Saturday night at the 4th Annual Protoclip, independent music video festival, the Jury announced the Palmares or awards for best music videos. The event took place in Sèvres, a southwestern suburb of Paris, France. This year’s festival had a special focus on Japan, with a program of Japanese music videos, a sushi-making workshop and a special screening of Tokyo!, three stories of life in the city told by directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho.

This is the second time I have visited the festival to present a special Flux program of my favorite music videos of the past year. A few of my picks: Encyclopedia Pictura’s Bjork video Wanderlust, Chris Milk’s Gnarls Barkley video Who’s Gonna Save My Soul and Syd Garon and Sage Vaughn’s Way Down for NASA were particularly popular with the audience.

The festival was founded in 2003 through the passion of audio-visual students Ophélie Beaurepaire, Grégoire Saget and Laurianne Martini. The mission of the festival is clear, to celebrate independent music video creation particularly conceptual clips with a distinct spotlight on French music videos that have never been broadcast. Which makes it very different than Festival du Clip, a posh music video festival held in Provence with more industry ties.

While Mirrorball, RESFEST and onedotzero have had a spotlight on conceptual music videos since the late-90’s and the video festival in Oulu, Finland founded in 1994 is arguably the longest running video festival, France is blessed to have two festivals that celebrate clips in unique ways.

Through the connections of Festival Artistic director, Pascal Forneri, the festival has also cast a spotlight on the origins of music video with the presentation of Scopitones. The Scopitone was a sort of “Film Jukebox” developed in France in the early 1960’s. It was fun to see these sometimes suggestive, sometimes kitsch, often hilarious music films projected on the cinema screen.

The festival’s primary programs of French music videos were a juried competition program of independent clips and the “professional” program (commissioned videos that have been broadcast). France continues to be an animation powerhouse and my favorite video from the independent program was Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free, an awesome stop-motion animated clip inspired by John Carpenter’s The Thing, but created using GI Joe figures. The video, directed by Xavier Ehretsmann and Simon Gesrel, won two awards at the festival.

2008 Protoclip Award Winners
(videos can be viewed on Protoclip’s website)

Grand Prix
Tableau de Chasse
director: Patrick Volve
music: Claire Diterzi

Coup de coeur du jury
Room to the Beat
director: Bob Blunden
music: The Cedar

Prix de l’Animation
Indigo Moon
director: Cyprien Nozières
music: Alien Robots Orchestra

Prix de la qualité technique et Clip coeur (Public)
Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free
director: Xavier Ehretsmann / Simon Gesrel
music: Zombie Zombie

Clip d’or (Public) - Professional
Stress
director: Romain Gavras
music: Justice

Prix des Internautes (Public prize as voted on the web)
Lali
director: Damien Maestraggi / Naël Marandin
music: Exsonvaldes

Festival co-founder Laurianne Martini and Festival Producer Jean-Fabrice Barnault as they introduce the Jury to give the awards.

The 2008 Protoclip Jury included actor/composer Alex Beaupain, animator Stéphane Berla (he directed the amazing Tais Toi Mon Coeur music video, actress and former Miss Tahiti, then Miss France, Mareva Galanter and Guillaume Le Goff, editor in chief of Clark Magazine.

Protoclip: International Music Video Festival

Share This

After initially being quite upset that all the shops I planned to visit were shut on Sunday, I had the pleasure of stumbling upon the Marché Richard-Lenoir this morning. In California we like to brag about our Farmer’s Markets, but we have nothing on this.

The market stretches endlessly (no complaints) down a tree-lined boulevard. At times there are three aisles of stalls, requiring multiple journeys up and down the boulevard. My iPhone camera does no justice to the vibrant colors of the offerings (and obviously not the scents).

Fish, Meats, Breads, Cheeses, Mushrooms, Flowers, Oysters, Fruits. At an Olive vendor I counted 20 different offerings. Produce came from France and throughout Europe. The Clementine I tasted from Spain was delicious.

