Everyone in cyberspace is buzzing about Coldplay’s new video for Strawberry Swing, and rightly so. The video is unique, stylistically extraordinary, and likely the result of a very tedious artistic process. Shot (or given the illusion of being shot) entirely from a fixed camera position, all on-screen action takes place as a moving storyboard drawn in chalk, on the asphalt that is the video’s screen. Frontman Chris Martin contorts his body around the blacktop to give the appearance that he’s living and moving within this 2-dimensional chalk world. Wow, I’m actually impressed with myself that I was able to explain it that succinctly. You should check it out. While it’s tempting to just jump on the praise parade for Strawberry Swing, what I’m most excited about right now is the new video from Jack’s Mannequin for their newest single ‘Swim’ off the sophomore album, The Glass Passenger.
The video is predominently performance-based, which suits the band’s high energy feel on stage (I just saw them live at an open-air igloo arena on Wednesday). Set against the performance sections are dolly shots sweeping along both a wall collage of original artwork, and a line of fresh-faced people holding up similar handcrafted art. All of the art pieces are clearly tied in to both the name and theme of the song, Swim. The song starts out with the lyrics, “You gotta swim, swim for your life. Swim for the music that saves you when you’re not so sure you’ll survive.”, an opening line which sets a resounding tone of relentless perseverance and positive perspective that carries throughout the song. This theme is the focus of all the original artwork: flowers blooming, suns rising, highways continuing on forever, rainbows after storms… As the song enters its first chorus, the video gives us our first glimpse of animation within these pieces of art. The paintings begin coming to life…. a butterfly spreading its wings to fly, a boat bravely making its way through a storm, a sea of umbrellas shielding us and the earth from a downpour of rain… My favorite animated image is a charcoal style sketch of a small man pushing a cog up the downside of clockwise-spinning watch/clock gears – and the Roman Numeral characters on the clock’s face spell out S-W-I-M. Second to that moment is when the butterfly (from a painting in the hands of a person in line) comes to life and spreads it’s wings – the entire video is shot in a cinemascope widescreen format, but at this moment the butterfly’s wings break through the black space at top and bottom and extend outside the designated space which the rest of the video occupies. This is a minor thing, but it succeeds in adding another layer to the already multi-dimensional video.
I’ll admit I’m probably biased when it comes to Jack’s Mannequin because I am close friends with the band’s frontman, but I’m confident that I would have latched on to this video regardess of the artist behind it. Partially because of its creative integrity, but more aptly because of the interactive, collaborative way in which it was constructed. You see, all of the artwork was created and submitted by fans of the band: paintings, drawings, sketches, artwork of various mediums. Also, many of the faces holding art in the lineup of people we pan by throughout the video are fans of the band, as well as friends, and even family of frontman Andrew McMahon, and the other band members. Between these two elements (more important is the use of fan-submitted art work), the video is as impressive in its interactivity as it is entertaining. The concept of allowing fans to participate in the band’s creative process in a way that includes those fan’s creative and artistic efforts (ie. their artwork) is awesome on so many levels. For the fans whose pieces were selected and included in the video, it creates a sense of ownership and unity with the band and the music… and for anyone who knows that the process took place at all, it says a lot about the character of Jack’s Mannequin, and how important the fans are to the band.
Kudos Jack. Kudos Mannequins. Kudos.
