The NY Times today posted a making of video for the new Bjork ‘Wanderlust’ music video. Apparently, the whole thing took nine months to make with these guys sleeping on the set and not being paid for much of it. They start the interview off with a confession to using illicit drugs as part of their creative exploration. After watching the video, I’m not sure if they were so much explaining their process as apologizing.
One would think that in that amount of time you’d be bowled-over by this video, but instead all I kept thinking was, really, nine months? They reuse shots so often, it made me wonder how much of their footage hit the cutting room floor. To be fair, I’m not judging the final piece which is supposed to be viewed in 3D with stereoscopic glasses (oh yeah, I’ll just go to Rite-aid and pick up a pair of those…); but I would hope that they would be concious of the fact that most people are not going to see this video in 3D and that with Bjork giving them “as much time as they needed” they could create two equal pieces, one 2D and one 3D.
They use puppets, clay characters, hand drawn elements, choreographed live action green screen footage and (what the hell is that at the end?) CG. That’s all fine and good, but I don’t want to be able to tell which ones you’re using and when. Just because you have fine ingredients and you’ve mixed them in a pot doesn’t mean you’re done creating your gourmet meal. And I’d argue the ingredients here are less than fine. And I’m not opposed to a Low-Fi stylized look either, but unfortunately the video comes off as more highschool-project/ amateur hour and a bad comedy club. Perhaps like a comedy club injects you with large alcoholic drinks before the show, they should provide us all with a little psilocybin to dull and heighten the correct senses.
Have I judged enough? Now it’s your turn…let’s hear what you think.