For lunch I ate a delicious Manouché, which I’ve read alternately described as a Lebanese breakfast pizza and a sandwich.

Alas I wish I could sneak some of this food through customs.

Share This

Everyone has heard of raves, but a silent rave?

On urbandictionary.com, a silent rave is defined as: “Rave” or form of wild dancing party where all of the members listen to music through headphones on separate portable music players. The players are all synchronized so everyone is hearing the same thing, but no outsiders hear anything, hence the “silent” portion of the name. The police didn’t bust the silent rave down the street because nobody complained about the noise.

Sans title, the event is a cacophony of dancers mysteriously grooving to an emitted sound of their ipod, all bound together in the same crowd not by a singular audible song (like a regular dance party) but by a concept– the concept of dancing with yourself. However, the idea is to dance with yourself while dancing with everyone else who is dancing with themselves. Confusing? Not really. Entertaining? Mightily.

On a cold New York City night recently, several migrations of silent ravers made their way over to Union Square. Once they arrived, they whipped out their ipods, plugged in their headphones, and danced to their own music. The result? A large-scale dance party where, because the music is inaudible, is done in silence. If you take out your headphones and just stop to look (as I felt compelled to a couple times during the event), the scene before you is priceless. An organized shock-mob flurry where the absurd has its place, where the absurd has its magnificence.

Share This

His music videos for artists like The Last Shadow Puppets, Simian Mobile Disco, and DJ Mehdi show an eye for aggressive loneliness, brutal landscapes and fraught faces; but it’s his severe and gritty “Stress” clip for chronically leather-clad electronic duo Justice that stirred the most controversy among the media elite and citizens of the Republic Of Blogosphere. The experience was enough to render French director Romain Gavras — member of the politically active artist collective Kourtrajmé, and son of the Oscar-winning, sometimes controversial Greek director Constantin Costa-Gavras — mum for a while. “The good thing about being a director is that you’re in the back seat, and you can observe,” he told Flux in a rare talkative moment. “You’re not in the light.”

Well, metaphorically speaking, at least. When we caught up with Gavras backstage at the Montalbán, Nike Sportswear’s special event theater in Hollywood, during the West Coast premiere of his latest project, A Cross The Universe, he’d just shared the lime-lit stage with co-director So-Me (“D.A.N.C.E.,” “DVNO”), Busy P (owner of Ed Banger Records), and the Justice boys, where he answered audience questions about the yet-to-be-released film (DVD release - Nov. 24 Europe, Dec. 9 USA) that follows the French musicians and various members of their eclectic posse on a three-week U.S. tour.

Gavras isn’t getting too comfortable in the realm of the anti-reticent, however. He told Flux he’s about to “take a break from music videos and commercials” to focus on his first feature film, which stars French actor Vincent Cassel (La Haine, Ocean’s Twelve), and is set for pre-preproduction in early 2009. So, before Gavras had a chance to cut off communication lines again, Flux cornered him to discuss secrecy, scandal, art not imitating life, and that disturbing moment when one discovers that a close friend is, in fact, kinda sexy.

You don’t do a lot of interviews.
No. I don’t do lots of interviews.

And, you’ve disclosed very little about A Cross The Universe. Why so private?
I like it better when people think for themselves when they see a film, [as opposed to] me, as a director, saying, “Yeah, we wanted to say this, or this.” It’s better for the audience to think what they will. For example, in France, the “Stress” video became a big thing. Lots of interviews. After that, I did zero interviews. It’s better.

Were you taken aback by the amount of controversy “Stress” created?
No. I was happy. For a few months, I was one of the most hated men in France, but it was fun. It was amazing free promo. [In France], you can only get that much press if you have sex with children. [Laughs.]

On that scale of controversy, then, where do you put A Cross The Universe?
We won’t know until it’s released, but we’ll see. We didn’t do it to create controversy.

