Long Live the Video Star
Inside L.A.’s thriving music video making scene
By Daiana Feuer
Photographs by Daiana Feuer
Some think the music video died as an
art form when MTV turned into a reality
TV channel. We are happy to report, however,
that contrary to popular belief the music video is alive
and well, thanks to the Internet and a clique of renegade
directors in L.A. who are reviving the medium. In L.A., artists, musicians,
filmmakers and writers naturally
gravitate towards each
other like it's a small town
where everybody knows your name; attending
the same concerts and art events
every night, bumping into one another
at the bar and striking up conversations.
What happens when a musician, director,
photographer and choreographer
find themselves on a rooftop wearing fur
loincloths after a Spirit Animal-themed
party at five in the morning? Ideas happen.
Music videos happen. If all goes well,
the collaboration leads to a YouTube sensation
which leads to more music videos,
and maybe even some pocket change.
It's a Wednesday night at West Hollywood's strip bar-slash-sometime music venue Crazy Girls, a hang spot for the directing duo known as Skinny -- Marc Edouard Leon and David Hache. Leon has long hair, an abundant beard and wears blue shiny leggings. Hache is dressed like Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element. As Skinny, Leon and Hache make videos that recreate the playful hedonism they experience firsthand a few nights out of the week. The duo's ability to artfully capture this sort of reckless behavior in videos for friends like Ke$ha (Leon was her love interest in her "Your Love Is my Drug" video) and Devendra Banhart landed Skinny a deal with prestigious production company Partizan, home of groundbreaking music video director Michel Gondry.
"It's all about friends in L.A," Leon says. "You work with people you have fun around and it lets you be yourself and get noticed for it." If your friends happen to be up-and-coming musicians, all the better. Fellow director Zander Coté wound up making his first music video for pal, Adan Jodorowsky (son of filmmaker Alejandro)'s popular band, Adanowsky. There's even a nice cameo in the video by Skinny's Leon, who Coté met a couple of years ago at Leon's birthday party. "We're friends with so many musicians, we can work outside of commissions," Coté says, as opposed to dealing with record labels, managers, agents and even mothers. "Moreover, three out of the five people I meet in town are some sort of creative person," he continues. "So by default a lot of the people I know are artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers. I meet someone socially who I end up working with all the time."
Eric Coleman, of pioneering video production and photography duo Mochilla, has been documenting artists like J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Talib Kweli, J. Rocc and Cut Chemist in L.A. since the days of VHS tapes, so he's been observing the community for a long time. "I don't know if it's the weather or the amount of space that's here," Coleman says, "but the architectural layout, everything, people in the arts are way more open in L.A., to share ideas, at least in the musical world. Everyone helps everyone. The social energy is way different."
There to channel that social energy is the Masses, a video production collective, which has gathered together a formidable batch of fresh L.A. talent over the last few years, like director Ben Kutsko, who made the video for "Desert Song" by his friends in the L.A. band Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. As the band spread its cultish power over the universe, Kutsko's epic music video went along for the ride. Many YouTube hits later, he joined the collective. The Masses helps connect directors with resources, projects and ways to skirt around funding limitations by collecting favors around town. The group's founder Matt Amato (who happens to be one of the most prolific video directors in L.A., having worked with Beach House, Bon Iver, Ima Robot, 60 Watt Kid and the Dodos), explains: "In L.A., music videos are respected because it's a musical city. There's an eager audience that wants to be around music."
Theo Jemison and Grace Oh, a directing duo who make music videos and document live performances, agree. On the same Wednesday night that Skinny was hanging at Crazy Girls, across town in Lincoln Heights, Jemison and Oh were at Airliner. They were there documenting Low End Theory, a popular weekly hiphop party that often sees visits from Flying Lotus, Tyler, the Creator, Erykah Badu and Thom Yorke (who's been known to take over the DJ booth). Why is Yorke hanging around L.A? "International artists want to be a part of the movement happening here in music and visual arts," Oh says.
But not everyone is feeling the love. Director and PAPER contributor Molly Schiot points out that music videos and the film industry in general continue to be primarily testosterone-driven, and it's not easy being a female director in a "boys' club." "For every 20 boys, there's one girl," she says. "That's the main thing that feels slightly isolating." But Schiot hasn't let being a girl stop her from churning out videos for an impressive mix of up-and-coming musicians and legendary bands like Elvis Perkins, Mika Miko, the Raveonettes, Sleater-Kinney, Eliza Doolitte and Mark Ronson.
Alexandra Pelly of the Masses and Dublab (a DJ and radio collective) explains that she goes by Alex Pelly so that people look at her work -- like the video she directed for the Brooklyn duo Javelin performing live with dozens of puppets at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater--first, and her gender second. "But I think things are changing," Pelly notes. "While men definitely dominate music videos right now, there are so many awesome opportunities opening up for female directors and I think things are going to start leveling out soon."
