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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Against Me! music video WHITE PEOPLE FOR PEACE

02:04 / 12.06.07

like gasmasks, insane wrestling moves and blood thirsty cheerleaders? like bright colors and toothless psychos? then please check out the music video i directed for the band Against Me! 's new track "White People For Peace"

it's on the band's myspace here

I'm very interested to hear people's comments, good or bad.

mods, forgive me if this should obviously go in music but for this discussion i'm interested in the Film side of the video, ya see?

03:39 / 12.06.07

I never figured you were in the film-video area, Gypt.

Really fucking nice!

(I'm sorry and ashamed for my review, I'll try to be constructive or at least express something less urgh later. Late and Sleepy and all that...)

02:26 / 13.06.07

thanks -- glad you dig it. i'm definitely in the film-video area, in fact i live in that area -- ever since i moved to LA in october. there's been a lot of comments on the myspace page raging about whether or not the band has "Sold out" but im hoping some people will get over that nonsense just focus on the video...

17:37 / 13.06.07

How much of the concept was yours?

I love the idea of the teams of counter-protestors in jumpsuits. I think I'd like to see that element taken even farther, with instant replays, player profiles, color commentators and all the stuff you'd see at a football game.

18:33 / 13.06.07

Congrats, Gypt. Weirdly my studiomate just got assigned to do an illustration of the band for Spin...

18:41 / 13.06.07

grant, the entire concept was mine, with tom from the band adding the element that the guy with the guitar should be incredibly unsavory. in some sense i think he represents the band's self image vis-a-vis what a protest song can accomplish. i agree there was a lot more to explore in the concept visually, but we basically had a budget that would not add up to the craft service department of a beyonce video so we just focussed on getting the ideas out in as pure and graphical way as we could through composition and force of will.

camera, thanks -- that's awesome that he's doing that artwork. its good to see they are getting coverage, i think the album has a shot at success. looks like i'll be doing their next video as well, stay tuned --

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

18:59 / 13.06.07

in some sense i think he represents the band's self image vis-a-vis what a protest song can accomplish.

I'm glad you brought that up, Gypt -- I loved the video but caught myself wondering "what's the Chris Cunningham-type dude doing in there?" a couple of times. Knowing what he represents, the video makes a lot more sense in my head.

20:26 / 13.06.07

we basically had a budget that would not add up to the craft service department of a beyonce video

That's kind of what I figured (then again, my family could probably eat well for a month on the craft service budget for a beyonce video).

The unsavory man reminded me of the fork-eye Scorpions dude - was that intentional?

How did you come up with the rest of the visual ideas?

Weird thing: I've been kind of into the Gainesville music scene for a while, but I've never heard of the band. I'm pretty square, though.

Is the video getting much play on the television, or are these things more net-based nowadays?

21:09 / 13.06.07

That was really cool, Gypt. Funny that the recently released video for My Chem's Teenagers, which is also laden with gassen masken, is piss-poor by comparison (and on it's own).

*

21:20 / 13.06.07

Yeah, well done. Very compelling.

I found the difference in look between the scenes with the protester and those on the field to be pretty jarring. No doubt that was intentional. It made it hard for me to intuit how the two things related. Nice use of the open-mouth gag, by the way.

23:09 / 08.07.07

ok for those of you who are interested -- they did a remix to the song, and we did a graphics-crazed video remix to go with it.

check it on YOUTUBE

grant, you'll be happy, there's an instant replay. as for your other questions from previous... the visual concepts flowed from the sound and lyrics. i wanted it to be about war as spectator sport, and to represent the frustration suggested by the lyrics, and at the same time the production and poppiness made me think of bright colors. so something very pure and stylized made sense. the core visual i was running with in the initial shoot was that the people would look a lot like vinyl toys, and the simple colors of the green football field and the blue sky would be our entire palette. this felt right for something that presented extreme conflict through this particular sound. know what i mean?

Bizarro Bad Touch -- i know, since shooting i've seen that mychem video also -- i guess gasmasks and cheerleaders are all the rage.

thanks everyone for the nice reviews!

13:35 / 09.07.07

My god, that *does* make me happy.

The graininess at the end is particularly nice. And the jets!

And halftime!!

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

19:38 / 09.07.07

I really dig the propaganda style artwork in the remix video, very nice.