Supergroup Monsters Of Folk (Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward and Mike Mogis) held a contest for fans to make a music video for their song "Dear God." Loads were made. Some great, some not so great--but of course, the best prevailed. The boys chose filmmakers Kathleen Bryson and Nele Hecht's effort. Watch it here if you haven't seen it yet. And visit the jump for our interview with Bryson. Supergroup Monsters Of Folk (Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward and Mike Mogis) held a contest for fans to make a music video for their song “Dear God.” Loads were made. Some great, some not so great–but of course, the best prevailed. The boys chose filmmakers Kathleen Bryson and Nele Hecht’s effort. Watch it here if you haven’t seen it yet. And visit the jump for our interview with Bryson.
Were you a fan of the band’s?
I was a fan of M. Ward and Bright Eyes from a long time back. Then I got turned onto Monsters of Folk last year, and subsequently, rather tardily, got really into My Morning Jacket. I don’t know how I missed them the first time round. So yes – a fan of MOF, and a fan of all the individual artists as well. I think this song in particular (“Dear God”) is so gorgeous.
How did you get alerted to the contest?
I found out about it when a friend took me to a Monsters of Folk concert. I got in touch with Nele Hecht. We’ve worked together many times previously – she was the cinematographer for the first feature film I directed. This time round, for Monsters of Folk, she was the director and I produced. I’d just seen her graduation film Sparks and I knew she would be perfect – she has this other-worldly, kind of free directorial style, like dancing. Once I contacted her, I found out that she was already aware of the competition and that both she and Annika (on camera) were waiting for a good opportunity to shoot a music video!
Was the video that won your first idea?
No, Nele and I really struggled to find something that would work for the lyrics as well as our own views on religion. We ended up having many discussions about god! I have quasi-Quaker/pagan beliefs – I believe that the divine is in everyone, and possibly in everything. Nele herself is not an atheist, but doesn’t conform to any specific religion i.e. she believes in something spiritual, barely interventionist, that can be found in human relations more than anywhere else. We translated the song’s search for answers in regards to god and faith into questions that we had towards life or other human beings.
If not, please tell us about the other thoughts that ran through your head.
One was about a happy vandal, trashing everything around her and carelessly setting herself on fire while asking god why the world is such a miserable place. But we didn’t think it met the feeling of the song well. Another was to have people dancing in the weirdest mundane places happily on their own, having to struggle with all sorts of obstacles while dancing, but still carrying on. But that wouldn’t really hold for five minutes and was a tricky one to organize.
How heavily did you follow the competition?
Quite a bit, as we got really into making the video and were fond of it by the end!
Did you see any other videos that you liked?
The sparkly puppet and the one where everything was out of modeling material.
They were both so charming and must have been so much work, like most of the videos, in fact. And there was a funny one, which was really silly but made us laugh.
Did the band personally write you with regards to the video? If so what did they say?
No, but I was told on the phone by the record company that the band really dug it and we’re extremely grateful and flattered that they decided for ours.
The song is long–almost too long to make a moving video for.
Were you at all nervous about making something that would be captivating all the way though?
We were nervous about not having enough footage, as we only had four hours to shoot and did not manage to shoot all of our concept, so we ended up being quite spontaneous, which was great fun, especially for Ophelia, the little girl. The slow-motion really helped us in the edit. All of a sudden, the little we had was absolutely enough. Michael Aaglund, the editor, is a genius.
What was the most daunting thing about making this video?
When we shot the girl screaming for her mom in a dark, empty carpark and the police pulled up and wanted to take us to the station. We packed up at that point.
For me, the video is so effective because it stands on its own. It doesn’t rely on the music to convey emotion. Of course, it helps, but the visuals, the framing, the careful editing–all of it amounts to a delicate telling of a story. Are you a fan of literal adaptations, narratives, esoteric visual forays? What do you think makes for a great video?
I am not personally a fan of literal adaptations in either film or video. I love abstract, odd videos and don’t think a great video necessarily needs a narrative. Having said that, with no money and five minutes of music, a storyline really helps! Both Nele and I make a lot of short films, and I think we tend to put narratives into most of them, whereas we’re probably more lyrical with longer works. Nele, Annika, Michael and myself have similar tastes in filmmaking style, so the four of us did not discuss it much and it all somehow came together quite quickly.
For the tech-geeks out there, give us some of the technical details–what did you shoot it on etc.?
Annika Summerson, the amazing cinematographer, borrowed a Canon 7D from her friend. We shot 50 frames per second, because it seemed to support the feel of the song. Michael Aaglund edited on an old version of Final Cut. We tried to color-grade as much as we could in Final Cut.
The avenues for screening music videos are few and far between and have pretty much been relegated to the internet, where the videos are projected in poor, pixilated quality. That said, why do you think every band continues to make a video?
While some have done so with home video cameras and low budgets, people are still donating time and money to the making of videos–why do you think that is?
Once they fit well, visuals and music can be a great experience together. And on the internet it’s much easier to grab someone’s attention in the first instance with visuals than just music alone. Also – we’ve grown up in an environment of pop promos. I know that MTV was a big part of my adolescent culture, so there’s nostalgia associated with videos. But I do believe that music can sometimes be more powerful without visuals, because it does not narrow the experience down too much. I’ve been trying to listen to music with my eyes shut recently – maybe like the little girl in our video! My favorite is Patti Smith, maybe because her stuff is packed with imagery from the get-go.
What are some of your favorite videos and directors?
So many! Some of them are Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Patrick Daughters, Jonathan Glazer and Chris Cunningham. And just for film: Guy Maddin, David Lynch, Catherine Breillat.
Is there anything you’d like to ad?
Yeah – big thanks to Monsters of Folk and to Cory and Lydia at Shangri-La Records, and I’d like to thank our very small cast and crew by name, since we all worked so hard! Here’s our credit list:
Producer: Kathleen Bryson
Director: Nele Hecht
Camera: Annika Summerson
Editor: Michael Aaglund
Actress: Ophelia-Isis Gallot-Tan
Actress: Lenaïk Gallot-Prades
Good people, please also definitely check out the fundraising website for my latest feature film, Spaceships Over Corvallis
