The documentary ‘Ive been twelve forever’ (2004) explores the work of Michel Gondry, known for his music videos that transport the viewers into an unknown reality created through the use of editing techniques, such as manipulating footage, stop motion animations, and ‘long take’ filming as seen in ‘Lucas With The lid Off’ (1994) music video, a technique that ‘dramatizes the difference between the analogue and the digital'(Rodowick, 2007). However, what makes Gondry’s work so unique is the way in which he comes up with ideas, often based on the mundane, such as his reoccurring dreams or the way in which a train moves.

His work opposed Carol Vernallis(2013) original definition of a music video as a ‘products of record companies in which images were put to recorded pop songs in order to sell songs’ and relates more to the concept of ‘the relation of sound and image’, Gondry mentions that often lyrics are not as important as the sounds when creating a narrative.

Vernalli’s suggests that music video directors such as Gondry thrive within the film industry as they are ‘attuned to the new technologies and audio-visual relations. For example, in the ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ (1995) music video, Gondry created a morphing effect taking inspiration from his grandpa who used to be part of the French Theatre Club, exposing Gondry to surrealism and mixing it with his knowledge of modern 3D editing, showing how technological advances have helped 21^st century directors to further explore and expand previous editing techniques.

Gondry relies on the use of previous media as references, such as a direct reference to the film ‘The Evil Dead’(1981) throughout Foo Fighter’s ‘Everlong’ (1997) video, or the clear resemblance between The Chemical Brothers ‘Let Forever Be’(1999) and Dames ‘I Only Have Eyes For you’(1934), this touches upon the idea of modern media simply being a remake of past media, questioning creativity. Is Gondry a creative genius or is it down to his extensive cultural knowledge?  

References:

Carol Vernallis – Unruly media: YouTube, music video, and the new digital cinema

‘I’ve Been Twelve Forever’ (2004) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-jm6qb7hmA / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF8kN-M2XNY

Lucas With The Lid Off – Lucas (1994) https://youtu.be/sY5zaDZq0sc

Like A Rolling Stone – The Rolling Stones (1995) https://youtu.be/aRYokc3VBC4

Everlong – Foo Fighters (1997) https://youtu.be/eBG7P-K-r1Y

I Only Have Eyes For You – Dames (1934) https://youtu.be/P76cUtCGRQs

Let It Be Forever – The Chemical Brothers (1999) https://youtu.be/s5FyfQDO5g0

By Gabriela Vadcard