Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had a string of good music videos including “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and “Runnin’ Down A Dream”. But this is the one that always sticks out in my mind - of course it could just be that its imprinted in my mind because MTV played it so often.
Directed by Jeff Stein in 1985. Stein has directed 40 music videos including The Cars “You Might Think”, Carly Simon “My New Boyfriend” and Billy Idol “Rebel Yell”. Allegedly he started to direct Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”, but Springsteen halted the video mid-shoot and a new director re-shot the video the way it was released. Besides music videos Stein directed TV shows “Barney Miller” and “Mr. Belvedere”.
uh, Christopher Walken dancing is a stroke of genius. Many forget that his roots were in musical theater ebfore getting into the movies, and heis early films featured him dancing.
Yet another Spike Jonze video. It won six MTV awards in 2001 and also won “best video of all time” in April 2002.
An homage to “A Trip to the Moon”, the 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film.
Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris in 1996. This husband and wife directing team as worked with bands such as Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, and R.E.M. They won six MTV Video Music Awards for this Smashing Pumpkins video and their first feature film, Little Miss Sunshine (2006), drew raving reviews from critics and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Abigail Breslin.
This song launched the animated band. The video helped with its anime roots. Both were very new and different. So is the Gorillaz web site.
Directed by comic book artist Jamie Hewlett and animator Pete Candeland in 2001. Hewlett was co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz and the comic strip Tank Girl and co-creator of the band directing all their videos. In 2006 Hewlett’s artwork for Gorillaz was nominated for the Design Museum’s ‘Designer of the Year’ award and Hewlett was named the Designer of the Year.
Gorgeous rich saturated colors and great cinematic lighting. Also, liked keeping the story from the child’s perspective including the Charlie Brown-esqe technique of keeping his mother’s head off frame.
Directed buy Chris Milk, 2004. Milk has directed videos for U2, Green Day, Kanye West, Courtney Love, Audioslave and Gnarls Barkley. He also has directed several television commercials including one for Nintendo.
Very playful experimental video that raised the expectations of music video making. Not all the special effect hold up against today’s digital cgi world - but don’t forget this was 1986 and while the techniques used in the video were not breakthroughs they were used to deliver something very fresh and entertaining.
Directed by Stephen R. Johnson who has directed 10 videos in all, another Peter Gabriel video 1192 “Steam” should make this list just for the laughing towel-clad girls that slide back and forth on a bench of tilting steam room.
Director Michel Gondry pioneered “bullet time” freeze frame photography for this video - which was later adapted and expanded upon in the making of the “Matrix”. He also experiments with a lot of warping image manipulation.
As mentioned in a previous post Gondry directed “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” - he also has a film coming out starring Mos Def and Jack Black that looks hilarious called “Be Kind Rewind”
Fun to watch - the creative visual approach offers good synergy with the edgy staccato of the 2003 song.
Directed by Michel Gondry is a French Academy Award winning screenwriter, film, commercial and music video director. He began his career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French pop group Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. His film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” won critical acclaim and showed his flair for inventive visual style.
