In the music video "When It’s Over," members of the band Sugar Ray envision themselves as (variously) hip-hop stars, punk heroes, and, in one case, the late martial arts master Bruce Lee. McG, who helms spots and music videos through A Band Apart Commercials, Los Angeles, directed the comic homage to film and music video genres past and present.
For the clip, the director (McG’s credits also include the 2000 feature Charlie’s Angels) drew on his encyclopedic knowledge of the band–a side effect of having known its members for years. McG, who directed Sugar Ray’s first video back in ’94, admitted that convincing the band to get silly on screen took some work: "I had to twist their arms a little bit." However, "I knew what they were capable of, because I’d lived with them all for five years. [With Sugar Ray] I have an advantage that I don’t necessarily have with other bands; I can take a lot of license with them."
McG observed, "I wanted to use the language of video filmmaking to celebrate the personalities of the band members: I think that when you have a personality at your disposal, you’d be foolish not to take advantage of that." For example, "I think it’d be selling Mark [McGrath, the band’s lead singer] short to put him in a beautiful environment and have him deliver the song in a straightforward way. He’s such a great entertainer, I feel it’s my responsibility to maximize his potential."
"When It’s Over" opens with a shot of the band members seated on a sofa, discussing what to do for their next video. It’s a classic setup, and it fits in with the retro, referential styles the video celebrates. In the first dream sequence, drummer Stan Frazier is pictured indoors in a setting that McG termed "very Sting/Sade–I drained all the color out, except for red-so it looks very clean and cerebral." This is followed by the raucous punk rock section, "which is Murphy [Karges], the bass player’s, dream," explained McG. "He would be in a Black Flag, Ramones [type] band from the early ’80s. I wanted it to be so authentic-I wanted Murphy to be exactly like [Sex Pistols’ bass player] Sid Vicious. Rodney [Sheppard, the guitarist] looks exactly like Dee Dee Ramone; Mark has his version of [Sex Pistols lead singer] Johnny Rotten; and Stan looks like a drummer from the [band] Circle Jerks."
This is followed by DJ Craig Bullock’s fantasy, which is full of "hip-hop video imagery, meaning strip clubs, money and slow motion-lots of opulence." This sequence is bathed in green light to give the impression of the inside of a strip club, and bikini-clad dancers cavort around the band. The next scene refers not to music video imagery, but to the kung fu movies beloved of Sugar Ray’s guitarist: "Rodney grew up worshipping Bruce Lee, so we created a scene where Rodney, as Bruce Lee, fights Kareem Abdul Jabar," McG said. Sheppard faces off with Jabar in front of his kimono-clad band mates, ending up with an enormous footprint on his chest, courtesy of Jabar. In the last dream sequence, McGrath stars as the pouting, hairsprayed lead singer of a new wave band, circa ’81. The other members are also in character, complete with copious makeup and blank expressions. McG revealed, "The real kick is seeing the outtakes of that section-Mark couldn’t let go of the character. He was in a wig, wearing makeup and prancing around."
Finally, we are transported back to the opening scene, where the guys decide to do "what’s right for the song." We then launch into what McG calls "the imagery that perpetuates the idea of the band as the modern Beach Boys." At last we see the band members in their natural element-riding motorbikes on a sunny highway and dancing in a crowd. McG offered, "They’ve got this easygoing, Southern California sound of hip-hop, drum loops, acoustic guitars and lush vocals. … The Beach Boys are, I think, an influence on the band. I like to reflect the airiness and the dreaminess of the Beach Boys’ sound visually, as Sugar Ray likes to reflect it sonically."
The director’s history is closely linked to that of the band: "When I got out of college I started a record label, G Recordings, and I signed Sugar Ray. We cut some songs, but no one was paying much attention," recalled McG. Undaunted, the entrepreneur decided that a video would jumpstart Sugar Ray’s career: "I knew Mark was a charismatic guy, and that if you saw Sugar Ray in action you’d be a little bit more excited about the band than if you just heard the songs."
McG, who at that time had never directed anything other than home videos, borrowed some camera equipment from a friend and shot a clip. "I didn’t even know what it meant to be a producer or a director; I just knew what I wanted to see on the screen," McG recalled. "We shot in a bunch of locations on 35 millimeter film and made the whole thing for $3,500." But their efforts paid off: Sugar Ray got a deal when a record label executive saw the video, and McG soon found himself directing more videos. McG enjoyed his burgeoning career: "I’d always been a still photographer, and I thought music videos would be the marriage of my two favorite mediums-music and film." His interest in music led him to helm clips for other artists. He told SHOOT, "I was lucky enough to be introduced to [rock band] Korn in about ’95. … I made the video for a song called ‘Blind,’ which was the first video off their first record. We made it for $9,000, and Korn ended up being one of the biggest rock bands in the world." McG eventually branched out into spots, signing with Squeak Pictures, Los Angeles, before joining A Band Apart about three years ago.
McG is currently in preproduction on the feature Dreadnought, but he still enjoys short-format projects: "It’s very satisfying to conceive, execute and complete a project on a month-to-month basis. The aggressive pace is very rewarding."
"When It’s Over" was edited by Dustin Robertson of Aviddiva, Venice, Calif.
