NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE ALL THIS POWER, the video painting Options

[brooklyneast05]

Director/Artist Marco Brambilla :

So what exactly is the piece?

Well, it’s a video portrait of Kanye. It starts with a very tight shot introducing him that’s kind of a reinvention of a neoclassical painting. It pulls back from the shot, without any cuts, and we reveal the video canvas, populated by all these characters who are depicted in various stages of undress and decadence. The iconography comes from Roman iconography, Renaissance iconography, and it connects to the sexuality of the music as well. As we reveal the setting for it, there’s a feeling of a moment of transition for him. A fall from grace, if you will. It visualizes power, and him as the icon as power, and then at the end of the piece it challenges the power that I set up at the beginning. It’s an elliptical piece of storytelling.

How did you guys end up using that kind of imagery?

He approached me via my gallery and he wanted to do something that wasn’t a music video. He wanted a video work that would accompany the music. I said, “That’s great, because I don’t do music videos.” I wanted to give it an epic feeling. The song feels very personal, but the orchestration and the production of the track is epic and I wanted to give it something hypersensational and exaggerated.

this has gotten quite a reaction since it's far from the standard music video we're used to

mtv has also put out a cultural cheat sheet about some of the imagery involved


thoughts?

[gojira]

^i don't because you're going to end up sharing most of your favorite songs or telling me to dl anyway.

was this the full video or just a teaser? i'm having the same feelings i've had with jay-z's on to the next one, i started to like the song better after watching video over and over. the difference is i didn't instantly enjoy this song or the video.

[brooklyneast05]

^i don't because you're going to end up sharing most of your favorite songs or telling me to dl anyway.

was this the full video or just a teaser? i'm having the same feelings i've had with jay-z's on to the next one, i started to like the song better after watching video over and over. the difference is i didn't instantly enjoy this song or the video.

it's the full thing, not just a teaser. it's a video portrait that represents the concept of power/the song, rather than a "music video", so they didn't feel like they had to play the entire song like they would in a normal music video. this is the thing that i think a lot of people can't get over and aren't used to.

i think a lot of people aren't taking into account that marco brambilla isn't a music video director and doesn't make music videos. if you know his previous work and the Civilization video that inspired kanye to call him in the first place then it makes sense to me. he's trying to make a piece of art that stands on it's own outside of the context of music videos.

i think it's great and i agree 100% that it's like on to the next one, even though this is even more unconventional. (imo on to the next one is evidence of kanye's influence on jay's aesthetic progression)