Music and montage
Up In The Air by 30 Seconds To Mars video appreciation
Time passed when I wrote this appreciation. In that moment, I admired 30STM and what Jared Leto and company did. Still do, what they did in that moment. Now we know everything is really different. What happened? I have no idea, really. I think the band lost a little of the charm they had. Maybe was because now they seem a little… prefabricated. They were pre fabricated since the beginning, but now you see it. And is a shame.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t distinguish and understand what 30 Seconds To Mars did in the audiovisual and videoclip movement. Not only is this video, The Kill (Bury Me), that obsessive tribute to Stanley Kubrick and The Shining was marvelous. I believe Jared Leto is really talented, no doubt about it, but as everybody in life, things change and his life is in other direction. No bad, but I miss the good videoclips. But well, I still have this short reflection I wrote few years ago…
I have a couple of weeks thinking I really miss music directors. The weeks converted in years, because now we don’t have these bigs names, to those born in the early 90’s. Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn, Michel Gondry. You watch these videos today, it seems that no time had passed, look so much better than what is happening now.
Of course there the kpop videoclips (article in Spanish) -and yes, yes I know, is my favorite subject right now, but for that I need other article-. But think… Think in videos like David Bowie’s ones, marvelous. But that doesn’t exist anymore. There are some names who survived, as Jonas Akerlund and Sophie Muller, and a few new and Warren Fu, but sometimes I think that the magic of video is lost.
This is Up In The Air by Thirty Seconds To Mars
But things happen like Up In The Air by Thirty Seconds To Mars. It seems important to clarify that I am not a fan of the band or belong to Echelon, the name of the fandom -these times where a fandom with a name was weird in the west part of the music-.
I have to confess I failed to connect with their music, but it is indisputable that the band has a clear visual identity and do not skimp on it. From The Kill, the video what I named before, until Hurricane, is very rare to find a video to disappoint to you in that era, because is a shame to admit what happened after is not so impressive. But still, the alter ego of Jared Leto is a great director.
Is always nice to watch a good well made video
The video is not showing anything new in terms of technique and narrative concerned, what makes it shocking is that it is quite well done. The impeccable technique and narrative. I know this seems like something easy but isn’t. Find things well made, specially in music videos is a rare gem. Sometimes is the only what you need, no fireworks, only a good story, a good song, a good well made video.
I’ll start with what is for me most 100 x 100 in the video: the casting. In the moment when the video was on air I was reading ’Hitchcock / Truffaut’ and I remembered how you can notes that perfectionism British director and as many of his films were a success or a failure by the choice of actors. Cubbins (or Leto, anyway …) is meticulous, from Dita Von Teese to the lion, the wolf and zebras. All are perfect, and they are because they are themselves. The video has a realism that touches people.
No editing, montage
When I taught video clip in university I spoke to my students I said the center of the video is montage. No editing, montage. Here another feature Cubbins perfectionism. The rhythm management is almost Russian movement, remember that Einseintein, montage’s father, was a musician and mathematician.
Clearly there is a musician behind deciding not only cuts or ralenti, deciding how to create rhythm with a flat value, with a static camera -well, there you can see few movements, and above all, with the internal movement: dances that seem spontaneous are absolutely designed for montage. Also, even when I’m not adept at zooming, is one of the best I’ve seen in my life.
The video reminded me, for its production, broadly as Scream by Mark Romanek. For its synchronicity and editing to Around the World by Michel Gondry. But mostly for its symbolism, which has too much and left the task to Echelon and fans, Enjoy The Silence by Anton Corbijn… who know me know I’m not doing a compliment, I am doing ‘THE’ compliment.
No, I not became a fan of Thirty Seconds To Mars, although I must admit that I like the song and want to hear FAITH LOVE LUST + DREAMS. What I admire is to see that when these things happen, the video is not dead.
Maybe is my personal quest in audiovisual aspects, I am always searching music videos what warm my heart.
