Joseph Kahn is a movie man. A blockbuster movie man. And over the years he has become one of the masters of the effects-laden, blockbuster music video. A browse through his work finds a bevy of influences and references: not just features, but also comic books, cartoons and even music videos. Indeed, Joseph Kahn knows as much about the history of music videos and their creators as anyone. "I love taking pieces of [other directors' work] and filing them away in my vampiric filing system, then trying to construct a logic of how to approach filmmaking based on things that everyone did right." With well over 150 videos in his pocket, it can be hard to pin down a specific style. Still, one of Joseph Kahn's trademarks is a colorific hyper-realism drawn largely from comic books and animation. He pulls off blockbuster special effects with a light-hearted sense of humor that betrays his penchant for humanistic optimism. You can sense an almost child-like glee in his work, with influences firmly stitched into his sleeve. Yet in his best work those influences and cultural references don't cloud his own voice. One of his best videos, Eminem's Without Me, turns Em and Dr. Dre into a comical Batman and Robin. For U2's Elevation Remix, Bono and co. take part in a good-v.-evil action flick. Gravel Pit sets the Wu-Tang Clan somewhere in-between Bedrock and Jurassic Park. And Space Lord sees Monster Magnet inside both a Hype Williams and Matt Mahurin video. What's remarkable about each of those, among others, is that they each fit, however improbably, inside the artist's personal vision. Often - and this is one of Kahn's stated goals - his videos one-up the artist's previous videos and take the artist to the next level, something Kahn also tries to do for himself with his own work. Sisqo, Moby, Destiny's Child, Britney Spears, and the Backstreet Boys have all gotten a boost from Kahn's treatment. We'll have to wait to see how Kelly Clarkson and the Pink Spiders fare. With all of his love for features, though, Kahn has only had one chance at them with the popcorn flick Torque, a hyper-real biker movie that he's called "Miami Vice on crack." You've said you like features more than music videos? Yeah, ultimately deep down inside I want to make movies. But I really really really respect the art form of music videos. It's kinda weird. They're all cousins of the same sort of initial filmmaking ---- but I personally got interested in music videos because of David Fincher. When I started really paying attention to filmmaking, I started loving Spielberg, Sam Raimi, de Palma, and Scorsese. But when I was watching music videos, there were a couple filmmakers that were even kind of topping what feature film guys were doing, and David Fincher was one of them. But when I started watching music videos, they didn't put directors' names on videos, so essentially there was a Fincher "aesthetic." I knew that he had done a couple things, but I was constantly trying to identify which one was a Fincher video, which one was kinda like a Fincher video, which one was trying to be a Fincher video and, finally, which ones were not in that realm whatsoever. So I found out that a lot of these videos, if they weren't directed by David Fincher, they were all coming from the same company, Propaganda Films. There was a whole list of them that were quasi-Fincher that I liked, like Dominic Sena. This was all before I went to film school. And then there's all those Jeff Stein videos I like, for the Cars - super graphic stuff. You referenced the Cars in your Blink 182 video. Yeah, absolutely. Another reference: In the Garbage video, were you referencing that Wild Wild West video [by the Escape Club], with the legs and the arms that are mirrored, and you don't actually see the torso of the.. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yep, absolutely. Yep, there are little references in all my videos to other videos. Although I want to be really clear about this: I hate copying. I think there's a big difference between making a reference, a tip of the hat that's kind of invisible, versus ripping off the style. I think if you take the things that are similar, you have to comment on it, rather than just incorporate it. From what it seems with your videos, you did a couple videos that looked Romanekian, and then you added your spice to it. It seems one of your favorite things is to make impossible camera shots [using CGI]. Yeah. Without getting too much into technical mumbo-jumbo, my style has been changing over the years. So if you look at my earlier videos, and I've probably done, like, 300 videos - I have no idea how many videos I've done - in my early videos, I would pattern