introduced to me this way, fuck they even made Babylon zoo seem cool for five minutes in the mid 90's (clever trick only using the good bit of the song...)
Ethics wise there are many threads that have already been spoken about here that we can touch upon- don't forget that even moderately successful bands don't actually earn very much money- to (probably mis) quote Brakes
"You Know the girl from Sleater Kinney,
You said you couldn't understand,
Why it was she continued to play,
when she was only earing ten grand pa"
Sadly there is truth in this - so most bands would love £60,000- £100,000 fee plus a boost in record sales associated with going on an ad- jeez look at what Preston from the ordinary boys has done to their career by appearing on big brother- no different from an ad- its all about publicity- fuck there ain't no such thing as a sellout- but its pretty much been gone over in the Sell Out thread.
Advertising IS a creative pursuit (I know there are commercials that I enjoy watching), however I'm not going to go out and buy a dvd of them so I can watch them over and over. They are there primarily to sell something, my enjoyment is only so they can succeed in that.
Just so you know there have been DVD's with ads on, The directors series Spike Jonze, Michel Gondrys, and Jonathan Glazers feature a number of great ads and they sell pretty well. You may have even looked at them yourself- if you have ever wanted to be a video director i can only recommend watching them all (particularly Michel Gondry's) for a master class in how to make em.
I'm often amused that the sole credit for a video is often given over to a band rather than the director- who is normally the person that devised the video and made the video, but outside of a tight knit industry they are largely anonymous- with the exception of a handful of crossover guys that are now making movies (Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Jonathan Glazer etc) anybody heard of Nick Gorden, Shynola or Dougal Wilson to name a few of the current crop of hot shots? |
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