In addition to a more level playing field, another change in the industry is that directors are actually starting to make money doing what they love. Fighting to get them paid is Danielle Hinde, founder of the production and talent agency, Doomsday, who explains that right now every corporate entity is looking towards the L.A. music director scene for new talent. "They're saying, 'Fuck, we wanna get in on the music game!' If you look on YouTube, the majority of views are on music videos. One of my directors makes a music video, then suddenly he's hired for a commercial and a film management company, just for this one video that gets him exposure and starts his career." As companies like Xbox and T-Mobile continue pursuing long-form music video-oriented commercials designed for the Internet, all of these artists will start getting paid. Representing more than 100 music video makers and production teams, Hinde says she wants "to create a home where these people can grow." And she's in L.A., "because that's where things are happening right now."
It's a Wednesday night at West Hollywood's strip bar-slash-sometime music venue Crazy Girls, a hang spot for the directing duo known as Skinny -- Marc Edouard Leon and David Hache. Leon has long hair, an abundant beard and wears blue shiny leggings. Hache is dressed like Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element. As Skinny, Leon and Hache make videos that recreate the playful hedonism they experience firsthand a few nights out of the week. The duo's ability to artfully capture this sort of reckless behavior in videos for friends like Ke$ha (Leon was her love interest in her "Your Love Is my Drug" video) and Devendra Banhart landed Skinny a deal with prestigious production company Partizan, home of groundbreaking music video director Michel Gondry.
"It's all about friends in L.A," Leon says. "You work with people you have fun around and it lets you be yourself and get noticed for it." If your friends happen to be up-and-coming musicians, all the better. Fellow director Zander Coté wound up making his first music video for pal, Adan Jodorowsky (son of filmmaker Alejandro)'s popular band, Adanowsky. There's even a nice cameo in the video by Skinny's Leon, who Coté met a couple of years ago at Leon's birthday party. "We're friends with so many musicians, we can work outside of commissions," Coté says, as opposed to dealing with record labels, managers, agents and even mothers. "Moreover, three out of the five people I meet in town are some sort of creative person," he continues. "So by default a lot of the people I know are artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers. I meet someone socially who I end up working with all the time."
Eric Coleman, of pioneering video production and photography duo Mochilla, has been documenting artists like J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Talib Kweli, J. Rocc and Cut Chemist in L.A. since the days of VHS tapes, so he's been observing the community for a long time. "I don't know if it's the weather or the amount of space that's here," Coleman says, "but the architectural layout, everything, people in the arts are way more open in L.A., to share ideas, at least in the musical world. Everyone helps everyone. The social energy is way different."
There to channel that social energy is the Masses, a video production collective, which has gathered together a formidable batch of fresh L.A. talent over the last few years, like director Ben Kutsko, who made the video for "Desert Song" by his friends in the L.A. band Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. As the band spread its cultish power over the universe, Kutsko's epic music video went along for the ride. Many YouTube hits later, he joined the collective. The Masses helps connect directors with resources, projects and ways to skirt around funding limitations by collecting favors around town. The group's founder Matt Amato (who happens to be one of the most prolific video directors in L.A., having worked with Beach House, Bon Iver, Ima Robot, 60 Watt Kid and the Dodos), explains: "In L.A., music videos are respected because it's a musical city. There's an eager audience that wants to be around music."
Theo Jemison and Grace Oh, a directing duo who make music videos and document live performances, agree. On the same Wednesday night that Skinny was hanging at Crazy Girls, across town in Lincoln Heights, Jemison and Oh were at Airliner. They were there documenting Low End Theory, a popular weekly hiphop party that often sees visits from Flying Lotus, Tyler, the Creator, Erykah Badu and Thom Yorke (who's been known to take over the DJ booth). Why is Yorke hanging around L.A? "International artists want to be a part of the movement happening here in music and visual arts," Oh says.
But not everyone is feeling the love. Director and PAPER contributor Molly Schiot points out that music videos and the film industry in general continue to be primarily testosterone-driven, and it's not easy being a female director in a "boys' club." "For every 20 boys, there's one girl," she says. "That's the main thing that feels slightly isolating." But Schiot hasn't let being a girl stop her from churning out videos for an impressive mix of up-and-coming musicians and legendary bands like Elvis Perkins, Mika Miko, the Raveonettes, Sleater-Kinney, Eliza Doolitte and Mark Ronson.
Alexandra Pelly of the Masses and Dublab (a DJ and radio collective) explains that she goes by Alex Pelly so that people look at her work -- like the video she directed for the Brooklyn duo Javelin performing live with dozens of puppets at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater--first, and her gender second. "But I think things are changing," Pelly notes. "While men definitely dominate music videos right now, there are so many awesome opportunities opening up for female directors and I think things are going to start leveling out soon."
In addition to a more level playing field, another change in the industry is that directors are actually starting to make money doing what they love. Fighting to get them paid is Danielle Hinde, founder of the production and talent agency, Doomsday, who explains that right now every corporate entity is looking towards the L.A. music director scene for new talent. "They're saying, 'Fuck, we wanna get in on the music game!' If you look on YouTube, the majority of views are on music videos. One of my directors makes a music video, then suddenly he's hired for a commercial and a film management company, just for this one video that gets him exposure and starts his career." As companies like Xbox and T-Mobile continue pursuing long-form music video-oriented commercials designed for the Internet, all of these artists will start getting paid. Representing more than 100 music video makers and production teams, Hinde says she wants "to create a home where these people can grow." And she's in L.A., "because that's where things are happening right now."
Your Comment