Why did you do it? What was the concept for the film, when you first began?
The idea was “three weeks on the U.S. tour.” The technique was something like a “holiday film.” No interviews, no “interview, concert, interview, concert, blah blah.” We wanted viewers to feel like they are there with us. Since me, So-Me, and The Justice boys are friends, it’s not like a camera crew filming the band. It’s more intimate. We catch stuff that other people won’t catch. There are different characters, and the film is more about life on tour, than it is about Justice.

How were you able to sustain that intimacy while still sticking cameras in various faces?
For the first three days, it was really awkward. But, after those three days, people didn’t think of the cameras anymore. That’s why we have good things happening. Plus, we used very small cameras, made in Japan. They’re very, very small, but very good quality, so we didn’t have big, obvious equipment. A lot of the time, people didn’t even see the cameras, so [the end result] is more natural.

And, how much of the end result is a fabrication?
[Laughs.] What do you mean, a fabrication?

How much of the film is fiction?
Well, basically, everything is real, nothing is fake, but since we were filming, sometimes we’d think, “What Would Axl Rose Do?” For example, in Vegas, we were drunk, and we said, “Oh! It would be fun if Gaspard [Augé of Justice] married a girl.” So, he proposed to a fan, and she said “yes.”

Will the real Justice please stand up: During The Montalbán screening Q&A - Justice’s Gaspard had not yet arrived. When an audience member asked where he was, Gavras insisted that he was in fact Gaspard. This archival photo from the Justice tour, explains why Gavras thought he might be able to get away with the ruse.

You definitely found some of the more spirited Justice fans to capture on film. Was there ever a concern about how to fairly present the fans?
I don’t judge. There’s no statement about the fans. Of course most of the fans in the video come out looking crazy, because for me as a director, it’s more interesting to film the crazy ones, the ones dressed up, the ones who get violent.

Is there a statement about the U.S. in the film? The focus seems to be on super-sized America — all Hooters, guns, and Vegas weddings.
Basically, it’s everything a teenaged French boy thinks America is great for: Weddings, cops, violence, cheeseburgers. It’s all the fantasy of a young teenaged French boy, but not in a bad way. It’s just the American dream for a young, French teenager.

That in mind, is the film a comedy or a tragedy?
If you’re a teenager, I think you see it as a comedy. You want to be that. But, if you see it as somebody who’s older — 28 or 30 — then it’s also a bit tragic, a bit sad. There are different layers to the film. Some people watch it and say, “Oh, man, that’s so depressing, the life of a [musician],” while some kids are, like “Ah! That’s really great!” Depending on who you are, and where you’re at in your life, you see it completely differently.

Is there a vision you prefer?
No. If you’re not bored during the film, and if it entertains you, then my job is done.

Performance shot from the film, A Cross the Universe, with Xavier of Justice

Did you talk about how you would portray the band, before you started?
No, but it came up in editing. We did a scene in Texas where we went on a hunt, and [Justice] didn’t want it in the movie. For me, as a director, it was beautiful, but for them it was not the way they wanted to show themselves.

Was there often a clash of egos?
No, no, no. Because, we’re friends. So-Me’s done videos for Justice, I’ve done videos for Justice, and so we trust each other and there’s no conflict of egos. It’s not, like anybody’s going to come to me and say, “Oh, no, eh…” and I’m going to go crazy: “I’m the director! No! Fuck you!” No, it’s never like that.

How is the end result different from what you had anticipated when you first began work on the film? Does anything surprise you?
That they come across really sexy. I’m friends with them, I don’t see them that way. If I found them sexy in real life, it would be disturbing. But, in the end, I thought, “Oh. It’s a success: we managed to make them look sexy.”

A still from A Cross the Universe where Gaspard and Xavier go house shopping and explore a decadent Los Angeles home that is on the market.

Are you saying they’re nerds in real life?
We’re so boring. In real life we go back to our hotel rooms and read William Blake.

That’s not so bad.
And smoke weed like hippies.

Great.
[Laughs.] And, that’s it.

LINKS
Romain’s MySpace page
El Niño, Romain’s music video works at his production company’s site.
Kourtrajmé, artist collective, co-founded by Romain.

