#42: "unlock the infinite possibilities"
Welcome to issue #42 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU. I'm writing to you from New York City, where a glance out the window here reveals the Empire State Building off in the distance, lit up against the skyline. Of course, the desk I'm using is facing the wall.
Scottovision, Part One
First we present a distinctive collection of five (5) music videos that await your approval, carefully considered for just this very moment. I assure you the excitement is palpable.
"The Star Room (OG Version)" (2023) - Mac Miller, a rapper & producer who succumbed to a drug overdose in 2018, provides a bittersweet and incisive take on modern fame in this bonus track from the upcoming anniversary release of his 2013 album, Watching Movies With The Sound Off. His estate has carefully continued releasing music and videos from the artist, and this one is beautiful. Director Danae Gosset (who's directed similarly excellent videos for Mitski, Boyz Noize, and TSHA) worked with animator Sam Mason to create an antidote to the AI-driven craze sweeping across music videos today. She notes in a statement to Pitchfork:
"My goal was to capture the essence of a transformative journey while maintaining a childlike curiosity towards exploring different worlds... We meticulously crafted a handmade, layered, collage-like technique. We employed a diverse range of physical mediums such as paint, color pencils, gouache, and more. The production involved a combination of 3D animation, 2D animation, footage integration, and VFX, all working together to support a surrealist vision through a handmade vivid, textural, and colorful world."
"A Horse With No Name" (2023) - Speaking of the AI-driven craze sweeping across music videos today, have a look at the supremely stylized and psychedelic desert world of this video for the band Dirtwire's cover of an old soft rock classic by America. The video is courtesy of Stable Diffusion artist Optimoos, who seeks to "unlock the infinite possibilities of AI animation." Mesmerizing results here.
"The Mirror" (2023) - But enough of that devil AI technology. Pure artisanal CG visuals await on the new music video from electronic artist Ital Tek, created by animator & cinematographer Karl Poyzer. It's a bit of a science-fiction Backrooms in terms of atmosphere, a tour through an empty, pristine city left behind by a grand, departed civilization. Unlike Backrooms, of course, you don't eventually become prey, so you can leisurely enjoy your architectural appreciation.
"Pour Your Heart Out" (2023) - Ooops, back to that devil AI technology, in this video for a track by RL Grime feat. 070 Shake. Here, machine learning (Neural Radiance Fields, or NeRFs, if you must know) is used to create dramatic 3D models complete with cinematic lighting and framing, using a live action shoot with two lead actors as source input. According to an interview with director Jake Oleson, the video is about "exploring our desire to alter our internal state. How we take drugs to achieve a feeling but it never quite breaks beneath the surface. It isn’t until the girl has a real human connection that a fire erupts inside of her and she’s able to feel something real again."
"Lifetime" (2023) - Director Thomas Blanchard stretches out here in a music video for a track by "electro-rock" band Oo KiDo. Perhaps better known (well, to me anyway) for his fluid art cinematography (as in, for instance, his new film Emerald and Stone), this video showcases clever choreographic tricks and drone stunt flying to "explore the mysteries of the time." Okay then!
Obligatory JPG Break
Scottovision, Part 2
And here we resume our commitment to delivering a healthy dose of the weird & wonderful to balance out your media diet. It's because we care.
"Observers" (2023) - Now here's a right and proper use of AI in the video arts: a two-minute cosmic horror film about the bizarre dream aliens that shape our entire reality while we're busy with pointless activities like existing. Fun stuff!
"Little Taste of Joy" (2023) - In this good old-fashioned 2D-animated short film, director Jonathan Djob Nkondo observes an acrobatic culture seemingly mid-evolutionary leap into an amorphous beholder species with malleable boundaries around the self. It's a surreal and light-hearted ontological romp.
"Laser Sacral 51" (2021) - Fascinated By Everything creates spectacular visuals using the magic of "8k video footage of real places and spaces including natural environments, LED kaleidoscopes, and laser installations." In this example, you see one of their custom filming rigs at the start of this video, an irregular glass sculpture with lasers and lights positioned around it, which the camera suddenly dives into, transforming the view into laser prismatic wowness. Many such videos await the intrepid, some with mellow music like the drone of this one, others with uptempo electronic soundtracks.
"Door On The Left" (2016) - You see, one door leads to fabulous prizes, and the other door leads to eternal damnation in hell itself. A droll comedy from Kati Skelton and Harrison Atkins.
"O Black Hole!" (2022) - Animator/director Renee Zhan is back in our newsletter with another work of genius and unfettered ingenuity: a fairy tale about the birth of a universe-devouring black hole, and how - a thousand years later - a singularity within it mounted an escape. Stop-motion 3D claymation blends with painted and pencilled 2D animation to create this unique, Dark Crystal-esque saga. Oh, it's also a musical!
Honorary mention: "PSA | Have you seen my cat?"
Exit Music
Sending you out this issue with "Welcome To London" by Penguin Cafe, a wistful track with an appropriate music video that follows a lonely penguin alone in the big city, looking for its place in a world that doesn't seem to care. But behold the strange doorway in the garden! The back half of the video in particular is a treat.
A YouTube playlist with most of this issue’s recs can be found here.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto
Scotto Moore is the author of WILD MASSIVE, BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES, and YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU.
