Music and montage

Up In The Air by 30 Seconds To Mars video appreciation

But things happen like Up In The Air by Thirty Seconds To Mars. It seems important to clarify that I am not a fan of the band or belong to Echelon, the name of the fandom -these times where a fandom with a name was weird in the west part of the music-.

The video is not showing anything new in terms of technique and narrative concerned, what makes it shocking is that it is quite well done. The impeccable technique and narrative. I know this seems like something easy but isn’t. Find things well made, specially in music videos is a rare gem. Sometimes is the only what you need, no fireworks, only a good story, a good song, a good well made video.

I’ll start with what is for me most 100 x 100 in the video: the casting. In the moment when the video was on air I was reading ’Hitchcock / Truffaut’ and I remembered how you can notes that perfectionism British director and as many of his films were a success or a failure by the choice of actors. Cubbins (or Leto, anyway …) is meticulous, from Dita Von Teese to the lion, the wolf and zebras. All are perfect, and they are because they are themselves. The video has a realism that touches people.

When I taught video clip in university I spoke to my students I said the center of the video is montage. No editing, montage. Here another feature Cubbins perfectionism. The rhythm management is almost Russian movement, remember that Einseintein, montage’s father, was a musician and mathematician.

Clearly there is a musician behind deciding not only cuts or ralenti, deciding how to create rhythm with a flat value, with a static camera -well, there you can see few movements, and above all, with the internal movement: dances that seem spontaneous are absolutely designed for montage. Also, even when I’m not adept at zooming, is one of the best I’ve seen in my life.

No, I not became a fan of Thirty Seconds To Mars, although I must admit that I like the song and want to hear FAITH LOVE LUST + DREAMS. What I admire is to see that when these things happen, the video is not dead.

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