blog

#1
WINDOW
a few words about this video

The film is about things that can't be visited: lost places, lost people, intangible geography. Characters traverse concrete fields of poppies, and lean ladders against invisible walls, attempting to visit their homes in buildings that were long ago demolished.

When I first heard the song I was in love. It provoked pictures in my mind that gradually forged the concept. Summer, drunk by the Baltic Sea, the song followed me everywhere. The lyrics are abstract and i proposed the video not knowing what it was about. The film is abstract, and Bajzel embraced the idea not knowing what it was about. But magically, they speak of the same thing. When he told me that "Window" was written for his cousin who died young, I added a character. I created the boy and gave him a ladder he could never lift. Heavy and burdensome, he drags it dutifully through the night.

We planned production for November but Bajzel's visa was denied. The clerk didn’t even look at his documents. "Bye,bye, we’ll keep your money." I was furious. Still determined, I "scouted" Poland by browsing Flickr images and the poppy fields caught my eye. It was aesthetically beautiful but also symbolically fitting. In ancient mythology poppies represented 'endless sleep' and today they recall how decimated battlefields of the first world war blossomed scarlet.

However, to shoot this in Poland would create a myriad of problems (camera, lights, crew) that I couldn't solve without money. And I didn't have money. So Bajzel tried once more for a visa and it was granted. I collected concrete from ruined apartments and attached paper poppies to the rubble with wire stems. The intended meaning is not much different from the battlefield association. The flowers are the evanescent trace of the past, like monuments for a history that simply disapears.

#2
52ND LIFE
a few words about this video

After hearing the song I wanted to make a film treating this basic idea: if you run from your past it will follow you. The projectors and the zombie-like people who carry them are the celluloid documentation and the witnesses. I pitched it to Joshua and he interpreted it as a story about duality. Embracing both meanings we developed the project.

It is partly an "experimental short" in the great tradition of super 8 madness. It incorporates multiple aspect ratios creating a sense that part of the film is projected onto the screen. And the rest is just a rockin' video :>

Josh and I were at odds over the ending and a few other shots, delaying the release by months. He won a few arguments, I won others, and although compromise usually doesn't create better art, in this case I say we both win.

#3
ALL I NEED
a few words about this video

This was created as a silent film, motion picture art genre. It projected in Galapagos (Brooklyn, NY, no turtles) along with work of other video artists. Since seeing Radiohead this summer I've been loving "In Rainbows" on a daily basis. For curiosity, i dropped "All I Need" on the timeline. I was stunned how well it fit, not just the pairing of image and music, but how the edits were serendipitously timed to the song! This music video version was tweaked until it truly belonged to the music and vice-versa. The end was extended with the goal being to look like the building is burning, and to achieve this by overlaying only the three recurring pictures: the woman walking away, the b&w sun, and the desert tree.

#4
FESTIVAL UPDATE 2008

"Window" is having a great run at the festivals. OK, it's not at Sundance or Cannes, but they don't take music videos. Here's where you can see it on the big screen:

Los Angeles, CA - HollyShorts Film Festival
August 8th, 2008

New York City - ACE Film Festival
September 6th 2008, 7pm

London, UK - Portobello Film Festival
September 9th, 2008

Woodstock Film Festival (!)
Friday Oct. 3rd 5:15pm
Sunday Oct. 5th 5:45pm

I plan to submit it to Cleremont Ferrand "Festival International du Court Métrage" and then be done. Yach Film too, not far from Bajzel's home town. Actually, if anyone wants to suggest good events I'm listening. I just learned about One Dot Zero but too late. In the meantime it's starting to get airplay on broadcast TV in Poland. Good for Bajzel, his album is fcking great! Another note, Window is the only music video at the Woodstock Film Fest. This was a surprise to me since it was specifically listed as a genre they were seeking. It will be screened together with short films.

#5
UNDERTOWS
video almost done - preview

I try to make music videos that function as art, and this ain't that. But as an exercise and experience I feel good about it. I got the call only the night before when my friend (who produced the album) realized he had a free Red camera for the day. I was the dp, co-director, and editor/colorist. We shot the entire thing in 8hrs w/o tripod or dolly, using available light. The result? It's not a bad bad video at all, if you know what I mean.

#6
NOUVELLE VAGUE
a few words about this video

Not a job, not a collaboration, just a personal project. But I feel it's validated as a music video by a message from the band. They called it "beautiful" and that was fantastic. So it truly is the official unofficial video for the song! Anyhow, the idea is an implied romance between gargoyle and sculpture. I didn't shoot to tell this story, only later did I realize what I'd seen.

-Matthew Schroeder