Thursday, April 17, 2014

Video Of The Week: Childish Gambino (Feat. Problem)

Childish Gambino, a.k.a. the musician personae of actor (Community) / writer (30 Rock) Donald Glover, is one insanely talented creator and performer. He's already an award-nomination-producing machine and, at barely 30 years of age, is doing it all his own way, at his own pace, in the medium he chooses, in the vehicle he decides to board.

It's not about a huge film opening, or signing with the biggest label, or appearing on every possible late-night and early-morning talk show, it's about taking full charge of every step of the creation process.

As a matter of fact, on his recent tour, though he contracted Montréal super-effects team Moment Factory to design and execute the stage and props, he wanted full input on everything created, and over 80% o the end result came from his unique vision and storyboards.

I saw him perform last year and he just blew me away; with an extra year of experience and a whole new visual experience, it can only be even better.

In this Hiro Murai-directed video for the song Sweatpants, he uses the type of visual storytelling of repetition and looping often found in Michel Gondry's video work - possibly the best reference to have when filming a music video, in my opinion, apologies to John Landis. He has the sensibility of a true indie rock songwriter, but the mental strength of a hardcore rapper - and references that could make Kevin Smith piss his pants; he is the complete package.

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