Over time, I hope to upload virtually ALL of my old video projects (plus new ones), and also curate works from others into this substack.
Recently, Vic Berger created a biographical series called the Joel Hoel, and I have been loving it. It reminded me that I never posted this full video online and so, here it is!
Click here to watch the video on archive.org (because Youtube keeps taking it down!)
Yes, it’s a bit pixelated, but you can buy a full res DVD (remember those) from me here. A full resolution download will also be available SOON.
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Here is the VERY DRY write-up I did for this video back in grad school.
Serving both as a collage of actual footage and a collage of ideas, this video work evaluates various elements of perceived persona. What an artist or celebrity sees in himself may be very different from how he is perceived by others, yet he often manufactures a persona to market his work. Usually, this is a persona that many spectators buy into, even if it reads like a joke to others. Just as Billy Joel's music videos playfully attempt to establish a loose sense of biography and mythology, this video mash-up playfully confronts those same identity-based tropes. Following a loose structure that resembles the narrative of a concert, this piece connects the biography/myth to concepts of celebrity and performance while musically distilling Billy Joel's songs to their most visceral elements such as drum fills, piano solos, guitar riffs and sustained vocals.