ID (Industrial Design) magazine (March-April 1986). By Frank Lovece. Includes interviews with directors/animators Will Vinton, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme (Godley & Creme), Amy Taubin, Martin Kahan, Rebecca Allen, and Mark Pines. Note: Jump from page 31 to page 72 appears to have dropped the end of a sentence.
Original Title
"Design to the Beat" (on music-video design)
ID (Industrial Design) magazine (March-April 1986). By Frank Lovece. Includes interviews with directors/animators Will Vinton, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme (Godley & Creme), Amy Taubin, Martin Kahan, Rebecca Allen, and Mark Pines. Note: Jump from page 31 to page 72 appears to have dropped the end of a sentence.
ID (Industrial Design) magazine (March-April 1986). By Frank Lovece. Includes interviews with directors/animators Will Vinton, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme (Godley & Creme), Amy Taubin, Martin Kahan, Rebecca Allen, and Mark Pines. Note: Jump from page 31 to page 72 appears to have dropped the end of a sentence.
Exploring the latest
video wizardry, com-
mercial music clips
are packed with eye-
catching trends and
dazzling techniques.
The Cas “You Might Think”
ip, co-tectod by Jett Sein
and Charter, brought video-
fyntbenzer eects tothe
furetont.Now ain’t that clever, Martha—black-and-
white animation mixed with live action and a
whole mess of, wha’chacallit, surrealism. But
you know, Martha, this is "way too racy for the
Kids. Just look at that little bimbo with the
weird hair and the tight black dress and her
garter showing. And those lyrics! “I'll be glad
When you're dead!"* Y'know, hon, the Hays
Office should look at this,
And so the Hays Office did. In 1934, the
movie-industry censorship board cut out Betty
Boop’s heart, and stopped the Fleischer Studios
from producing any more such evil “‘song-car-
toons” as “I'll Be Glad When You're Dead,
You Rascal You,” starring Betty and a live-ac-
tion Louie Armstrong. No one could have fig-
ured that so many of the same stylistic and
design elements would still be in play—and
still enraging folks—half a century later.
‘Music “*video"” design hasn't changed much
from the days of Busby Berkeley's Gold Dig-
gers or Walt Disney's "*Fantasia.”” The touch:
stones are the same: cutting to the beat,
working within the television or movie frame.
and using surreal symbolism and time/place
displacement. Most music ‘*video" stil isn’t
even shot on video, but on film; the term is a
misnomer. And while current technology does
affect design specifies, music-clip creators are
today resolving problems that began long
before the Beatles’ movie ‘A Hard Day's
Night” launched the rock video era in 1964.
Or are they? “I doubt that five percent of all
music video directors think or care about de-
sign,”’ says Amy Taubin, video curator at New
York City performance center The Kitchen,
“Most of them are satisfied with swiping from
1920s surrealist movies. They don’t want to
‘come up with anything new; they’re just trying
to sell records,"” she adds.
Despite this bottom line, design ultimately
insinuates itself on to every screen—it’s una.
voidable. Clip creators have to make design
en if these choices seem secondary
p be in black-and-white or color?
choices,
Should a