Vincent Moon
Encyclopedia
Vincent Moon is an independent film
maker from Paris
mainly known for his field work music video
s of indie rock
related musicians as well as some notable mainstream artists like Tom Jones
, R.E.M.
or Arcade Fire. Besides making music videos he also makes experimental film
s and documentaries
. His 2009 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. He has been living on the road since January 2009, experimenting on nomadic cinema and traveling to film rare musicians around the world. He now works alone or with people he finds on the road, and most of the time without money involved in the projects, trying to redefine the limits of cinema in the 21st century. In 2011 he will begin work on his new collection of recordings, Petites Planetes, dedicated to experimentation between images and sounds, shot around the world.
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 film making. 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 120 music video
clip sessions, most of the time two or three songs, among with many bands including Bon Iver
, Yeasayer
, Liars
, R.E.M.
, Arcade Fire, Tom Jones
, The Ex, De Kift
, Stephen Malkmus
, Scout Niblett
, Sigur Rós
, Caribou, Vic Chesnutt
, Architecture in Helsinki
, The National
, The Shins
, Andrew Bird
, Okkervil River, Xiu Xiu
, Sufjan Stevens
, and David Bazan
.
Michael Stipe
became aware of the works of Moon and as a fan he asked him to make a film project for his band. The result, made with fellow filmmaker Jeremiah, resulted in various experimental projects, for internet and the big screen (SIX DAYS, THIS IS NOT A SHOW...). The project ninetynights.com was a website dedicated to reveal little by little the new R.E.M. album, in the beginning of 2008. Over a period of 90 days, one shot would appear everyday on the website, at first very mysterious and without music, then little by little showing the band members and the songs. Each video was downloadable in high resolution, to let anybody make its own edit. Moon and Jeremiah's edit resulted in SIX DAYS, a semi-experimental approach of the music of REM. In another project with R.E.M, for the song "Supernatural Superserious
", Moon and Jeremiah 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
".
Amongst other projects, in 2009, teaming with editor Nathanael Le Scouarnec, Moon directed Burning, a live movie about the scottish band Mogwai. The result was praised as one of the most unique concert films ever made - a black and white, almost abstract, vision of rock music, with a very brutal ending. A few months later, Moon directed by himself another short film in the same spirit, about HEALTH, a band from Los Angeles.
Besides the Take-Away Shows, he also shot a documentary about the September 2008 NYC All Tomorrow's Parties
Festival. In 2009 Moon, together with his friend Gaspar Claus, curated the third day of the Guitares au Palais
-festival. It featured a line-up of indie bands playing on the instruments of Yuri Landman
. In 2009 and 2010 Moon keeps filming short music movies with an increasing interest to portrait non-Western traditional artists. He filmed artists in Argentina, Chile, Cambodia, Egypt, Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, and Brasil.
He is also currently crowd-funding to complete four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival using the website kickstarter.com. As per the Kickstarter rules, the funding needs to be reached by 15 October 2011, or no money changes hands at all.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
maker from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
mainly known for his field work music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s of indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
related musicians as well as some notable mainstream artists like Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
or Arcade Fire. Besides making music videos he also makes experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
s and documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
. His 2009 film, La Faute Des Fleurs about Japanese singer Kazuki Tomokawa
Kazuki Tomokawa
Tenji Nozoki , best known by the stage name Kazuki Tomokawa , is a prolific Japanese musician, active in the Japanese music scene since the early seventies. He is often described as a "screaming philosopher" due to his idiosyncratic singing style...
won the Sound & Vision Award at the film's world premiere at CPH:DOX - the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival - in November 2009. He has been living on the road since January 2009, experimenting on nomadic cinema and traveling to film rare musicians around the world. He now works alone or with people he finds on the road, and most of the time without money involved in the projects, trying to redefine the limits of cinema in the 21st century. In 2011 he will begin work on his new collection of recordings, Petites Planetes, dedicated to experimentation between images and sounds, shot around the world.
Overview
Chryde, founder of the website La Blogothèque, wanted to shake things up and find another way to share music. He also 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 à Emporter) have existed since April 2006. The large amount of clips is the result of a very fast filming process with mostly one take recordings in a way comparable to the Dogma 95 concept. Comparable with the field recordings of Alan LomaxAlan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
or the Peel Sessions of John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
, 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 film making. 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
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
. 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
The Spinto Band
The Spinto Band is an indie rock band from Wilmington, Delaware. They are currently signed to Park the Van Records.-Biography:The Spinto Band was originally formed as recording project by high school students in Wilmington, Delaware in the late 1990s...
. Under the name The Take-Away Shows Moon made over 120 music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
clip sessions, most of the time two or three songs, among with many bands including Bon Iver
Bon Iver
Bon Iver is a Grammy nominated folk band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. It includes Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was...
, Yeasayer
Yeasayer
-History:The band's three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder, first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their first single consisted of a double A-side of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080"...
, Liars
Liars (band)
Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...
, R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, Arcade Fire, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, The Ex, De Kift
De Kift
De Kift is a Dutch musical ensemble that was formed in 1988. Their music might be best classified as fanfare with influences of rock and punk. The band is closely connected to and befriended with The Ex with whom they did several projects together....
, Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Joseph Malkmus is an indie rock musician and icon, and a member of the band Pavement. He currently performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.-Early years:...
