BACK TO MAIN
BACK TO ARTICLES
By Karen Bliss - JAM! Music, Canoe.ca
Swollen Members have tapped Canadian comic king Todd McFarlane to direct their next video, "Breath," featuring Nelly Furtado. McFarlane, best known for his re-design of the classic Spider-Man and as the creator of animated action hero Spawn, has helped create videos for Pearl Jam and Korn. The second single from the Vancouver hip hop group's latest album, "Monsters In The Closet", will mark the Calgary native's non-animated directorial debut.
McFarlane and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder collaborated on an animated video for the rock band's song "Do the Evolution" from the album Yield, which received 40 international artistic awards, and a 1999 Grammy nomination for best short form music video. He also produced the Grammy and MTV Video Award winning "Freak on a Leash" music video from Korn's Follow the Leader album. Swollen Members are big comic book fans and Mad Child, one of the group's three MCs and owner of independent record label Battleaxe, has McFarlane-designed action figures all over his office.
In fact, when the group's manager Jay Clark of Nettwerk Management, in Vancouver, first made contact with the U.S.-based Todd McFarlane Entertainment Inc. it was with the idea of having McFarlane create Swollen Members action figures. Company president Terry Fitzgerald returned with an interest in having McFarlane direct a video.
"When I reached out to them and I got talking to (Terry) about Swollen, he had just picked up Bad Dreams on vinyl the month before," recounts Clark. "He mentioned that (Todd) was interested in directing the video. I sent them the song. They took a listen and they liked the song obviously and decided, yeah, this is something we want to do."
Mad Child, fellow rapper Prevail, and Furtado had a conference call with McFarlane, who resides in Arizona, to get a feel for each other and the possible direction for the "Breath" video.
"Fortunately, with a band like this I will be able to make use of the darker themes that I enjoy so much," McFarlane wrote in the first draft of the treatment. "Most other entities we deal with want us to dial it down on the edgy stuff, but if your boys are down with edgy then we could have some good fun with this."
To paraphrase the concept, which was detailed but still rough, McFarlane envisions an environment that is just becoming dusk. A visual trick will drive home the idea that the world of Swollen Members is in constant chaos, while Furtado, "dressed in white shiny leather," displays a calm. Mad Child and Prevail set out on an adventure through the city streets and alleys, as Furtado, in a warehouse "dances all around her kneeling servant," the group's other MC, Moka Only. What transpires are action-filled sequences in which light and dark converge and other-worldly creatures ultimately bond. A second draft is being readied, which will determine DJ/producer Rob The Viking's role.
While the story board is subject to change, McFarlane will be in Vancouver December 18 to shoot the video, which will be serviced to Canadian music video channels in January.
November 29, 2002 [Canoe.ca]