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Posted October 20th

New Prince video a homegrown work

Local talent created moody film clip with controversial storyline.

BY ROSS RAIHALA

Pioneer Press


There's more to Prince's controversial new video for "Cinnamon Girl" than just an explosion.

The Minneapolis-based Harder/Fuller Films created the clip, which blends a narrative storyline and a performance by Prince with hand-drawn backgrounds that give the video a dreamy, cartoon-like feel.

The controversy — aired out on cable news networks over the past week — stems from the plot, which follows a young, mixed-race female played by Oscar-nominated actress Keisha Castle-Hughes. The "Cinnamon Girl" reacts to anti-Arab harassment from her schoolmates by fantasizing about blowing up a New York airport.

"It's weird — I've seen just the explosion 10 different times on different news shows," said Scott Wenner, a Minneapolis graphic artist who worked on the video. "It's a little disappointing that it's been reduced to just that."

MTV likely will premiere the full video at some point over the next week, said a network spokesperson. Other cable music networks are debating whether they will air it. The clip can be viewed online at Launch.com.

A team of local artists, led by veteran Twin Cities production company Harder/Fuller Films, spent most of the summer painstakingly crafting the muted, moody video.

Prince's record label approached Harder/Fuller — the filmmakers behind acclaimed clips for rock acts such as Incubus and Liz Phair — to create a video for "Cinnamon Girl," a track from the Minnesota native's recent comeback album "Musicology."

He gave director Phil Harder an attention-grabbing scenario based on the song's lyrics, which include: "Cinnamon Girl of mixed heritage /Never knew the meaning of color lines /9/11 turned that all around /When she got accused of this crime."

"Other than having that initial idea, Prince didn't elaborate. He let Phil take complete creative freedom from that point," said producer Rick Fuller.

The team hired New York-based graphic novelist Greg Ruth to draw the backgrounds used for the narrative aspect of the video. Harder shot the scenes with Castle-Hughes on a minimalist set at Prince's Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen, with Ruth's illustrations added in during post-production.

"We put grid lines on the floors and walls that showed perspectives, and he drew the actual walls and the city streets, the buildings, trees and even the distant skyline," Harder said. "We didn't build a lot of sets. Most of it was all drawn."

Because Prince was on the road for most of the summer, his performance footage was shot on the fly in July on a tour stop in New York. Harder said he spent the entire day filming Prince, who left at 4 p.m. for a sound check, then performed a "long and energetic show. Afterward, there was a private party in Manhattan. I left at 6 in the morning, and Prince was still there. I heard he had a lot of energy, but I didn't know he had that much energy. I couldn't keep up with him."

Wenner, the graphic artist, was brought in to create the paintings aired behind Prince's performance in the video.

"The idea was that it was supposed to look more organic and real, not like it was created on a computer," he said.

For the airport scene, Minneapolis artist Erin Goedtel was brought in to paint the nearly 60 individual watercolors used to animate the explosion, which lasts a few seconds on screen.

"(Harder/Fuller) really value organic art and doing something different," she said. "And I think the video turned out to be beautiful. It flows together really nicely."

It was up to Minneapolis visual effects guru Steve Medin to unify all the disparate elements.

"Phil and I spent a day cooking up the recipe to make this work," Medin said. "Even then, it was a challenge to keep all the scenes consistent. But you could sense it from Prince's end that he was excited about the results."

Prince has refused to publicly comment on the video. His publicist said he hoped viewers would make up their own mind about its content.

Harder gave the 14-year-old Castle-Hughes, who starred in the film "Whale Rider," much credit for the video's power. "We needed someone to show all these emotions in her face … without any dialogue," Harder said.

As for the controversy, like Prince, Harder declined to specifically discuss the video's ultimate meaning. "But when they keep showing the explosion over and over again — as if that's the whole video — I think they're missing the point," he said.

"If you want actual violence, you can turn on the news and watch as much war as you want to these days. This is an illustrated, animated music video with a passionate message."


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Ross Raihala can be reached at rraihala@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5553.

excellent article, cheers man

Agreed, excellent article