Today, as Beck celebrates his 53rd birthday, we celebrate his video for Where It’s At. Directed by Steven Hanft, this video shows the many sides of Beck. He’s a rebel picking up trash for community service. He’s a country line dancer. He’s a robot that bears a resemblance to MST 3K’s Tom Servo. And finally, he’s William Shatner performing at the Saturn Awards.
Director Steve Hanft has also worked with the Cure, Primal Scream, and Delinquent Habits. Before this video, he directed the video for Loser, which introduced Beck to the world.
I’m not gonna lie. I really have no idea what they were going for by simply by watching the music video. I spot the reference to Django (1966). The coffin moving on its own reminds me of Vampyr (1932). A lot of the religious imagery makes me think of Dreyer. That, and the holiday–Day of the Dead. I’m also pretty sure Beck is wearing a Saturday Night Fever (1977) outfit at one point.
According to Wikipedia, director Steve Hanft was inspired by Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, and 1920’s surrealist films for the moving coffin. Beck apparently said they were “fucking around” when they made the video. That sounds about right. According to IMDb, the line “I’m a driver. I’m a winner. Things are gonna change. I can feel it” was sampled from Steve Hanft’s own film called Kill the Moonlight (1994). They also used clips from the film.
Also according to Wikipedia, there is one clip in the video that was not shot by Steve Hanft. It’s the one where Jesco White dances on a bench in a white satin shirt. It is also the one part of the music video that was shot on video rather than film. It was shot by Julian Nitzberg.
There’s some more background information on the music video over on Wikipedia.
Director Steve Hanft appears to have done somewhere between 50 to 60 music videos along with other films.
Through the Shattered Lens 