MAKING OF THE VIDEO: Beastie Boys – Sabotage
Published on July 17, 2010 by Christian Sellers · No Comments
Although Beastie Boys had spent almost a decade distancing themselves from the childish image of their 1986 hits Fight for Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn they had still retained their sense of humour. Their fourth album, 1994′s Ill Communication, had become a critical success and had seen the trio experimenting with a variety of different sounds. Up until this point their videos had been largely performance based, in which each of the band members take turns rapping into the camera as they had done on the promos for Pass the Mic and So What’cha Want, but Sabotage – the first single released from the album – would mark a change of direction in which they would focus more on narrative and visuals, resulting in later videos such as Body Movin’ which had been a playful homage to Mario Bava’s camp ’60s classic Danger: Diabolik.
The man responsible for the Sabotage video was Spike Jonze, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker who had begun to make a name for himself due to his unique style, energy and imagination. He had first entered the industry in 1987 as a photographer and editor for BMX magazines Freestylin’, Go, and BMX Action, before eventually launching his own magazine, Dirt, alongside two friends. Jonze’s first shot at filming was for the 1989 video Rubbish Heap, a skateboarding film funded by World Industries, followed two years later by Blind’s Video Days, the latter of which would feature professional skateboarder Jason Lee (now known for his acting roles in Mallrats and My Name is Earl). Rubbish Heap would feature a soundtrack of alternative groups including Dinosaur Jr., whom Jonze would later collaborate with on the promo Feel the Pain.
Having honed his talents as a photographer Jonze shot his first ultra low budget music video for Olkahoma-based Chainsaw Kittens, in which he had slept on the band’s floor as he had assembled random footage to be edited together for the clip High in High School, which would mainly consist of the group performing in a club and shots of a car driving around town. With a portfolio of photographs in hand Jonze found himself at Satellite Films, a division of Propaganda (who had also severed as a training ground for David Fincher, Alex Proyas and Mark Romanek). His first video at the company was for the Sonic Youth track 100%, in which he was hired to shoot skateboard footage of Lee. The majority of the video was directed by Tamra Davis, who had previously worked with the band on the clips for Kool Thing and Dirty Boots two years earlier. Sonic Youth‘s Kim Gordon contacted Jonze soon afterwards to co-direct the video for Cannonball by The Breeders, the new group from former Pixies bassist Kim Deal.
Jonze’s earlier music videos as sole director included Luscious Jackson‘s Daughters of the Kaos, Teenage Fanclub‘s Hang On and Time for Livin’ by Beastie Boys, but it would be the video for Weezer‘s Buddy Holly that would launch his career. The piece would feature the band members performing at Arnold’s Drive-In, with footage from the show mixed in. The video was a hit and received regular airplay on MTV and with Jonze’s name listed at the beginning he soon found himself in demand. Having worked once again with The Breeders, alongside Richard Kern and Kim Gordon, and MC 900 Ft. Jesus on their minor hit If I Only Had a Brain (which was humorously included in an episode of Beavis and Butt-head), Jonze’s next break would come with Sabotage.
The concept for the video had first been conceived by Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, a founding member of Beastie Boys (who had initially begun as a hardcore band before becoming influenced by rap and hip hop) who had suggested for a magazine shoot that they dress up as ’70s cops with fake moustaches and wigs. Jonze had been the photographer on the shoot and the idea of a music video was soon suggested. Ill Communication had yet to be released and Sabotage was to be the first single from the album and, at just short of three minutes, seemed like the perfect track for the faux opening credits. Jonze wrote a treatment for the video and submitted it to Satellite Films on April 8 1994, whilst Yauch, who was always conscious of wasting money, insisted that the video was low budget.
To assist with the wardrobe Jonze brought in Casey Storm, a friend who he paid $100 a day to provide the video’s key ingredient – the costumes. Once Mike D tried on a wig and moustache he began shouting at his bandmates and was soon dubbed The Chief, whilst Yauch and Adam Horovitz would also soon find themselves slipping easily into character. Storm would later work with Jonze as production designer on his excellent 1997 short How They Get There before becoming his costume designer on the movies Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where the Wild Things Are. The video would be shot in Los Angeles with a crew of just six people, resulting in everyone taking more than one role (Jonze would act as his own director of photography), whilst Yauch would perform the majority of the driving.
Due to legal problems Jonze would sometimes fill in for Horovitz by obscuring his face behind cups of coffee or whatever props were at hand, as well as being Yauch’s stand in when he was driving. With the video featuring several stunts equipment would get broken, most notably during a chase scene in which the magazine from a camera (which was mounted on the hood of the car) smashed to the floor, causing film to roll out. Another incident required Jonze to shoot in Mike D’s pool, in which the lens of a camera was placed inside a Ziploc bag which was submerged underwater. Yet when the actor jumped into the pool water splashed inside the bag and ruined the camera. After his assistant director managed to dry the water off the equipment Jonze returned the camera to Satellite and told them that had simply stopped working.
The video would be edited by Haines Hall, who would later work with Jonze’s then wife Sofia Coppola on her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides, as well as the Arie Posin’s black comedy The Chumscrubber. To promote the video, and perhaps due to the band’s enthusiasm for the costumes, Jonze shot a seven minute fake chat show interview with the trio in character called Ciao L.A. in which Coppola and Zoe Cassavetes co-starred as the hosts. Sabotage would become another major success for Jonze and would be released on VHS by Capitol, which would also include such tracks as Something’s Got To Give, Jimmy James and live versions of Skills To Pay The Bills and So What’cha Want (the latter with Cypress Hill).
Following on from the acclaim that Jonze received from the Sabotage video he became one of the most sought after and respected music video directors of the 1990s, working alongside such artists as R.E.M. (Crush with Eyeline), Björk (It’s Oh So Quiet), Daft Punk (Da Funk), Fatboy Slim (Praise You and Weapon of Choice), Tenacious D (Wonderboy) and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Y Control). Jonze is one of the few filmmakers who has managed to make the transition from music videos to critically acclaimed feature films, with his debut Being John Malkovich landing him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. His second feature, Adaptation, would also be nominated for several Oscars, although Jonze would be omitted (it would, however, be the first movie in history in which a fictional person – co-writer Donald Kaufman – would be nominated for an Academy Award). Jonze’s third feature as director was 2009′s Where the Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak’s much loved children’s book of the same name.
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