Damn. This song has been on the SRO office’s playlist for over a year now and finally the thing is getting pushed out of the video queue….AND into the hands Richard Ayoade, who will attempt to quench our visual appetite. Good luck!
What I find hilarious is how Pitchfork’s post about the video reveals the jaded little toddler in them — posting a one sentence review which should be read, “We wanted to premier this but, MTV got to do it and now we are mad. Come on, we actually gave you guys a positive review. What the fuck XL.” Let’s see how the XL artists fare over the next few months in their reviews, although I don’t think they have much coming out.
What’s also hilarious is that maybe Mark Richardson would have found out more about the video and director to fill his blurb area if he had gotten the director’s name right. Fuckin’ a man, if I was Richard I would be pissed. It’s ‘A’ yoade not ‘O’.
As for the video, I’m not sure why anyone would segment their one take music video with titles, it’s kinda counter intuitive, right? Plus, the titles are displayed in Futura (bold) which is distracting to all hell because obviously we all think Wes Anderson when that font pops onto the screen….unless they were purposely paying him homage? Doesn’t the world realize, or at least creatives in the film industry, that Futura (bold) is Anderson’s font.
With that in mind, I’m just going to pretend this whole video is a wannabe Wes Anderson video — from the one-shot tracking, to the spot on similarities to Wes’ American Express commercial, not to mention the titled pieces that just take it over the top. Despite all that I still kinda liked the video… in a carefree and light hearted way. He nailed his concept and made a video to be proud of. I’m sure it will do fine on the MTV2 circuit, getting played all summer long and making people hate Vampire Weekend more and more. Taken seriously though, and without the anchor of the superb song and bullet proof band, this thing would have fallen flat as another low-fi clip trying to ride the one-shot gimmick train to success town. At least that’s my humble opinion. I do wish Richard success though, in all his future MV endeavors. Sometimes it’s not about impressing the critics, it’s about making the money!
Mark Richardson’s one sentence dribble captures it perfectly.
“A one-take video from director Richard Oyade for “Oxford Comma” featuring a cast of thousands.”
Seriously, this guy gets paid?
(Bonus Interview Footage)
I love that this MTV worker’s quintessential one-shot comparisons are Radiohead’s ‘No Surprises’, Ok Go’s ‘Hear It Goes Again’, and Fiest’s ‘1234′ (You choose the one that doesn’t belong). I realize that he’s trying to throw out videos that people will recognize, but my bigger contention is when did shooting a video in that manner become such a big deal? He’s just so excited about it. Listen to how dramatic he makes it sound. He just wants you to be too!
No other link available ? I can’t watch it outside the US :-/
This site is a parasite on the arse of Antville. I doubt it would exist without it. Even down to the plagerism in the comments…”counter intuituve”…jesus, can’t you think for yourself, man?
I bet this comment gets wiped/deleted too. *Sigh*
Thanks Rupert for writing in. Your insight is a blessing to us all.
antville is video vomit. there’s hardly any selectivity or insight, and the quality of content can be… dubious.
(side note: i do not think “Rupert” understands plagiarism, or how to spell it.)
but about vampire weekend: they have also embraced futura (bold) on their album cover, and website… i thought they either rejected/did not realize anderson’s unspoken claim to the font, but the video seems to suggest they may be trying to draw some connection…?? slightly strange.
Anderson is obsessed with it, but Futura is still Kubrick’s font.
I don’t know about that. Everyone sites that Guardian article when saying that Futura was Kubrick’s favorite font, although it’s only used in one of his movies. I guess since he was legendary though, that liking it was enough to make it his. The man was legendary.
Kubrick used Futura primarily in two films, but also in promotional materials, packaging, etc. that were usually always personally approved by him. I give it to Kubrick for bringing it into the limelight and appreciating when its use was best vs. Wes Anderson who just has a Futura-seizure with every movie.
It’s like me wearing all black all the time and claiming that it’s now “my” color. You don’t get to lay claim to one of the best fonts of all time through sheer persistence, Mr. Anderson.
All valid points, but he only used it in Eyes Wide Shut and the promotions for it. A lot of people think it was used in 2001 but it wasn’t. If you look at the posters or opening and ending credits and compare it to Futura it’s not the same. The ending credits match Futura the best but, the ‘M’ and ‘W’ are not even close.
Actually it’s kinda weird for 2001. The DVD covers and old posters use Futura Bold but on some of his posters it’s the same font as the title sequence, but that font is different from the ending credits. I wonder why he mixed it up so much, but used very similar fonts.
Futura is used in 2001, although there’s some inconsistency as to which variant. The original designer of Futura reportedly constructed some minor variants and the 2001 Futura might stem from those. And to get real technical, Anderson isn’t always using Furura strictly either but weird variants of it: a lot of random letters won’t perfectly match Futura proper as in Kubrick’s case.
And a lot of Kubrick materials that have been re-released by the studios have changed the font without Kubrick’s approval (DVD/box-set covers, etc.)
yeah, i don’t know about kubrick and his presumed connection to the font (also have to throw in that i personally would associate him more with futura EXTRA bold, if anything… but is that splitting hairs?), but i’m a little skeptical about its relevance.
i might agree with james that’s it’s just not fair that anderson basically has dibs on futura today…. but damnit i love a good “futura-seizure”. the font is so linked with his overall style/aesthetic that it’s easy to see why it’s more “his”. if that makes sense.