Slovenian DJ/producer Gramatik (Denis Jasarevic) recently released the video for the track "Brave Men" off his latest album, The Age of Reason. The video, directed by Joe Zohar, is more like a short film than your typical music video. It keeps you waiting to find out the truth behind its characters and has a cinematic aesthetic that brings the story to life (Watch it below).
It has been one of Zohar's biggest projects to date. He co-wrote it, directed it, produced it, and co-edited it with Anže Koron, one of his I Me Mine production company partners.
Music Times sat down with Zohar to talk about his vision for the project and what went into making it.
Music Times: How did this project come about?
Joe Zohar: I got hooked up with Gramatik because I was actually running nightclub here in New York. On our launching event, Gramatik was in the back room with my now partner-in-crime Anže Koron (AK). The best part of the evening was when I sat down with these two guys in the back. I didn't know who they were at that point.
He introduced me to AK, and before we knew it, there was the three-act structure of I Me Mine, which was the production company that we later formed.
By the end of the night we had synced up on so many levels — you know film, and art and life, and he finally introduced himself as Gramatik. From there, the relationship flourished.
MT: What was your initial vision for the "Brave Men" video?
JZ: It started off with the idea of a female fight club, and it grew from there.
We wanted to tell a story with more cinematic techniques, longer shots, not as frenetic in the editing style, no other effects than to just punch up what's already there. We wanted to take that cinematic aesthetic to the music video world. We looked, and that sort of thing isn't really done anymore.
We also didn't want to do the big drop in our music video. You know when the drop in the song comes. Everyone is expecting it. We wanted the drop to come a lot more subtly and have it mean more. The whole "You've gotta be f**king kidding me" line, that's what we wanted the audience to feel.
MT: So the music is almost secondary in that it soundtracks the short film?
JZ: What made that possible is that Denis is the most humble, amazing artist I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He was like look, "This video isn't to service my music; my music is to service this video. If you need me to rearrange anything, I want it to be the best it can be. I'm trusting you guys."
That's very rare. But at the end of the day, he loves movies. He loves films and shows that's his second biggest passion, I'd say, right after music. So it made for this wonderful team in that respect. So that was essentially how it gestated.
MT: How did you choose the location to tell your story?
JZ: New Orleans wasn't the first place we wanted to shoot — but I'm going to go ahead and say New Orleans was the best place to shoot ever. It's just a great place to make films and make art. They have great talent and don't inflate their prices.
New Orleans came about because Gramatik's tour manager lives there. Originally we thought we were going to try to find something in Brooklyn or the outskirts of New York.
So that was the idea. In the remote, outskirts of this town these gals kind of get together, and this is how they let out their frustration.
MT: How did you go about casting the characters?
JZ: The lead is actually a super close friend of mine that I went to college with, and she is one of the most creative beautiful people I know. She was in my senior thesis film and we kind of came up together and have gone through a lot.
I knew that whoever was in it was going to get beat up a bit, like physically it was going to be grueling. But she's a warrior. And knowing that my talent was going to be fine was the biggest relief in the world. The rest of the cast we found in New Orleans.
MT: Did they have any stage combat training?
JZ: It was a lot of them trusting me as a director. I have training in martial arts and grew up on Kung-Fu movies, so there are ways of ramping up intensity. I had to control myself a little too. They weren't trained in stage combat, so the last thing I wanted to do was have someone walk away with a bloody nose.
If certain people were to have witnessed what we were doing they would have thought we were out of our minds having these girls do this without any formal training. They were tough as nails.
MT: Tell me more about filming that fight scene.
JZ: It was gorgeous in New Orleans the entire time we were shooting, except that barn scene. It was freezing cold. We were in the middle of nowhere at night in this freezing barn with no heat, except like a blowtorch space heater. So the conditions were grueling and everyone had to stay really late. It was a solid hour outside of New Orleans. So people had to travel in. But working with them and trying to get that primal, volatile nature — they just brought it, and I have nothing but love for them.
MT: It seems as though the theme of this video is not to make assumptions. Don't assume it was the husband who gave her the bruise; don't assume the title "Brave Men" means the song is about men, etc. The viewer has to be patient before finding out the truth.
JZ: We've seen a number of people ask questions about whether it was the husband who gave her the bruise, and I don't want to answer that question. I think there's enough to show he isn't a good guy. That was part of the risk. You're hoping that people will stick around.
For me, sometimes I have less faith in people. If they don't see quick cuts or get their pay off in the first 30 seconds, then maybe they'll move on. So it was always risky in my opinion. We hope this video will still be good in ten years. Where as some videos won't still have that social relevance.
MT: The aerial shots in the video really add to the production value of the piece, and many commenters have pointed out how awesome it looks.
JZ: We rented a couple drone operators. I had seen some drone cinematography before, and I thought it was fantastic. In the first act, she seems like she's caged, hence the whole bird and cage; she's locked away, and the aerial shots represent her spreading her wings and being able to fly.
So that was the subtext for that approach. We wanted to show she was really going far out there and not just driving down the street. It was cool to just show off New Orleans a bit. I just love the area.
MT: In going with the idea of a female fight club, feminism plays a role in the story. Did you have a message you were trying to get across?
JZ: For me, I wanted it to be empowering to women. The girls are just as tough as the guys — the idea that a woman can take on masculine traits and overcome her physical limits, I liked that she was able to tap into something that's more associated with men. You don't normally associate women with that kind of fighting.
The victory is hers in the end. So it was important to show that her husband wasn't a good guy, and she wasn't just a bitch screwing him over for no reason.
The core of it all was that the ladies can bring it just as hard as the guys can. I don't know how the feminist community at large will take it, but I hope positively. It came from a good place, so I hope they see that.
You can check out more of Zohar's work, such as the music video for The Chainsmoker's "Girlfriend Remix," here.
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