IFC.com has a feature up highlighting some of the directors Radiohead has worked with over the years in their music videos. The band has long been known to create highly creative videos, which is in large part to the directors they work with. Jake Scott (son of Ridley Scott), Jonathan Glazer, Grant Gee, Michel Gondry, and Jamie Thraves are all featured. Here’s an excerpt about Thraves’ work on “Just”:
Thraves has done videos for bands like Blur and radio titans Coldplay, but none of his videos has caused more stir than Radiohead’s “Just.” It epitomized the look of rock cool at the time. He nailed it with the Elvis glasses, Yorke’s wardrobe and the hot shots of Jonny [Greenwood]’s string-bending solo. But what’s kept fans talking on forums and blogs over the years is the weighty statement made by the man on the sidewalk that makes the crowd lie down with him, just as the subtitles stop. People have gone so far as to watch it in slow motion with lip-reading experts to determine what the line is. The results? Inconclusive, since the shot cuts away to the band anyway. Neither Jamie Thraves nor the band will say, even if there is actually something to say, since they feel it would defeat the point of the art. But fans still keep asking the question, anyway.
This feature is an ongoing special that IFC is running called “Radiohead Fanatic Fortnight.” Check that link often for new things and also for a chance to win Special Collectors Edition packages of Radiohead’s first three albums, and 12 high-quality vinyl EPs.