June Guterman | Through the Shattered Lens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLqeZzTU8I

First things first, the music video is there despite what it looks like. Somebody just decided to get clever and put the YouTube video-has-been-removed pic as the thumbnail. If it actually gives you the error message after clicking on it, then I’m sorry. I’m also sorry that the last few seconds are missing. However, I can’t agree with a YouTube commenter about that problem. The music video doesn’t fall apart without them. I do have to agree and disagree with another commenter. This song will indeed wash your ears clean of Fifth Harmony’s song Work From Home, but I don’t see anything wrong with that music video. They are just very passionate about equating construction equipment with sex.

Meanwhile, over in the music video for The Perfect Drug, Trent Reznor is reminding me of why I bothered to buy the soundtrack for Lost Highway (1997) back when it came out. I didn’t care about any of the other songs. I just wanted The Perfect Drug. I wasn’t even a fan of Nine Inch Nails. I just fell in love with the song. My favorite part is the drum solo near the end. The music video is what lured me in with its’ cold Victorian look that was a beautiful and haunting representation of the music of Nine Inch Nails. I am sure that bit in the hedge maze was meant to be a reference to The Shining (1980) to fit with the theme of madness/obsession. I could have featured this music video anytime, but I figured October was as good a time as any.

This music video brings back a lot of familiar faces from earlier music videos I have spotlighted.

Danielle Cagaanan was an executive producer on the music video. I can’t find a whole lot of information on her credit-wise. I can find a bunch of other information. She must have gotten married because she now goes by the name Danielle Peretz. I also found out that back in 1994, she accepted an award for Spike Jonze being that year’s top director. You can even see a picture of her here with the director of the music video for Green Day’s Longview. According to American Photo magazine in 1995, she gave Spike Jonze his start with MTV. I also found her Linkedin page. It looks like she founded her own company this year that helps youth with cognitive challenges find jobs. Back during the making of this video, she was near the end of her 6 years at Satellite Films/Propaganda Films before hopping over to MCA Records.

June Guterman is back. She is the one who produced the music video for Lil’ Devil by The Cult.

Jeff Cronenweth is new. He has shot some music videos, but he’s probably best known for his work on other films like Fight Club (1999), The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014).

Robert Duffy is back. He edited this as well as Hella Good by No Doubt, Closer by Nine Inch Nails, and Losing My Religion by R.E.M–among others. He has also worked on numerous Tarsem Singh films.

Tom Foden was the production designer. He did the same for Closer by Nine Inch Nails. He has worked on numerous Tarsem Singh films. He has one credit that jumps out at me. He was apparently an assistant art director on Playboy: Kerri Kendall – September 1990 Video Centerfold (1990), which was directed by Michael Bay. I would think that was a fake credit on IMDb, but Michael Bay did direct music videos back then. One of those music videos being I Touch Myself by Divinyls. Also, it really isn’t that uncommon for major directors to get their start in porn. Abel Ferrara’s first feature film was a porno.

Enjoy!

I guess I could have done the music video for The Witch since there is that movie called The Witch that came out this year. I could have also done Love Removal Machine considering I plan to review the late night cable movie called The Love Machine (2016). However, I saw “Devil” in the title, and figured why not do it for October. I’ll get around to those music videos eventually. Plus, this one is timely for a good reason–much to my surprise. I didn’t know that till I sat down to write this post.

I cannot find any information on the music video itself beyond some of the people who worked on it. I can tell you that it is in that glorious 80s purple tinted black and white making it very much a music video of its’ time. The rest of it might as well be just one of those early 80s stage performance music videos. Speaking of which, there is a second version of this music video I found that appears to be entirely undocumented. But let’s first talk about the people who worked on this one.

Larry Williams was the director, and seems to have done at least 25 music videos in the 1980s. I say “at least” because I can find him on IMDb listing some music video credits that don’t appear in the usual places. He died in 1999 at the age of 48. I have seen one of his few directing credits other than this music video. He directed the 1998 TV Movie adaptation of Brave New World. There is one other thing of note with Larry Williams. I can find a Larry Williams II who works on music videos today. I have no idea if there is any relation.

Francie Moore produced this music video. I can find credits for her having worked mostly on either Larry Williams or Leslie Libman music videos. There is one that stands out. She produced Manic Monday for The Bangles.

June Guterman produced this music video too. I can only find a handful of credits for her as well, but she managed to do two well-known ones. She produced The Perfect Drug for Nine Inch Nails and Foolish Games for Jewel.

I can find a few more credits for Guterman such as producing Dice Rules (1991) and working on Prince of the City (1980) as well as Raging Bull (1980). However, I would bet that both her and Moore are two of those people who have a lot more credits in the music video department than I can find. I think this is especially true since there is a decade gap between Guterman producing this and The Perfect Drug.

With that done, here is the different music video I found for this same song

I could not find any information on this one. I kind of like both of them. This one is closer to the kind of music video I expect from The Cult, but you can see in the first one why remaining members of The Doors would have lead singer Ian Astbury stand-in for Jim Morrison more than a decade later.

Speaking of Ian Astbury, while looking for information on this music video, I came across a performance and interview they did on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers back on May 14th, 1987. They arranged to have Ian’s father call him on the show in order to wish him a happy birthday.