them and, quite frankly, rip off directors I was admiring, simply because emulation is the first stepping stone to executing your own style. So in my early days, when I loved Fincher and I loved Romanek and all that, it was just pure emulation. I'll admit that. But later on, in the second half of my career, after I felt I had a bit more confidence, and I was able to deconstruct what these shots meant, as opposed to how to make them look like that, I felt like I reached a point where I could actually start creating original ideas, and more importantly, original thematic statements. Do you feel there was a specific point where you reached that confidence level? I think around '98, '99. From '93 to '98, it was just, try to do as many videos as possible, shoot anything you could. And I think around '98.. This is after I've done a couple years of, like, big rap videos and stuff like that, I finally started getting into different types of music that appealed to me, and artists that were challenging and interesting. I was wondering if [rap music] was where you were coming from most, or if you personally loved pop music more? Well, I originally started out wanting to be David Fincher Jr. I really wanted to do Madonna videos. Two questions off of that: Have you met Fincher yet? No, we've never had the chance to bump into each other, although we've shared a lot of the same people. For instance, Digital Domain: He works there all the time, and I've done commercials there, for effects and stuff, but never really had a chance to meet him. And why haven't you done a video for Madonna? Why haven't I done a video for Madonna? Well, my name doesn't end with a weird little Ikea dot thing over it. (laughs) Right! If it were Joseph Kahnstocksen, or something I think I would be doing tons of Madonna videos. I don't know. She likes to work with a lot of foreign directors lately. I think it's a problem that's sorta been with me throughout my career. People that don't really pay attention to me - and there isn't really any particular reason to pay attention to me, and I understand that - might see me purely as a commercial director, which to me is actually a compliment; it's not necessarily a negative. But on the flip side, they do kind of discount all the more complicated things I've done too. I think when Madonna thinks of me, she might just think of me as the Sisqo guy. (laughs) Has it been hard for you to live that video down? No! I'm happy with the Sisqo video! My objective was to make the ultimate booty video, so if I was going to do it, I might as well go all the way. I actually think, with that particular video, I set him up to have a really nice pop career, and I think, for whatever reason, Def Jam went against that.. But, no, I have no complaints about my career, that's for sure. Speaking of videos: the Chemical Brothers video. Was that an idea you had for a while, waiting for the right track, or did you just think of it right there? I think I came up with that idea on a road trip, I was driving to Houston for Christmas or something, and I was listening to the song, and as I was driving through the middle of the desert it just popped in my head. Was it hard to secure the rights to Two Champions of Death [Shaolin yu Wu Dang]? No, it was actually quite easy; it was only $10,000. But I think we only have a run of 10 years before it has to get renewed, and can never be shown again or something. That was an interesting video in that it was [commissioned by Virgin UK commissioner] Carole Burton-Fairbrother. She's a legend. I've worked with her a couple times. She has impeccable taste. And when they talk about English video commissioners being a lot more artistic than American ones, that's not necessarily true. In her case, she is one of them, she and, I think, Mike [O'Keefe] over at Sony, who really really respects the art form. In this particular case, she went out to directors, I came back with that particular idea, and she loved it. And then she gave us money, and that was it. Was it just you at home going through that film and picking out the edit points through that? Yeah, I put the whole film on an Avid. Actually, I was in the middle of another commercial and I had to fly to Vancouver, so I actually edited it on a laptop in Vancouver. The next question about videos: U2 videos. I hesitate to ask which is your favorite, Stuck in a Moment or Elevation? (laughs) I don't know. Yeah, that's a very good question, and almost an unanswerable question. They're very different, they're both cinematic, but one's obviously a very emotional video, and the other is a very kick-ass, rule-the-world kind of video. Funny enough, that represents both sides