, Scout Niblett
Scout Niblett
Emma Louise Niblett , better known by the stage name Scout Niblett, is an English singer and songwriter. Her music is frequently minimal in style, many of her songs consisting merely of vocals accompanied by either drums or guitar, which she mostly plays herself. She is known for her intimate live...
, Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with classicaland minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound, and frontman Jónsi Birgisson's falsetto vocals and use of bowed guitar. In January 2010, the band announced that they will be on hiatus. Since then, it has since been announced...
, Caribou, Vic Chesnutt
Vic Chesnutt
James Victor "Vic" Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn't come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute album of mainstream artists...
, Architecture in Helsinki
Architecture in Helsinki
Architecture in Helsinki is an Australian indie pop band which consists of Cameron Bird, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, and Kellie Sutherland...
, The National
The National (band)
The National is an indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1999 and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. The band's lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger, a baritone...
, The Shins
The Shins
The Shins are an American indie rock band comprising singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Mercer, guitarist/bassist Dave Hernandez, Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, drummer Joe Plummer and bassist Ron Lewis. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock,...
, Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...
, Okkervil River, Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu is an American avant-garde group originally from San Jose, California. The band is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, who has been its only constant member since its inception in 2002. His current bandmate is Angela Seo...
, Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
, and David Bazan
David Bazan
David Bazan is an indie rock singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Bazan was the lead singer and creative force behind the now-defunct band Pedro the Lion and was the lead singer of Headphones, a band he formed out of his interest in synthesizers...
.
Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
became aware of the works of Moon and as a fan he asked him to make a film project for his band. The result, made with fellow filmmaker Jeremiah, resulted in various experimental projects, for internet and the big screen (SIX DAYS, THIS IS NOT A SHOW...). The project ninetynights.com was a website dedicated to reveal little by little the new R.E.M. album, in the beginning of 2008. Over a period of 90 days, one shot would appear everyday on the website, at first very mysterious and without music, then little by little showing the band members and the songs. Each video was downloadable in high resolution, to let anybody make its own edit. Moon and Jeremiah's edit resulted in SIX DAYS, a semi-experimental approach of the music of REM. In another project with R.E.M, for the song "Supernatural Superserious
Supernatural Superserious
"Supernatural Superserious" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M.. It is the first single and third track from the band's fourteenth album Accelerate and was first released on February 11, 2008 as an MP3, and February 25, 2008 on CD...
", Moon and Jeremiah 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
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. 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
Until the Day Is Done
"Until the Day Is Done" is a song by American rock band R.E.M. from their fourteenth studio album Accelerate. It was debuted on Anderson Cooper 360° to promote the Planet in Peril special and was released as a single on November 14, 2008, as a two-track download-only single...
".
Amongst other projects, in 2009, teaming with editor Nathanael Le Scouarnec, Moon directed Burning, a live movie about the scottish band Mogwai. The result was praised as one of the most unique concert films ever made - a black and white, almost abstract, vision of rock music, with a very brutal ending. A few months later, Moon directed by himself another short film in the same spirit, about HEALTH, a band from Los Angeles.
Besides the Take-Away Shows, he also shot a documentary about the September 2008 NYC All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
Festival. In 2009 Moon, together with his friend Gaspar Claus, curated the third day of the Guitares au Palais
Guitares au Palais
The Guitares au Palais is an annual guitar-oriented music festival in the Palace of the Kings of Majorca in Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, which began in 2004. The festival focuses on folk, gypsy music, jazz, and flamenco. On the third day there is an additional program with a focus on indie rock...
-festival. It featured a line-up of indie bands playing on the instruments of Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...
. In 2009 and 2010 Moon keeps filming short music movies with an increasing interest to portrait non-Western traditional artists. He filmed artists in Argentina, Chile, Cambodia, Egypt, Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, and Brasil.
He is also currently crowd-funding to complete four short films shot at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival using the website kickstarter.com. As per the Kickstarter rules, the funding needs to be reached by 15 October 2011, or no money changes hands at all.
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. He cites his main influences from experimental cinema mostly, from Brakhage to Tscherkassky, and from ethnographic cinema, Jean Rouch or Robert Gardner.Other films
- A Skin, a Night, documentary about the National
- Cheap Magic Inside, a film about The Flying Club CupThe Flying Club CupThe Flying Club Cup is the second studio album by Balkan folk band Beirut, released on October 9, 2007 on 4AD Records. The album was pre-released on iTunes on September 4, 2007....
album by Beirut (band)Beirut (band)Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band's first performances were in Wollaston, United Kingdom, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar...
, with Beirut performing each song in different locations around Brooklyn, New York and Paris. - An Island, music documentary about the Danish band EfterklangEfterklangEfterklang is an indie rock group from Copenhagen, Denmark, formed in December 2000. To date, the band has released three studio albums and are currently signed to the 4AD label, as well as their own record label Rumraket.-History:...
. - Miroir Noir: Neon Bible Archives, a film about the making of the Neon BibleNeon BibleNeon Bible is the second album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released in March 2007 on Merge Records. Originally announced on December 16, 2006 through the band's website, the majority of the album was recorded in a church that the band bought and renovated.Neon Bible became Arcade...
album by Arcade Fire. - Esperando el Tsunami, a journey through Colombia with Lulacruza.
External links
- vincentmoon.com
- blogotheque.net
- www.temporaryareas.com
- Vincent Moon on MySpace
- Changes in Rhythm films
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/vincent-moons-take-away-videos.html
- ATP Kickstarter project