Jake Schreier and The Magical Music Video Experience

There have been plenty of quirky looking puppets in music videos over the years. Artists such as Weezer, Supergrass and Mr. Oizo, to name a few, have utilised these colourful creatures in their work. But to our knowledge none have had such a great singing voice (except for Miss Piggy) as Lady Dame from Chance The Rapper's 'Same Drugs' video, directed by Jake Schreier.

Jake's video collaboration with the Grammy award winner features vocals from Eryn Allen Kane, Yebba, John Legend, Francis Starlite and Macie Stewart. The video also hosts a cast of co-stars made up entirely of brightly coloured puppets and reminds us of old school duets from the glory days of The Muppet Show.

Park Pictures has been Schreier’s home for more than a decade where he has been creating spots for big brand clients such as Verizon, McDonald's, Heinz, Reebok, Pontiac, Sony and FedEx.

In 2012, Park Pictures Features and Schreier achieved critical acclaim for his feature directorial debut ‘Robot & Frank’, where they were awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, for best feature film that focuses on science or technology as a theme. Over the years Jake has also directed countless music videos for other artists such as Brendon Benson, The Thrills, My Morning Jacket, Cashmere Cat, and last but by no means least, Francis and the Lights.

We caught up with the multifaceted Jake to talk over his latest video for Chance The Rapper, his body of work with Francis and the Lights and his foray into feature films.

We love the new promo for Chance The Rappers ‘Same Drugs’.  For those that don't know, how did the collaboration come about?

I met Chance through my work with Francis and the Lights a few years ago. We’ve worked on a couple smaller things together over the years, and this was a fun opportunity to do something a little bigger.

What was the inspiration for the promo? Any links to the stage show from Chance's Magnificent Coloring World Tour?

Yeah, I went to see the tour and thought the performance of 'Same Drugs' with the Lady Dame puppet at the piano was incredibly charming. I texted Chance that it would be cool to do a version of it as an old Muppet Show-style piece and we went from there. Chance felt it needed another element and that’s how we got to the idea of Chance being the only human in a puppet world at the end.

Where did all of the smaller puppets in the background come from? How many people were involved in the production?

Those were all built and operated by David Fino and The Brooklyn Puppet Conspiracy. He’s someone me and my Waverly Films friends have worked with a lot in the past. I think he had a team of about 8.

How do you think it turned out? Are you happy with the outcome?

I mean, I’m a little biased, but I’m thrilled with it. I kinda stopped doing music videos about 8 years ago except for Francis. It’s only really worth it if you’re doing it for a song you love, and with an artist you can actually collaborate with. To get to make one for one of my favorite artists just feels very fortunate. Also, Chance is an incredible performer. It makes it a lot easier when the artist can hold up the video by being so compelling.

You have been with Park Pictures now for over a decade, how has your background in directing ads informed your ability to shoot music promos?

I don’t think there’s ever a job that you don’t learn something from. I’m lucky to be at a great, supportive company with a bunch of other really talented directors where you can learn from each other. It’s nice when you come into the office and Lance Acord is there, or Chivo (Emmanuel Lubezki) is in the conference. It’s nice when you can still be a fanboy of the people at your own company.

How do you feel the ad world has changed over the last 10 years?  

Ha, I’m probably the wrong person to ask. As far as I can tell, the most consistent thing about the ad world since I got into it 13 years ago is that everyone always says it’s dying.

The Cashmere Cat - Trust Nobody ft. Selena Gomez, Tory Lanez promo has great choreography, how involved are you with that process? how much time did you spend rehearsing and how many takes did you have to get it right?

Thanks. I actually met Jasmin, who danced the lead part and choreographed the piece, in Chicago where we were both working on Chance’s first Magnificent Coloring World experience. It was a live listening event with design, game rooms, performers etc. I thought her dancing was beautiful and asked her to be a part of it. The only real thing I had laid out was the trust-fall concept. And beyond that, just encouraged her to keep it minimal and not feel like every moment needed to be filled. The rest was all her. We had a couple days of rehearsal leading up to the shoot, and then I think we did about 12 takes on the day. The biggest issue we ran into was winds gusting up to 60mph that canceled our first shoot day and then 35mph winds on the day that made operating the techno-crane quite difficult.

Another great promo from 2016 is your Francis and the Lights ft. Bon Iver 'Friends’ creation. How did that collaboration come around and, are you happy with the end product?

Thanks. I’ve known Francis since we were 13, and I used to play in the band too, so videos for him are always special. They’re also complete collaborations. Artists have gotten co-directing credit for way less than how much he influences those pieces of work. They usually take about a year of discussion and stripping the idea down to it’s bare essentials.

That video felt like it was just a natural progression of how much everyone loved that song. First in Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) wanting to sing on it, and then Kanye West wanting to be involved with it in some way. And it made sense because all three of those guys actually are friends, so we tried to tell a subtle story about their relationship to each other just through blocking and use of space.

You have a great history of working closely with Francis and the Lights, what has been the most challenging video to shoot, and what is your favourite?

Yeah, for the 'Like A Dream' shoot, probably having to coordinate a crop-duster to fly right at us and buzz a camera crew at 30ft was the toughest. Francis doesn’t mind dying for his art, but felt a little bad about asking the camera guys to do the same. I made sure I was in the plane’s path too, just for solidarity.

I think I’d probably just go with 'Friends' as my favorite. It was such a special day too.

There is an obvious running theme of 'one shot' treatments in your videos.  Where do these ideas and themes originate from?

We’re certainly not the only people doing single-take stuff. For Francis and I, it’s about presenting a moment. You get to watch a performance at a specific moment in time with no cuts, nothing signaling you to look away. But there’s nothing show-y about them. Often people won’t even notice that it was a single-take, and that’s great. It’s only purpose is to watch an unbroken performance and draw you in.

You directed the feature films 'Robot & Frank' in 2012 and 'Paper Towns' in 2015, 'Robot & Frank for me is a personal favourite. How did this opportunity to direct your first feature come around and how did you find the experience of transitioning into longer content?

'Robot & Frank' was written by my college friend Christopher Ford, who I was in the Waverly collective with. We were lucky to finish the first draft right when Park Pictures was opening up its feature division. I had always wanted to be/seen myself more as a feature director, that’s always what I had been aiming for. But of course you don’t really know if you’re any good until you try it. I liked having such a deep set of decisions to dive into and broader characters arcs to guide the choices. But in the end, storytelling is fun in any form.

Which artists would you like to work with in the future?

I’ve been begging the Haim girls to let me make a video for them, so hopefully that works out this year. Other than that, I’m fortunate to get to work with friends who make great music. Hopefully that continues.

What is next?

There’s another Francis video we want to do coming up, and then just slowly developing the next feature idea and getting back into spots. Also got to work on this new Showtime show called 'I’m Dying Up Here' that Jim Carrey produced about stand-up comics in the 70s. Excited for folks to see that in June.