“Lover” tells a story very rarely told: of the loss endured by partners of gay servicemembers who are killed in battle.
The video features Goss as the bereaved partner of an army soldier (DC actor Ben Horen) killed while on duty in Afghanistan.
Among those playing medics who come to the aid of the wounded soldier are several former service members who were discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: Mike Almy, David Hall, and Danny Hernandez, all of whom are active members of SLDN. Keith Bryant stars as a fellow soldier.
The video, Goss’s fourth, was filmed in DC and Alexandria. is being directed by DC residents Aram Vartian and Michael Key of DC; Dylan Comstock is director of photography.
Is it silly that I sat for thirty-five minutes glued to YouTube and my computer watching the latest, if not greatest, showcase of Kanye West‘s pleionosis? No.
Kanye’s new music video film shows off a handful of songs from his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasyincluding the namesake Runaway and borrows heavily from the film styles of some of my all time favorite films. Continue reading →
Lady Gaga isn’t shy about much anything. Her sexuality, her body, her style and even her desire to, as Missy Elliot would say, “make more paper.” It was probably R&B/Rap music that first popularized product placement in their music videos, typically showing off a particular car or alcohol. Though, in these videos, more often than not, the placement was more for the rapper than it was for the company behind the product.
In Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s latest video, Telephone, I counted something like fifteen product placements and I think I might have missed a few like a Coors Light spot that appeared a few times during a dance sequence. Check out the screenshots for an illustration.
(Diet Coke, Chanel, DOOM , GISM – Anarchy&Violence, Monster Heartbeats by Lady Gaga, LG cell phone, VirginMobile, HP, Plenty of Fish, Monster Beats by Dre, Polaroid, Kraft Miracle Whip, Wonder Bread, Kill Bill Vol 1, Chevrolet SS Truck)
See if you can find more than I did.
Leave your finds in the comments, would love to see what I missed!
I can’t decide if Lady Gaga is a genius or a case example of tasteless, superfluous, obnoxious marketing. So far this 9:33 minute video has gotten 17,000,000 views on YouTube and many of the placements happen more than once. It adds up to a minimum 25,000,000 product placements as of this posting. That is insane.
Any guesses on how effective it might be? Do product placements like this bother you? Did you notice them? Do you think it takes away from the artist with products conspicuously appearing in videos like this or is this just the way things are going anymore?
I vaguely remember watching the original We Are the World music video by Michael Jackson and company. Obviously, since I was only a year old when it was released, I don’t remember the premier… but my elementary school was definitely a MJ fan, on rain days we’d watch Michael Jackson music videos (scary stuff).
Today, one of my Twitter friend @jungbow posted a link to the new, We Are the World music video, which I surprisingly had not heard about. This time, instead of helping the people of Africa, the video is meant to help those caught in the tragedy of Haiti’s earthquake. While I must admit, and I know this will sound horrible, that I’m a little tired of the Haiti commercials from various charity organizations, I am glad to see that people are making a difference.
The original video featured all the major players in the music business of the 1980s, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Willy Nelson… It was pretty impressive and moving. Thanks Michael for that!
Now, on to the new one… You’ll see for yourself when you watch it but I must give a few critiques. Opening sequence with Jamie Foxx. Seriously dude, you’re in a recording studio, why the hell is your audio so crappy? It sounds like he’s recording into a laptop microphone. Secondly, what’s up with the guilt trip Jamie? We can’t all donate a million dollars to Haiti, I donated what I felt was a generous and financially sound donation. Did you donate the same ratio as I did? I seriously doubt it. While this video will bring in a lot of money, as we all hope, please don’t try and guilt people into giving. You should instead, inspire people to donate. That’s what the song is here to do.
That intro video with the Haitians working to rebuild their country, that’s great. Can we choose a background track that isn’t ALSO from 1985? Yeek!
Finally… opening with Justin Bieber? I’ve already aired my grievances with Justin Bieber before, but I ask again, opening with Justin Bieber?! When you’ve got the likes of Barbara Streisand, Josh Groban, Mary J Blige and Jennifer Hudson, among others, you choose this pop-tart, bubblegum white boy singer turned Disney star rapper as your headliner?
P.S. That auto-tuning you did on a few of the artists (even the less obvious versions)… I think the I am T-Pain iPhone app would have done a better job. Yeeks. On and that DMX-esque intermission… why? Not that I didn’t like the pop-rap-rock-opera you’ve orchestrated, what a great update for the times, just seemed a little forced.
Ok, and that creepy video interlude of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, just weird. I realize it is an homage to the original video but jeeze. At least mix the audio better.
Alright, I think I’ve chastised this do-good video enough. It’s a great song, many of the singers are of my favorites and it serves a great cause.
Alright, now tell me what did you think? What level of hell am I going to for ranting about the technicalities in a charity music video? Leave your thoughts in the comments! Don’t forget you can log in with you Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc etc, login and share your thoughts on this post with your friends on all your social networks.
When my new camera comes in tomorrow, the Kodak Zi8, this is the kind of stuff I want to do with it.
Idaho 2 from Brock Nordstrom on Vimeo.
Taken in Idaho Falls area of Idaho with the Kodak Zi6 Pocket HD camera.
Themed to Bishop Allen – The Chinatown Bus
First time using Colorista in After Effects for my colouring instead of seperate RGB Curves.
So cool, now I’ve gotta learn FinalCut, After Effects? Either way, I’m excited to try out new things!
Also coming in soon? My new Roomba and my new Drobo. Very excited about all of the new great things, hopefully I’ll stop murdering my electronics. Seems just walking near them and they die!
We’ve all gone on a date with someone, been friends with someone or just bumped into someone at the airport or Starbucks who seems to feel the need to tell us their darkest thoughts or most embarrassing truths. I know I’ve been on dates with these people and their self defeating communication style.
Finally, someone has put this into a music video, auto-tune and all. It’s pretty amazing really, I know I’m excited to show it to you. Plus, it’s kinda hilarious.
I’m an intern at Archrival, a sweet youth brand marketing agency. My fellow intern, Anthony Galvan, and I decided that our coworkers don’t quite know us well enough yet. So, for part three of our intern minute series, we put together a video that might help fix that. » http://www.archrival.com