Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer who is mostly known for making videos for popular artists such as U2 and Kanye West. However, in 2010, Chris Milk got involved in a project with Google and Arcade Fire to make an interactive music video online for people to get involved in. He wanted to make something "...that would emotionally resonate with people, without bogging them down in the technology..." and a cool interesting video for people to watch. He also thought that there was a contradiction between google street maps and street view, and it can be extremely emotional when used in the right context. As an audience viewing the video it is instantly relatable and interesting to you, because at the beginning of the video you are told to write your home town you grew up in, and shots of it play through out the video. The concept of the video at first doesn't sound very appealing, but as it unfolds as an audience you start to relate to it. There is a constant shot of a teenage boy running throughout the video, and clips that pop up of your hometown and other things such as birds while the song plays. The video turns out to be so relatable because it is so simple, and the audience can portray the running boy as anything they want e.g. the place that they have ran away from or want to run back to, the struggle or challenge of growing up or breaking away from home. The video could also be seen as slightly contradictory, as the image of the youth running conotes ideas that he is running away because he is in trouble, yet the birds you feel as if they are flying home. In my opinion it also contains very strong messages dependant on the age of the person. The way you interact with the video by 'writing a postcard' to send at the end, linking with the video itself infers the director believes that no one should stay in the same place forever, yet you should never lose ties with the places and people you love. As simple of an idea that the video is, the inspiration it contains makes it highly effective. Chris Milk also did a similar project with Arcade Fire to try and create emotions into people during one of their stage shows. (Arcade Fire and Chris Milk - Summer into Dust) . Chris Milks other music videos differ from most because he likes to experiment with different techniques in most of his videos. His 'visual style' is very simple but effective in all of his videos, and most of them look like they have been filmed with a high quality handheld camera. Like 'Arcade Fire - We used to Wait' he created another video online called 'THE JOHNNY CASH PROJECT', were the audience select images to draw over and some are submitted to play in the video. I enjoy Chris Milk's work because he is experimental both in his videos and on stage. It's inspirational to see that you can take something as simple as a fabric ball, make it glow and then drop it from the top of a stage during a concert and it will change peoples overall mood. The fact that most of his music videos are online and interactive can really mean you immerse yourself in them and they can inspire you. I think that his music videos almost destroy the foundations of 'what a music video is' because there not telling a small narrative they are completely focusing on the audience and there interpretation. The first time I watched Arcade Fire - We used to Wait, I was so focused on the video itself that by the time it had finished I couldn't remember how the song went, which is effective in a way that it makes people listen to it again and again without losing initial interest. (e.g. if you listen to a song where the music video at first isn't very interesting, your more likely to turn it off or open up another tab while the song is playing - Chris Milk's music videos make you watch it in full at least once before you focus on the song itself. This is another positive point about an interactive video).
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