Right now, I’m thinking a lot of things. I’m thinking about the brilliance of George Carlin, who I really didn’t think would die when he did. I’m thinking about the future of America with the big election in November. I’m thinking about how to simplify this very complicated story that I’m making a big documentary about. I’m’ thinking about media management, and how I need more hard drives than I have right now. I’m thinking about revising my demo reel and my professional webpage so I can actually afford to pay for the things I want, and need to do.
Right now, I’m also thinking about two very interesting uses of video that seemed quite revolutionary when they first appeared.
VH1 Pop Up Videos
The VH1 Pop-Up video clips were a very innovative method of presenting old music videos in a new manner. I don’t know who came up with this concept, but I thought it was pure genius to find some popular, or formerly-popular music videos, and re-package them with graphic word balloons providing some interesting factoids about the stories behind these music videos. Why not find creative ways to recycle this old content in an entertaining manner?
I don’t know why VH1 discontinued this type of programming, but I think it’s a real tragedy that they didn’t continue what seemed like a very successful format, just as I think it’s very sad that neither MTV or VH1 show many music videos these days.
Why not a TV channel dedicated to non-stop music? Wasn’t that what MTV was all about it? I don’t get it.
Van Halen “Right Now” music video
I’m not a big fan of Van Halen‘s music, but I really think their music video for “Right Now” was one of the greatest music videos ever created. There’s an exciting theme in both the song and the video about living for the moment, accepting change as an inevitable thing that should be celebrated, if possible.
The style of this music video, like the Pop-Up music videos, use written text as a significant asset that compliments the other elements of the program, providing written words as a tool to underscore a very specific set of messages. I also enjoyed some of the specific text messages within this video, which weren’t the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a music video for a mainstream musical group.
The video won for Best Video, Best Editing, and Best Direction at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
Tonight, as I did some online research of this song, I learned some interesting facts about Carolyn Mayer Beug, who directed this video. She was one of the passengers on flight 11, which was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
For someone that created such an innovative music video that celebrated the act of living life, this seemed like such a sad, ironic ending.
I know there’s a Pop-Up video of the Van Halen “Right Now” music video, but I can’t find it anywhere in cyberspace. Hopefully, someone will take the initiative to share this video, as I’d love to see it right now.
Luckily, the original Van Halen “Right Now” music video is readily available on YouTube. There’s also a 2004 updated version of the video with the extra lines “right now nothing is more expensive than regret.”
On an unrelated note…. as I type these words, I hear a commercial for a product called the “5 Hour Energy Drink.” There’s a certain musical stanza that sounds vaguely familiar.
It’s a strange thing to hear LOUIE LOUIE in unlikely places, just as it’s an empowering thing to experience things that absolutely reaffirm what you already know – right now.
Let’s give it to ’em
Right now 🙂