of U2 to me. They're one of the most kick-ass rock bands in the world, and they're one of the great message bands in the world. I was so disappointed that Elevation wasn't on the U2 [The Best Of 1990-2000] DVD, which I'm guessing was for rights reasons? The Tomb Raider thing? Yeah. Which, by the way, was very disappointing to me. I'm thinking, "God, I would love to do a U2 video," just like Madonna. They're definitely in my top 5 of dream videos, if not actually #1. And when I finally get an opportunity to do it, I have to put Tomb Raider footage into it. So disappointing! But at that point of my career, I was like, "Why don't people realize I have talent? Oh, they're gonna give me this, but, no, they're always gonna stick it to me." I had this really bad attitude about the industry at that point. So it kinda made me really excited to work with U2, and kinda made me mad to put this footage into it. Although you incorporated it pretty well, getting the Edge in there. Yeah, so I turned it into a challenge. "Well, now, if I'm going to make U2, and it has to have film footage, then I might as well try to make the best film footage video ever made." There's no sort of second place for me, it's gotta be number one! (laughs) Like we were talking about, you're getting more confidence in your own thematic vision. For Blink 182, that was probably your most high-concept video you've done. I'm going to say that, I don't know if it's true! (laugh) Do you really long to do more high-concept videos? Well, I've done a ton of high-concept videos, actually. Actually, I guess what I'm getting at, um... well, okay, I don't know what I'm getting at. I know what you're talking about. One of the videos that wears its technique on its sleeve? That's right. And it becomes a statement about its technique. But I don't come from that perspective; I don't think in terms of technique when it comes to videos, and I know that's really odd considering they're flashy, with all kinds of camera work and stuff. I guess it's that it's your most "cutting edge" video. And that's different from most high-concept... Yeah. Here's the thing, though. Just because I did that particular technique, I don't think that's more cutting edge than, for instance, the Ashlee Simpson video, where's she's in the middle of a neighborhood, and it's a series of photographic shots. [La La] has no sort of main performance, it's more like a personality piece. But for me, I don't think in technical terms, I think in thematic terms, and the technique reflects the theme of what I'm trying to say, more than me trying to express the particular technique in itself. My work looks guiltier than anyone else, but that's not where I come from. I really don't. When I'm thinking about Blink 182, I'm not thinking, "How can I make an interesting 3-tiered video?" That's not where I came from, my idea was, "How can I tell a story about a girl cheating on 3 guys, and tell it all at one time?" For Moby, We Are All Made of Stars, that also is a video that has a very specific technique in it. And on a weird level it's just as complicated to execute that technique as Blink 182. For that particular thing, there was no negotiating room in the edits. Every particular edit locks in place, and every camera movement is super-precise. That reveal of opening up a completely sterile, Hollywood environment, and then closing in on someone's face, and trying to find some sense of soul or personality, that's a thematic approach, not a technical approach. So I don't think in terms of how "cutting edge" I can make it, or how cool the camera work is, or how much I can express a "high concept." All videos to me are high-concept videos. In the past, you've said that Muscle Museum is one of your favorite videos. I might have said that in 1999, when I made it. (laugh) Seven years later.. But yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite ones. Have you pitched any other dark vids like that? Again, I don't know if it's necessarily a dark vid to me. I see it as comedy. It's more darkly comic than it is a dark video. I'm not really that interested in the dark side of human nature that much, to be honest. There's a lot of ugly things in the world to dwell on, and it's just a little boring. It seems like the "dark thing" seems to be the angst that teenagers feel, which, you know, most of this stuff is being sold to teenagers. But me, as a guy who's way past that, I'm always looking for the brighter side of human nature. It's not necessarily that I'm flippant and soulless. I think that there's a sort of fake soullessness and easy button to press if you want to just make yourself a 'dark' filmmaker. I think that the aesthetic of 