Share This

The polls are open, get out and vote.

Share This

Our good friend Todd St. John is debuting a brand new exhibit at 222 Gallery in Philadelphia which opens November 7 and runs through December 5. Todd’s wood sculptures and graphics have long been beautiful works of art we already know and love. His latest series of innovations is not only timely after 6 years of process, it also reflects a certain existential yet organic quality.  We recently caught up with Todd to talk shop and the ideas behind the work.

What was the inspiration for this show and how did you get involved with 222 Gallery?

I’ve known Phil for a long time, and had done another show at 222 in 2001. As far as the ideas, I’d started working on a series of dimensional drawings about 7 years ago, and started working on experimenting with those in actual space—sculpturally–shortly after that. And also assembling sign-based or abstract forms colliding in three dimensions.

.
Were there any memorable collaborations with any other artists or colleagues?

For this particular show, not as much. I do collaborate with Gary Benzel a lot, and so there are elements in this show that have overlaps with things that we’ve worked on together. I also have two or three people that assist me in the studio: Jeff Shepherd, Ashley Norton, and Bailey Dwyer. They’ve been a huge help on this.

You have a particular style both sculpturally and graphically. What was your biggest challenge in preparing for this exhibit?

Probably just not getting ahead of myself. A lot of this has a strong element of restraint to it. That’s part of what it’s about. I’ve never tried to make things that will overwhelm people with anything gimmicky or detailed for detail’s sake. It’s more about focusing on one or two specific ideas, or a relationship between two things.

Todd St. John at his NYC studio, HunterGatherer

Did you employ any new techniques?

This is a collection of things going back five or six years, so there’s a range of things pulled from that time period. I’m always experimenting with variations on how I make things. Most of what is in this show are sculptural pieces made out of wood & works on paper. I’m also including a section in the back that will show some animations I’ve worked on alongside the props & characters created for those animations. I would say that in terms of techniques, that’s something I’ve gotten a lot smarter about over the last five years.

Do you have any favorite pieces or ones in particular that resonated with you?

There’s a fairly large piece in the show that is the start of some things I’ve been thinking about more. I like how that turned out.

If a young artist or advocate were acquainting themselves with your work for the first time, is there any particular theme or message you would want them to walk away with?

There’s usually ideas fighting or contradicting each other in the things I make, especially in terms of representation.

We can already predict that your show will be a smashing success. Any last words?

Thanks for chatting…

Share This

• Name: Synecdoche, New York
• Date: Tuesday October 21, 2008
• Location: The Montalbán
• Who was there: Lead actor Tom Noonan, Synecdoche producer Spike Jonze, Miranda July, Peter Care, Billy Zane, Tim Biskup, Bingham Ray, Karin Fong, Chris Milk, Cat Solen, Romanelli and more.
• What was served: Pizza slices NYC style and Belvedere

On Tuesday night, Flux presented a very special Cinema Tuesdays Hollywood premiere of Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. Actor Tom Noonan, in from New York, and producer Spike Jonze were on hand to introduce the film to the rapturous crowd. We all got a little preview of the mischievous Mr. Jonze’ ringtone which he played into a backstage live mic. Thanks for the little blip there Spike.

Jonze and Noonan present Synecdoche, New York

Jonze and Jonathan Wells of Flux

It was a packed and fully-charged night. MORE PHOTOS.

The film is a conspicuous narrative of life imitating art imitating life with New York city as it’s backdrop. It is complicated and painfully sad at times with sprinklings of Kaufman’s myriad thoughts which leave the viewer thinking, no matter what you make of it. The film opens tomorrow, October 24.

Following the screening, we were very proud to present the micro-art show Small Miracles, the work of artist Adele Lack. The show has received quite a bit of attention on blogs all over the web. The show remains up through this Sunday night October 26th in the upstairs gallery space of The Montalbán, Nike Sportswear’s unique concept theater.

