thoughtspot

.
Growing up there were two posters hanging above my bed. The first showed a soccer player writhing in pain on the ground with these helpful words:

No pain, no gain. No gain, no goals.
No goals, no scouts. No scouts, no college.
No college, no cheerleaders.
No cheerleaders? Get up, man. Get up!

More than a decade after I took it down, I still have those silly words memorized. At the time, soccer was half my world and the second half was on the other poster.

I am tempted to say that Billy Corgan and his gang changed the way I thought about music, but before I started listening to them, I didn’t think about music at all. There were songs on the radio and songs we sang in school. Songs my friend’s older sister played and songs my grandpa taught me. Usually I liked them, but that’s because I didn’t know it was possible to not like them.

When I saw the music video for “Tonight, Tonight” a lot of things clicked in my brain. First, some music was better than other music. In fact, some music was much better than other music. Second, I wanted to be a filmmaker. Even though Corgan’s voice and the soaring strings caught my attention, it was the visuals that I felt connected to. That moon was something I could construct with my own hands.

Despite the visual effects and formal costume-wear, the video seemed simple. At the time I didn’t know that was because Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris (Little Miss Sunshine) had based it upon a George Melies film from 1902. It was simple because it came from a time when film innovation was simple. A jump cut and a poof of smoke was all you needed. The lesson here is, even today, that might be all you need. Michel Gondry’s catalog is proof of that.

Further proof comes from this video made by a high school student for one of my favorite songs.

produced at the Capital Area School for the Arts.
The arts magnet High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Filmmaker: Jovana Sarver
Artist: Joanna Newsom
Song: “Bridges and Balloons”
Video Produced 2006.