Mark Pellington has had more influence on pop culture
than most rock stars; He’s worked with most of them, too. See “Just Wait” at
Rolling Stone now.
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Mark Pellington
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[STREAM]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9QHI9dPAGg
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“I have been a huge fan and committed devotee of the
band Nada Surf for many years,” says
director Mark Pellington. “As a
creator of videos and films, I love the marriage of imagery and music, and in
recent years have really been pushing the narrative boundaries and form of
pop/rock videos into music films. I love to merge my mind with the soul and
music of brave artists like Nada Surf.
Matthew Caws and I connected, and we
decided to collaborate together on this music film.”
Filmed globally
in three cities, Cambridge (UK), Los Angeles, and Sydney, Pellington calls the work, “a labor of love inspired by Matthew’s late father Peter Caws’ profound meditations. The
piece actually benefitted from the coronavirus as we really took our time, let
ideas percolate, and did not feel a need to rush and make a product.”
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[VIDEO]: Pearl
Jam | “Jeremy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS91knuzoOA
[VIDEO]: Bruce
Springsteen | “Lonesome Day”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMkFVJ-ews
[VIDEO]: Foo
Fighters | “Best of You”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_L4Rixya64
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Mark Pellington became internationally recognized as one of the
world’s premiere music video directors when his video for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”
became one of the most popular in history, as well as one of the most honored. In
fact, if you ask, “What’s one word that comes to mind when you say ‘Pearl Jam,’” the answer may very well
be “Jeremy.”
This past summer, as
reported by Variety, Pearl Jam officially released the uncensored version of
their groundbreaking video, which MTV
originally refused to air at the time of its release.
“I am addicted to images, and addicted to the creation
of them,” Pellington says. “I adore
the creation of imagery from imagination, allowing and accessing the
subconscious to formulate the image created in collaboration with others. A
music video is like a poem, a free form often-direct access to my
subconscious.”
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About | Mark
Pellington:
Mark
Pellington became internationally
recognized as one of the world’s premiere music video directors when his video
for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” became one of the most popular in history, as well as one
of the most honored. It earned him Best
Director at the 1992 Billboard Video
Music Awards, and picked up four 1993 MTV
Video Music Awards, including Best Director and Video of the Year.
His videos for such noted rock, pop, and rap
performers as U2, Pearl Jam, Michael Jackson, REM, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Bruce
Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains, Dave Matthews Band, Demi
Lovato, Public Enemy, INXS, The Flaming Lips, The Fray,
Jason Mraz, Cage The Elephant, Band of
Horses, Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Information Society, De La Soul, and many others form a
prolific and often imitated body of work.
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If you ask, “What’s one word that comes to mind when
you say ‘Pearl Jam,’” the answer may
very well be “Jeremy.” This past
summer, as
reported by Variety, Pearl Jam officially released the uncensored version of
their groundbreaking video, which MTV
originally refused to air at the time of its release.
Directed and created by filmmaker Mark Pellington, the song’s music video is just one iconic clip
that has established Pellington as
not only an exacting artist’s artist, but arguably the most influential music
video director of our time.
Note the word “created” used above, because, unlike
anyone who may pump out a treatment and “do the thing,” Pellington’s vision for the pieces that he creates are visionary
and complete.
Even though he has also has plenty of experience in
everything from feature films (“Arlington
Road,” “The Mothman Prophecies”),
television (“Blindspot,” “Cold Case”) to commercial work, Pellington says, “When I listen to
songs, I see. I am directly accessing a state of mind akin to a fever dream.”
Looking at some of his other notable music video work
such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Lonesome Day” and Foo
Fighters’ “Best of You,” it is clear that the
through line (besides starring the biggest rock stars of the time) is Pellington’s eye and how it sees the sound.
The way he makes his subjects look is instantly
recognizable and remarkably beautiful.
“I am addicted to images, and addicted to the creation
of them,” Pellington says. “I adore
the creation of imagery from imagination, allowing and accessing the subconscious
to formulate the image created in collaboration with others. A music video is
like a poem, a free form often-direct access to my subconscious.”
In 2020, Pellington
continues to do just that with a new long-form video on tap for esteemed indie
rock band Nada Surf, which has just
wrapped post-production for a scheduled late October release. The 10-minute
music film is the result of four months of work with the band’s Matthew Caws, and is another in a
trademark music video form for Pellington,
similar to the expansive
2018 work he created with Imagine
Dragons for that band’s song “Next
To Me.”
One
exceedingly poetic piece in Pellington’s
canon, literally one, is “One,” by U2. The clip is so memorable for what
it is not. It is Pellington’s
sepia-toned, powerful, slow-motion image – inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s “Falling Buffalo” photograph – of a buffalo
running, and ultimately charging itself off of a cliff, that lingered in minds,
stopping time as something that MTV
viewers had likely never seen before or would see again. Pellington went on to create the essential video elements that
contributed to making U2’s “Zoo TV” tour a memorable spectacle.
Speaking of MTV,
this year, Pellington is
interviewing artists for a documentary feature about his ahead-of-its-time
show “Buzz,” which aired on MTV in 1990. The 13-episode series was
hailed by critics as progressive, adventurous television and was MTV’s first internationally broadcast
series.
While by no means ready to look back on a career that
is still in motion – the Pellington-directed
Quibi series “Survive” recently netted its star, Corey Hawkins, an Emmy® nomination – another
current project for Pellington
includes finishing up a book, “The
Visualist,” a
memoir to be released in late 2021, and described as “an experiential
narrative, and tale that allows the pop culture fan, filmmaker to be, or
budding academic a world view into a mind engaged.”
Mark
Pellington is available for
interviews. Contact Josh Bloom
at Fanatic for more information.
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Mark Pellington | Links
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : TWITTER
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic
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