«OK, here's the inside scoop on the new SG video - We shot it in
Seattle over 3 days and went through editing hell in Chicago for 3
weeks. Looks pretty good. It's going to world premiere on MTV Monday,
and is supposed to go into "heavy crush rotation" thereafter. Whatever
the fuck that means. ONE LAME THING THOUGH - The dipshits at MTV
(Their resident Child Psychologist) decided that the original ending
was too heavy (Chris kills the woman) so they are releasing an edited
version. The real version exists, and its better, so put the word out
and bug A&M records to make it available. Please spread the word
to all interested parties, cause they got a dead girl in that lame
Stabbing Westward video, so I don't understand their problem.
Allright - here's some general info - The video was shot on location
in Seattle over the course of 3 days. Most of it was at the OK Hotel,
which is a triple-threat Bar/Restaurant/Venue down by the ferries.
Back in the day it was a Transient hotel, and the top floors are an
abandoned wonderland of rotting hallways and tiny rooms. We also shot
at some other places, Seattle Tattoo, Westernco Donuts, a couple of
street scenes. Doing the shoot was a lot of fun, actually, and the
band wasn't involved until day three, due to their crushing schedule.
I had been apprehensive about their attitude, which turned out to be
excellent, and made it an easy shoot.
The video presented a definate challenge, as they wanted something
"non-videoish", with no band performance or acting of any sort. After
listening to the song about a million times, I basically portrayed the
"pretty noose", as your average bad girlfriend experience. Chris says
that the pretty noose is a thing in life that seems attractive and
desirable at first, then becomes a nightmare, and the song is about
getting away from that. I also wanted to make a video, that while
containing the un-escapeable TV imagery associated with rock
music)Sleaze and sex), would be perhaps a little "smoother" and
natural than the flashy/corny/artsy stuff I saw on the 1 day of MTV I
watched.
Therefore, the video is a series of vignettes featuring each band
member in a hopefully natural-feeling setting, without forcing them to
do anything overly-poseurish. Matt rides a motorcycle, Kim shoots
pool, Ben smokes a cigarette, Chris looks depressed/deep . . . .
interspersed with the band appearences we also see some other sleazy
"slice-o life" scenarios - a donut shop, a tattoo parlor, a pull-over
police thing, a shady transaction. Meanwhile, the "devil-girl" sort of
(hopefully) ties it all together, until she is (in the uncensored
version) killed by Chris, ending his cycle of depression.
The "killing" is inferred . . . you see the girl sprawled out under
the sheets on a bed, while the camera moves up and into Chris's face,
which has a weird, sad look, then a dissolve of a rope sliding across
her face drifts in while a close-up of him staring at you emerges.
Looking at the finished video, a lot of people are not going to like
it because it's edited "weird" - all dissolves, timed to vocals and
guitars instead of drums, limited band appearance. People either love
it or think it sucks. You all will have to decide for yourselves. I
obsessed with making it look nice, and I think it does that allright.
Whether or not it "works" as a music video or mirrors fans fantasies
about Soundgarden, I don't know. I would love to have some feedback
from "the world", so I can figure out if directing videos is something
I should be doing. This was my first one, and it's a whole lot
different and complicated than doing print graphics. I'd hate to waste
the energy on it if what comes out sucks.
Technically, it was a pretty plush situation. We shot in a wide
variety of formats, mostly 35mm, and went the whole hog in
post-production, which was done in Chicago. I sat there with the
editor 18 hours a day carving this thing out, so it's all my fault.
Over-all it was an amazing experience.»