Spike checks out Adele Lack’s art

Share This

• Name: Sophie Gateau
• Created on: 1973-November-26
• Record last updated on: 2008-October-20
• Homepage: sofigato.com, sofigato.uing.net
• Domain: Filmmaking, Visual Effects, Animation, Design, Photography
• Location: Paris, France

A peek into the mind of the very talented Sophie Gateau reveals multi-disciplines and multi-tasking with academic roots in architecture and art history plus design experience in the fashion industry and an impressive work log as a graphic artist on heavyweight projects like The Matrix Revolutions and Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046.  Currently directing music videos and spots — like 2007’s you-tubable puzzle of a PSA announcement, “Cube” — Gateau demonstrates a penchant for the bubbly in tandem with the technical. Flux recently caught up with the Paris-based Gateau to tête-à-tête about undead avant-garde blue prints, mystery blog-snoopers, and how architecture school can really set one up for a bummer. Thanks a lot, quixotic academia.

Eglantine Gouzy “Boa music” video (youtube)

You were an architect, first and foremost. Do the forms and foundations of that design field find their way into the disciplines you work in, now?

Yes I think so. The school of architecture is multi-disciplinary. You learn about space and design, but also about philosophy, art history, photography, drawing, and sculpture. All these different disciplines are bases of my work now.

You have a multi-disciplinary history outside of architecture as well, in different sectors of the visual and audial arts. Can you tell us a bit about that history and how it’s shaped the work you do? 

I began as an architect and was disappointed when I discovered that the real job is not the incredible mix of disciplines that you learn at school. So I decided to go to a Parisian art school, Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where I got a masters degree in graphic design. I worked as a 2D/3D artist at a visual effects company, Buf, in Paris for 4 years, before moving on to do freelance work. I then met Claude Letessier, executive Producer at ParanoidUS, who offered me to join them as a director. Computer graphics is my primary skill; it’s one of the most important parts of my work. But, I also work a lot with fashion designers, especially with Melodie Wolf. We create graphic videos for the runways. From the fashion world, I learned that there are no limits to creativity as long as you believe that your choices and visual exaggerations can create amazing films.

Still from Geteau’s Nike ‘Sharapova’ project

Your first short film, I Love Paris differs in style, perhaps in tone, from your more recent works. Can you explain the purpose and nuances of the film? What may be lost in translation?

I Love Paris is my first CGI film. I did it while I was in graduate school. It’s a fake documentary about Parisian utopian architecture, and shows Paris as if some utopian buildings were actually built. It shows for example a modular tower from the ’70s, “Le Plan Voisin” by Le Corbusier, who planned to destroy a huge part of the city. It also shows a library by Rem Koolhaas and a 1920s airport located on the river. I wanted to find a way to keep a foot in the architectural world so I came up with I Love Paris.

Is I Love Paris a type of work you see yourself harkening back to, now or in the future?

Yes. Why not? I’d love to do this kind of film with a real team — instead of doing it all by myself and learning how to use 3D software at the same time. A series of documentaries about utopian architecture in different cities would be fascinating, don’t you think? One of the things I enjoyed most while prepping I Love Paris was spending hours in libraries searching for the plans and drawings of never-built buildings.

from Mimetic, a film to show the lines and

colors of seasons for make-up

You have an international background, in terms of education, places you’ve worked, lived, and traveled. Can you give a brief overview of that background? What place do you consider your base? 

My education took place mostly in Paris, with one year of university exchange in Berlin. My work as a freelance graphic artist and director gives me the opportunity to work in a bunch of different places, like Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and other places in between. I’d love to work in South America or in Asia also. While my base is in Paris, I’m thinking of moving to New York soon.

How would you describe the different approaches to visual arts in the various places you’ve lived and worked? Which approaches do you prefer?

I’d say the difference between North America and Paris is in the improvisation. There is more in Europe, I think. Whether that’s good or bad depends on the situation.

Maria Sharapova for Nike project

What has your favorite project been, so far? What has been a challenge?

