I directed a series of music videos

Started by pete, April 04, 2011, 12:52:03 PM

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pete

#75


my latest. a remix video for The Coup's Magic Clap (the original for which I also directed), starring that guy from Magnolia.

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Reel

Oh my god. That's so funny! I'm gonna have to pause it like a million times to get all the wordplay jokes. Did you write it and the coup and Patton gave you input on it or were they just down with the idea?? AND HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET PATTON OSWALT!?!?!?!? Incredible. It looks like the funnest thing to shoot ever. Great job man, I thought it really elevated the song even though your original video was AWESOME too. I like how simple yet intricate the visual style is, putting the song in a lighter context that I honestly can't say I've seen in many artist approved hip hop videos ( a good example would be Zach Galifianakis' hilarious version of 'Can't Tell Me Nothing' by Kanye West). I hope this gets you a lot of attention to do more stuff with artists you admire, I'm sure it will because it shows real talent. I'd love to know a little more about how this came together and what kind of hijinks you got into with Patton. Ahhh what a great dude.


Congrats Pete!
















I caught the magic clap from Ricky Jay once


03

wow. that was amazing.
i can say without a doubt that this video will be viral within a week.

©brad

That was freakin awesome Pete. I want to know everything Reelist asked when you have the time. Congrats!

modage

Super awesome. Saw this yesterday. Great job, dude.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Sleepless

I just now clicked through to watch this. Awesome. Sharing on FB.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

pete

Thanks buddy. And thanks everyone else too!
Boots Riley's Magic Clap started picking up momentum, especially in Europe (also ads wanted to feature it...etc.), so the label's asking for him to push it again, to prep for maybe a run on the radio stations. Boots didn't want to do another music video, but he was thinking about getting somebody he knew to endorse the song. He had a few fans in high places - Patton Oswalt being one of them. Patton was more than down to do some thing for Boots, though at first they just thought Patton would just record something off his webcam or something. I assumed that was what they were working on. A few months later, while chatting about other projects, Boots brought up that they were still trying to come up with an idea. I asked him if I could be in on it. He said sure, and asked me on the spot what I wanted to do. I said fighting, he said no.

then in April, Boots asked me again if I could do it and what I had in mind. I wanted to do it more than anything, but to cook up an idea that would be quick, goofy, non-location specific, and still allowed Patton to do his thing and, most of all, free- was really hard. I pulled my muscle one evening producing a shoot. It was a stupid way to go too - I lifted something extremely heavy just to show the crew guys that I was one of the guys. The next day my back gave out completely and I was in a lot of stupid pain for the next three days. Then there was a date change, and I had a huge rent-paying shoot that would coincide with Patton's new availability. I panicked, and tried backing out of my first-committed project. My buddy freaked and said I would be throwing him under the bus.

That night I had two backstage passes to The Lumineers, who're old friends - and it'd be one evening this year where I would be the coolest guy in the world to whoever my date was going to be. I couldn't move and had to let the passes go to waste (similar thing would happen to an Aesop Rock show two nights later). I was just in bed, sweating, knowing that if I were to ask Patton to change his schedule, I better have a pretty good fucking reason - like a good idea or something.

Patton's surrounded by very talented and funny people, and it was the week where he wrote the Boston bomber response and improvised that mesmerizing monologue on Parks and Rec, I knew he could've gotten any of them Funny or Die guys to do something way funnier and cooler than anything I could come up with. I knew he liked my first Magic Clap video and he trusted Boots, but aside from that, I still needed to deliver.

Then it just kinda came together - I sent him and Boots an email, citing viral videos and . I came up with many of my ideas - I'm not kidding - while taking a piss. A lot of the times I would have a thought on the tip of my tongue, and then I would take a piss and it would articulate itself. Then I crossed my fingers.

A very long night went by where my buddy was thinking about not working with me again, and finally in the morning, I got an email from Patton that just said "THIS one I like!" and it was a huge relief. I then asked Patton to move his date, he quickly agreed. Now I was able to shoot both projects, though by the time I flew back up after Patton and drove three hours from the airport to begin a 14-hour shoot immediately (with one hour of sleep in a hotel room), my body was in so much pain. It became the most physically punishing shoot I'd ever been on, but that's the price you pay when you wanna meet Patton and make rent at the same time.

