Vincent Moon (real name
Mathieu Saura, (Paris
, August 25, 1979) ) is an
independent filmmaker from Paris mainly known
for his field work music videos of indie
rock related musicians as well as some notable mainstream
artists like Tom Jones, R.E.M. and Arcade
Fire. Besides making music videos he also makes other
types of films like
experimental
films and
documentaries. His
latest film, La Faute Des Fleurs about japanese singer
Kazuki Tomokawa won the Sound & Vision
Award at the film's world premiere at CPH:DOX - the
Copenhagen
International Documentary Festival - in November 2009.
Overview
Chryde, founder of the website La Blogothèque, wanted to shake
things up and find another way to share music and Vincent Moon
wanted to film music differently. Chryde offered Moon to go and
film musicians in Paris. The so called
Take-Away Shows (or the French title
Les Concerts a Emporter) exist since April 2006. The large
amount of clips is the result of a very fast filmed process with
mostly one take recordings in a way comparable to the
Dogma 95 concept. Comparable with the field
recordings of
Alan Lomax or the
Peel Sessions of
John
Peel, Moon has set up a large collection of unique single take
recordings enhanced with artistic filmed video footage. The fast
filming process he uses is a form of
guerrilla filmmaking. The sessions are
usually two or three tracks filmed improvised in an unusual
environment and as such they often had a rough and ready, demo-like
feel, somewhere between a live performance and a finished
music video. These live, unusually staged
performances differ from the artifice of traditional music videos
in favor of single-take, organic and primarily acoustic
sessions.
The first Take-Away Show was with
The
Spinto Band.
Under the name The Take-Away Shows Moon made
over 90 music video clip sessions, most
of the time two or three songs, among with many bands including
Bon Iver, Black
Lips, Yeasayer, Liars, R.E.M., Arcade Fire, O'Death,
The Ex, De Kift,
Stephen Malkmus, Scout Niblett, Sigur
Rós, Caribou, Vic Chesnutt, Architecture in Helsinki, The National, The Young Gods, The
Shins, Andrew Bird, Okkervil River, Xiu
Xiu, Sufjan Stevens, Priscilla Ahn, and Beirut
.
In 2008, the multi-platform video entertainment network
Crackle, a division of
Sony Pictures Entertainment,
incorporated the Take-Away Shows in their programming.
R.E.M.'s Supernatural Superserious Music Video
Michael Stipe became aware of the
works of Moon and as a fan he asked him to make a video for his
band. For the R.E.M. song
Supernatural Superserious Moon
shot a series of 12 clips published on a special website for free
download as well as on youtube.
The music video was shot in various locations
around New York
City
. On
February 12,
2008 the website
supernaturalsuperserious.com was launched, containing
ten takes of the video available for download in high definition as
well as a
YouTube page for users to upload their own versions of
the video. Afterwards Moon also directed the music video of the
single
Until the Day Is
Done.
Visual Style
Vincent Moon often adopts a very warm color balance in his videos,
with an enhanced contrast, leading to a largely yellow and black
color palette.. Rather than using titles embedded in the video he
generally uses intertitles with white text on a black background
whilst the sound from the video continues.
Other works
Besides the Take-Away Shows and other music videos he also
publishes experimental movies like
Instant Stuff and the
documentary
Changes in Rhythm. The latter is a documentary
about the investments of
Coca-Cola in
Africa and musicians from Tanzania. He also shot a documentary
about the September 2008 NYC
All Tomorrow's
Parties Festival.
The Take-Away Shows
See
List of Take-Away Shows
for complete overview of all sessions.
Other films
References
- interview with Moon on videology-tv.com
- article on cnn.com
- [1]
- http://www.supernaturalsuperserious.com/
- R.E.M.Hq: News
- http://www.remhq.com/untilthedayisdone.php Clip + info on
R.E.M. website
- http://www.dailymotion.com/user/flyingclubcup/video/x341x6
- with Vincent Moon on nylonmag.com
- http://www.thenationalboxer.com/film/
External links
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