My favorite project — perhaps because it was the most challenging — is the music video, Boa, which I did two years ago. It was my first “real” video and I did, more or less, all of it by myself. I shot it in my living room and worked on post for two months on my laptop.

Is there any way in which you feel restricted currently as a director? 

The schedules are tighter and tighter and the budgets are smaller and smaller, but besides those “terre-a-terre” (pragmatic) concerns, I don’t feel restricted.

What would you say if we called your style playful?

I’d say it’s a good definition. I would add sensible.

What else would you add to describe your visual approach?

Let’s say it’s mostly a mix of live action and computer graphics. My work is quite varied because I love to experiment and use different techniques.

Does that variety fit under the umbrella of one word, though? A word like “director,” for example?

My job is plural: I’m a director, a visual effects supervisor, a graphic artist, an animator. To me, directing means having an idea, directing a project, and driving a team.

What would your ideal project be?

A project with total creative freedom and no constraints in terms of time delivery, done with a team of people working in different fields. A multi-disciplinary project.

What are your plans for the future?

Hmmm… In this job, you don’t know what you will do next month, so “on verra!” We’ll see!

Is there the desire to do feature-length, or is there something you prefer about brevity?

As I’m quite young to the business, as a director, I enjoy very much the brevity of making music videos or commercials. I want to have the opportunity to try and test different approaches, visuals, and techniques, so I’m very fine with short projects for the moment.

A Flux EXCLUSIVE! LA is a still from Gateau’s latest, yet to be unveiled short film project

You’ve kept a work blog online for three years, now. It chronicles your travels through photos, using almost no words at all. What is the purpose behind the blog? For whom is it intended?

I started this blog when I first traveled to Australia to work. The purpose of it was to take my family and friends “behind the scenes” of my job. Now, I keep up the blog because I have frequent viewers. There is somebody in Japan, whom I don’t know, checking the pictures regularly. In a way, the blog posts are my memories, now.

What do you wish more people knew about you and your work?

That I’m eager to create cool work with open and creative people, so bring it on!

Share This

I was first introduced to Adele Lack’s micro-paintings, when I saw a film that featured her works. On the eve of her first major show in Los Angeles, I was given a sneak peek of some of the pieces that will be included in the show. Literally I was able to hold them in my fore fingers as shown in the photo above.

Little Cranberry Island Boathouse by artist Jamie Williams Grossman

My interest was piqued, how common was “Micro Painting”? I discovered any number of artists such as New York-based Jamie Williams Grossman’s series Jamie’s Jewels which includes Little Cranberry Island Boathouse, a painting that unframed measures 1.5×2″. Meanwhile Italian Stefano Busonero whose Fish-boats in harbour measures just 6 x 3 millimeters.

The late Gene Davis created both the the world’s largest painting, Niagara (43,680 square feet) and created paintings as small as 3/8″ square.

Busonero seems to hold the record for creating the smallest miniature paintings. In the comments let me know if you know of others. I hope the mysterious Lack will be at her opening on Tuesday, so we can all learn more of her and the micro painting movement.

Share This

This morning, just before boarding a flight back to LA, a friend called to share the saddest of news.

Gideon Baws the talented English director/animator/designer/lllustrator died. He was only 33.

As part of the Shynola collective he helped create an amazing body of work including music videos for Radiohead, Beck, UNKLE, Rapture and Queens of the Stone Age. Gideon and college mates Chris Harding, Richard (Kenny) Kenworthy and Jason Groves formed Shynola in the late 90’s upon moving to London.

I saw Kenny’s Royal College of Art final project, The Littlest Robo, which they all collaborated on and Gideon co-wrote and helped animate, and immediately programmed it to premiere on the RESFEST 1999 tour.

Most recently Shynola had taken a break from music video and commercials to concentrate on developing their first feature film script.

Below are a few favorites of Shynola’s extensive archive of innovative films.

You’ll be missed Gideon.

The Littlest Robo | short film

Radiohead | Pyramid Song | music video

Athlete | You Got the Style (directors cut) | music video

Share This