From Junior Senior's
"Move Your Feet"
to Pulp's
"A Little Soul"
, great music videos are bursts of sound and vision that leave an indelible impression.
Director's Cut
is a Pitchfork News feature in which we chat with music video directors about their creations. The men and women behind the camera are often overlooked in today's YouTube era, but this feature aims to highlight their hard work while showcasing the best videos currently linking around the internet. A little behind-the-scenes dirt couldn't hurt, too.
There's a good chance
Garth Jennings
has directed one of your favorite music videos. From the Eels' carrot-headed 1998 clip for "Last Stop: This Town" to his milk-carton masterpiece for Blur's "Coffee & TV" to Beck's sky-is-falling "Lost Cause" video, Jennings and his producer Nick Goldsmith (known together as
Hammer & Tongs
) have a unique style that's charming, quirky, and-- above all else-- fun. These guys get a lot of joy out of making videos, and it shows. (Most of their clips, shorts, and commercials are available to watch at
the official Hammer & Tongs site
.)
While the UK director has been tied up with film projects including
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
and
Son of Rambow
for the last six years or so, he still makes videos from time to time, including
Vampire Weekend
's
"A-Punk"
and the brand new clip from the NYC group, for their barreling single "Cousins" (embedded below). Shot in a Manhattan alleyway, the jumpy clip finds the band rolling up and down a dolly track and getting a bit silly for Jennings' camera.
In a recent chat, the director turned out to be every bit as energetic and effusive as you'd hope. We talked about "Cousins", vying for a mass audience in the internet age, and why he really wants to make a video for OutKast:
Vampire Weekend: "Cousins" [dir. Garth Jennings]:
Pitchfork:
How did you first hear about Vampire Weekend?
Garth Jennings:
My producer Nick [Goldsmith] is good friends with Richard Russell, who runs their label, XL Recordings. I remember him playing me Vampire Weekend early on and I loved it. From that point on I've been trying to do as much as I can with them. There's no point in doing a video with a band you don't like. It's too difficult. In the early days when we were just starting, we'd work with anybody because we just loved making stuff. But we soon realized the good stuff came when you really love the artist. The Vampire Weekend videos have been freebies, too, so you can only do something like that if you really want to.
Pitchfork:
So your Vampire Weekend videos were like favors?
GJ:
Yeah, we didn't pay ourselves. There was money to make them but not very much. They were both on video with just ourselves shooting with no lights. You can't try to make something look too grand when you can't really live up to it. The art department on "Cousins" is some colored sticky tape and a bed sheet painted with some circles-- that was the budget. We really loved the song instantly and had an affordable concept that, in terms of post-production, would be done by the time we finished the last shot. Then we could watch it on set and the band could decide whether they liked it or not.
Pitchfork:
There wasn't a lot of editing involved with this video?
GJ:
No, because I had already cut the song up into its specific chunks and we shot each specific chunk separately. So, as every shot was gathered, we slammed it into the laptop, and the editor put them next to each other right there in the alleyway. By the time we got the last shot, the video was done. Still, those poor guys on the dolly had to run up and down with me on top of it about 60 times.
Pitchfork:
One of the things that marks a lot of your videos, movies, and commercials is this innate sense of fun. It just seems like you guys are having an amazing time with what you're doing. It's contagious.
GJ:
That's brilliant. The "Cousins" video was certainly fun because it was a trip to New York, which was lovely, and the more hands-on it is, the more fun it is. For example, in the first eight shots you can still see the art department laying down the sticky tape in the background. And Nick was helping out with umbrellas between shots because everyone was getting soaked, so you can see him running away at the end of every take. With that hands-on approach, something comes through, I suppose.
Pitchfork:
Was it raining a lot? It's hard to see in the video.
GJ:
Yeah, it was absolutely pissing down by the end. That was one of those moments where you say to the band, "It's going to get really wet, are you OK with staying?" And normally, the band says "no" or "speak to our manager." But they just didn't think anything of it. They were absolutely drenched by the end of it.
Pitchfork:
Considering the alley and some of the shots, it seems like you guys were going for a
"Subterranean Homesick Blues"
vibe with this video...
GJ:
That parallel is pure coincidence. It actually wasn't going to be an alley, it was going to be on a big road under a bridge in Manhattan. I think 100 videos have been shot in that alley; it's probably one of the most shot-in alleys of all time. I didn't know that when we got it, but we've since found out that people like AC/DC have all done their thing down there. It's called Cortlandt Alley, near Chinatown.
Pitchfork:
Are you working on a film now?
GJ:
There are two scripts that we've been working on. One's finished, it's an animated film. The other film is a live action epic. They're very different, but it's too early to say what's going to happen. They're gigantic labors of love and I hope someone will let us play with them soon.
Pitchfork:
The two movies you've made are very different.
Hitchhiker's Guide
was a big production and
Son of Rambow
was pretty indie. Do you prefer one aesthetic over the other?
GJ:
Not really. Nick and I have always liked films and music and videos that are for big audiences but aren't necessarily the usual boring fodder that gets fed to people-- we never want to make things that limit our audience. We don't want to make a video for Vampire Weekend that's only going to appeal to the fans. You want someone's mum to say, "That looks good." There's something big and wonderful that we all want to go see on a Saturday night. That sounds like a manifesto doesn't it? Jesus Christ, now you've got me going.
Pitchfork:
It seems harder to achieve that general consciousness level with music videos now, since most people are choosing what they want to see online instead of just watching whatever MTV programs.
GJ:
That's a good point. You're not really subtly surprised by anything anymore, are you? I suppose if you try and make something with broad appeal that's interesting and fun then at least you've got a shot. For "A-Punk", YouTube featured it which meant that it's now up to almost nine million hits. If that happens it's wonderful, but otherwise you just have to hope people keep stumbling across it and enjoying it.
Pitchfork:
So even though you're making films and this is your first music video in a while, you're game to do more?
GJ:
Absolutely, all the time. We're always listening. I can't stop playing that Wild Beasts song "We Still Got the Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues". And there are bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and OutKast who are obviously extraordinary. Can you imagine? They'd just be brilliant fun to work with!
Pitchfork:
You should definitely do a video for OutKast.
GJ:
Yeah, I've always had a secret idea in the back of my head for OutKast, but I should probably keep it to myself. I've had an idea for the Foo Fighters, too. I keep pitching it to them but they never go with it. [
Laughs
]
Pitchfork:
What's the Foo Fighters idea?
GJ:
It's basically what happens to people after they stage dive. It turns out that they are killed and minced and turned into hot dogs that are sold in the foyer. But it's done in a fun way, like
Sweeney Todd
. [
Laughs
] I thought it would be great fun, but no one will let me make it.
As a bonus, check out this amazing "Cousins" test video Jennings made to give the band an idea of what he had in mind:
Posted by Ryan Dombal
on December 7, 2009
at 12:30 p.m.
Tags:
Director's Cut
,
Garth Jennings
,
Interview
,
Vampire Weekend