Lots of logistics had to be figured out. I wanted to find a place in LA, but couldn't depend on the label or some of my film acquaintances, because I didn't want people I didn't know to come in and schmooze on our very limited schedule. Eventually my favorite porn star (whom I've became friends with) is married to a guy who recommended a little comedy studio to me. Hot House Comedy - and the producer's got this loft that would satisfy all my requirements (quiet, even lighting, access to props and equipment, away from "film people"). We drove down to LA, did the LA thing that night (kinda famous people sitting around and trading stories about REALLY famous people), went to bed at 3, woke up at 6. Patton was already there, an hour before call time.

He was really cool. He sent me funny texts, I was running late, and he didn't seem to care. He had to be out by 6pm, so I blocked out 11 hours to shoot this with him. We were all exhausted just an hour in, from all of our collective lack of sleep.

One thing I noticed was that, on set, nobody was laughing outloud. We would giggle - but really it was just a matter of fact running down of the list. We had however many words we had to get through, and we just did that one at a time. Sometimes we would argue over how to best act out the words (for example, I wanted to break up "last kiss martin ever gave to coretta", but Patton insisted that we would lose the audience if he came off as disrespectful to them, which would betray the spirit of the song. He was right. We didn't have the photos, so held up two empty frames, and digitally inserted the photos later.) That became a little bit of a crutch too - knowing that if we had nothing, we could depend on CGI to help us. We all made suggestions to each interpretation, and Patton would decide ultimately what he would do. I was actually just nervously trying to keep everything in order at the time, and my AD/art director - this goofy girl from Portland who recently got into art direction full time - was somehow just very funny and charming and developed a rapport, which made everyone at ease. I don't know, for me it was a blur. We were funny and happy, but all very, very tired.

The whole thing only took 3 hours though, in the end. 8 hours before the estimated schedule.

I know that's not the most exciting story, but that's kinda what happened. I find it really hard for me to be funny in front of professional funnies. I became much more self-conscious. We kept in touch during the post process though, and Patton just can't be a nicer guy. He's supported the project the entire way through, and was excited by everything I've shown him. I hope I get to work with him again.

got two more music videos getting released. not sure how I'd ever top this one again. ha.


Quote from: Reelist on June 05, 2013, 12:05:56 AM
Oh my god. That's so funny! I'm gonna have to pause it like a million times to get all the wordplay jokes. Did you write it and the coup and Patton gave you input on it or were they just down with the idea?? AND HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET PATTON OSWALT!?!?!?!? Incredible. It looks like the funnest thing to shoot ever. Great job man, I thought it really elevated the song even though your original video was AWESOME too. I like how simple yet intricate the visual style is, putting the song in a lighter context that I honestly can't say I've seen in many artist approved hip hop videos ( a good example would be Zach Galifianakis' hilarious version of 'Can't Tell Me Nothing' by Kanye West). I hope this gets you a lot of attention to do more stuff with artists you admire, I'm sure it will because it shows real talent. I'd love to know a little more about how this came together and what kind of hijinks you got into with Patton. Ahhh what a great dude.


Congrats Pete!
















I caught the magic clap from Ricky Jay once
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Pubrick

wow that story had everything, porn stars, scheduling details, setbacks, missed connections.

thanks for sharing.
under the paving stones.

03

that story was amazing, that literally answered everything.

pete

new one!



I became obsessed with Sherlock Holmes 2's forest chase scene, and kinda made a music video just so I could do some dolly moves thru the forest.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

03

that was really great dude.
the kids were awesome. the shots were real pretty. you chose some nice forest.
ive actually gotten out of the woods by finding powerlines before, that was cool.

ps edit:

i dont know how much you can talk about something like this pete, but has aesop ever mentioned doing a video for 'gopher guts'? its in my top 5 favorite songs ever, let alone his, or hiphop in general. i think you would be perfect for it and would do crazy things with its vibe.

jenkins

Quote from: pete on June 07, 2013, 06:03:57 PM
I was actually just nervously trying to keep everything in order at the time, and my AD/art director - this goofy girl from Portland who recently got into art direction full time - was somehow just very funny and charming and developed a rapport, which made everyone at ease.
people come from portland, but this sounds like grace. did you use grace? i should text her and ask, maybe

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5363460/
she's done other things. her imdb lists are funky. she don't make the imdb lists

pete

hey - unfortunately I don't know this talented Grace person. the art director I use is named Margaux Rust.

03 - there are currently no plans to make Gopher Guts a music video; the label's only budgeted for three videos from that album. and that's awesome that you did a thing that I only theorized about. 
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

Jesus this video needs some love. Help me spread it around if you can - let's get at least 1000 plays on youtube. ouch.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

RegularKarate

I've been mostly absent for a while so I missed some shit, but these are some amazing videos, Pete!
You're really kicking ass.
I gave the Anastasia video some Facebook love.