'dark' is also kind of a cheap shot, like a power chord in rock, you know? Anybody can put their three fingers together and strum a power chord. And it's big, it's loud, it's obvious. Some of the stuff that I really enjoy doing more than anything else are the videos where I can make people cry. Like Enrique, or the first Kelly Clarkson video, or the U2 video. If I can get a feeling for some interesting, bittersweet emotion, those are most challenging as a filmmaker. As much as I love making the big things, and challenge myself, I think on a technical level, the dark stuff is the easy stuff to do. For Enrique, did he die in the version that made it to air? No, he did not die in the version that made it to air, he died in my version, because they wimped out. But, you know, I think the version that got on air, it implies that he's not going to make it. Yeah, because I was surprised, I hadn't seen that director's cut before, and it was like, "Wow, they made Enrique die!" I'd never seen artists die in their videos. Except for Korn, they were dead in that video. But in actual pop videos, you just don't see that much. It's funny, talking about the dark stuff again. The only reason I went dark on that particular thing is I felt there was a particular point to it. Enrique dying in the video I felt was really important. Unfortunately that's not the way it aired on MTV, but that's the way I have it on my site. And then Korn, itself, it's a dark video, but.. This was back in '96 when I was a baby.. That was a fun video, for me! Yeah, it's a fun dark video, but there's a sense of humor to it too. There are pieces of comedy strewn throughout the whole thing, whether it's the reveal that they hit a car full of hookers, to the point that Jonathan Davis is wearing basically trannie gear. I've seen videos that want to be like Korn, but they always miss that sort of wink. Jump to Part Two, where we talk about influences, movies, the music video industry, Kahn's most expensive videos, whether he'll ever abandon music videos, and the almighty Wu-Tang.		eminem ·· without me Downloadable Videos Eminem ·· Without Me (real) Moby ·· We are All Made of Stars U2 ·· Elevation (Remix) U2 ·· Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of (US) Chemical Brothers & k-os ·· Get Yourself High (win/real) Britney Spears ·· Toxic blink-182 ·· Always Kelly Clarkson ·· Walk Away (win/real) Busta Rhymes ·· Light Your Ass on Fire Ashlee Simpson ·· La La Backstreet Boys ·· Incomplete Muse ·· Muscle Museum (real/small) britney spears ·· toxic faith no more ·· last cup of sorrow Downloadable Videos (Flash) note: these raw flash files will not play in your browser. you must download a stand-alone flv player. mac: try j-vhs · windows: try flv player or click on to watch in your browser. Ashlee Simpson ·· La La Backstreet Boys ·· Everybody Black Eyed Peas & Macy Gray ·· Request + Line blink-182 ·· Always Brandy & Monica ·· The Boy is Mine Britney Spears ·· Stronger Britney Spears ·· Toxic Busta Rhymes & Pharrell ·· Lite Your Ass on Fire Chemical Brothers & k-os ·· Get Yourself High Destiny's Child ·· Say My Name DMX ·· Who We Be Eminem ·· Without Me Faith No More ·· Last Cup of Sorrow Garbage ·· Cherry Lips garbage ·· cherry lips George Michael ·· Freeek! Jamiroquai ·· Feels Just Like it Should Janet Jackson ·· Doesn't Really Matter KoRn ·· A.D.I.D.A.S. Mariah Carey & Cam'ron ·· Boy Moby & Gwen Stefani ·· SouthSide Moby ·· We are All Made of Stars black eyed peas & macy gray ·· request + line Monster Magnet ·· Space Lord Muse ·· Muscle Museum Pink Spiders ·· Little Razorblade Sisqo ·· The Thong Song Sugar Ray ·· Someday U2 ·· Elevation (Remix) U2 ·· Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of Wu-Tang Clan ·· The Gravel Pit mariah carey & cam'ron ·· boy Downloadable Ads quicktime files BTI ·· Network (flash) Acura ·· Urban Sprawl Acura ·· Windows Coors Light ·· Two Girls Ford Fusion ·· Ignition Fox Sports ·· Jimmie Johnson Fox Sports ·· Kurt Busch Fox Sports ·· Finale SAAB ·· Transformer Links JosephKahn.com Joseph Kahn videography HSI Productions brandy and monica ·· the boy is mine sisqo ·· the thong song chemical brothers & k-os ·· get yourself high busta rhymes with pharrell ·· light your ass on fire u2 ·· stuck in a moment you can't get out of u2 ·· elevation (remix) blink-182 ·· always ashlee simpson ·· la la moby ·· we are all made of stars muse ·· muscle museum korn ·· a.d.i.d.a.s. Published 8 May 2006. Modified 8 May 2006: Torque wasn't a box office failure: $40m budget, $50m gross worldwide, easily doubled with DVD & broadcast sales. This page (C) 2006 Kevin Holy. All rights reserved. Welcome to director-file.com.
moby ·· we are all made of stars