Had a good read with these. :)





Star Guitar



"The video describes a journey as seen from a train window, only the disposition of each passing element in the landscape is positioned exactly in sync with the music.

"Every sound from the track will be illustrated by an element of the landscape that appears each time that sound is heard. As the song becomes more elaborate, we will create a more and more complex landscape."

This published portion of Gondry's treatment describes well the fusion between music and landscape in his second video for the Chemical Brothers.

One notices the similarity in concept between this video and Daft Punk's "Around the World," yet the difference in execution. Instead of each element being a dancer, it is a part of the scenery. The video is based on DV footage Gondry shot while on vacation in France. They shot the train ride 10 different times during the day to get different light gradients.

Truly this is one of those videos that you must see several times in order to see all of the video. Upon later viewings this fan noticed smoke stacks in time with keyboard trills, funny railroad track behavior, and sky changes. Images for the truly nitpicky. All of these were worked on for three months in post by Michel's brother Olivier.





Let Forever Be



One of Michel Gondry's few music videos since 1999 is ?Let Forever Be? by the Chemical Brothers, his first for the duo. The subject of the video is a young woman. The video itself subjects the woman to many twists and turns. It opens on a view of a New York City street, and pans to a drummer on the sidewalk who begins the song's beat on his kit. His beat sets the cadence to which seven dancers, all who look like the young woman, will control her life for the next 3.75 minutes.

As the woman wakes up in her real world (shot on DVCAM), the shot is morphed from her world to the dancers' soundstage (shot on 35mm film). They switch on their alarm clocks and shimmy back into their seven beds. The woman turns off her alarm clock, and stretches in front of the window. This shot is morphed to the dancers, who are all stretching in front of their seven respective windows. The seven dance as the camera tracks to the other side of the seven windows, which displays the background of a mall. The woman now finds herself running up the mall's escalator.

The video continues to mess with this woman's life in this way. There's a bug in the system, however, because soon the dancer world leaves effects in the real world. In one scene the woman, visibly distraught, finds the drummer in her bedroom. At the end of the video, her alarm clock is very large, and she hides under her covers for safety.

?I like the principle of fractals, the idea of finding geometry in nature or in stories. The effect [in the Chemical Brothers video] is a combination of morphing and CGI. The idea is to make the viewer believe it's just an old-fashioned kaleidoscope effect, then realize that we've been transported to a new reality. When I use special effects, I know what I am doing and I shoot exactly what is needed. In general, I create the effects or work very closely with the people who do.? (credit)

The video gained praise by many, including MTV (Breakthrough Video), numerous industry awards and nominations, etc. The effects used in ?Let Forever Be? were also incorporated into Gondry?s three Gap Holiday commercials: ?Trees,? ?Mountains,? and ?Kids.?

Mmm, interesting.

I've read those before but don't remember where. Where'd you get them from? I think everyone noticed the Landscape triggers in Star Guitar. Something I didn't notice untill later on was that on each sylible in the vocal "feel what i feel, take what i take" a person appears while the train is going through the town.

Star Guitar is the best Chems vid.

Kermie, is there any way to make your sig smaller?It distracts me :D

You're not the only one to be distracted by my boyish good looks.

LOL. Im just saying its huge.

Thor_Saytyr Escribi�:

Star Guitar is the best Chems vid.

Kermie, is there any way to make your sig smaller?It distracts me :D

yeah seriously people's sig's here are out of hand. What ever happened to the forum standard of 400X60 ?

I dont even know how to put a pic up X-D

Because you've always been special, Thor_Saytyr.

hey let kermie have the big picture signature, cos he's never got anything chemical brothers related stuff to say

Thank you for your support, sneakerbeater. At least someone understands my needs.

I think LFB is best vid....

Its the best direction job. SG is just insane :?

Hah, the old signature dilema, yes kermie your Beck sig is pretty big. I find that if it's too big it looses a sense of coolness. You need something that attracts attention but does not overwhelm. Beck is a crazy bastard.

I think ''Life is sweet'' is still awesome. A bit of a live vibe to it. Also ''Setting sun''. Great party vid

Life Is Sweet is the worst chems vid. Its the only one where they star in it, which I think is kinda cool to see em do there thing, but it is still boring.

The video is just weird.

Thor_Saytyr Escribi�:

Life Is Sweet is the worst chems vid. Its the only one where they star in it, which I think is kinda cool to see em do there thing, but it is still boring.

No. There also in Block Rockin Beats, when they sit down at the bar and look at the fugitives. They're also in Hey Boy Hey Girl, They get out of the taxi that the girl goes into. They're disguised as a couple, Tom is carrying a purse, haha. They're also in Setting Sun, in the very begining. I don't know about Elektrobank.

They're in a photo in Elektrobank. They're on the girl's shirt in The Test (I think?). They aren't in LFB or SG.

I still haven't seen that one :-|.