Pop-Up Video for I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

[rsimms3]

http://www.vh1.com/video/the-white-stri ... id=1671817

[theeradicaleclectic]

That video still leaves me with a ton of questions ... its good as a concept but honestly a bit devoid of ... well ... lets just say lots of things

thanks for posting the link to the pop up version of it though... maybe a bit of trivia but still interesting for at least one viewing

Questions I came up with were: i wonder if the white stripes even considered having themselves in this video in any way shape or form?

did jaime know kate when she made this video?? how many outtakes did they have when shooting this?? did they try some acrobatics?

the usual sort of meander of ideas when all there is to work with is a 4/4 time and naked woman posing repeatedly scenario ...

oh well... enough on the digression point of view

[orangeshoeskid]

I know the band isn't fond of the video and don't consider it to be official.
They don't even have it listed as one of their videos.
http://whitestripes.com/lo-fi/video.html

[Grimtale]

More more more!!!
I officially now love the White Stripes!
GRim

[higherlimits]

This video has been around forever, I'm surprised there are so many people who haven't seen it before..this is the second thread about it!

[achouza]

I know the band isn't fond of the video and don't consider it to be official.
They don't even have it listed as one of their videos.
http://whitestripes.com/lo-fi/video.html

interesting, why isnt the band fond of the video? any idea?

[Kali Durga]

Didn't Jack mention in an interview in Australia that it was "too provocative"? I've always wondered why he allowed it to be released if he felt that way. Perhaps he didn't have as much control over videos as over the band's music at the time...?

[orangeshoeskid]

From the http://www.whitestripes.net/faq.php#

7.7 I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself Video: [top]
In addition to forcing the cancellation of the band's appearances at the Reading and Leeds festivals, Jack's injuries had one other consequence: the video for their splenetic cover of Burt Bacharach's I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself could not feature the band. The commission was thus opened to tender, and awarded to Sofia Coppola, who had the novel idea of filming - oh yes - Kate Moss pole-dancing.

Jack: "Sofia Coppola just wrote a two-sentence thing: 'I would like to film this video, and have Kate Moss in it, in black and white, dancing on a pole'," he says. "Everybody else had these super-long descriptions of videos that they wanted to make for us, and none of them really hit me as something interesting. I thought that one was so simple and powerful, that it was a great idea. So we let her do it. But I'm not really that happy with it. I wanted the dancer to be the ultimate metaphor for someone who doesn't know what to do with themselves, so they're selling themselves; exploiting themselves," says Jack. "And in the end, I don't think that metaphor comes across. It becomes about selling sexuality. Just one look on her face - one shot - would have brought it out for me. You'd say, 'Oh, that's exactly what this song's about.' But when it came out like it did, my first reaction was, 'We've insulted Burt Bacharach. I hope he knows we weren't just trying to use an underwear ad to sell our album'."

Meg: "I thought it would be more sad; more emotional,"

Sofia Coppola (director): ''I said, 'I don't know -- how about Kate Moss doing a pole dance?' '' Coppola recalled. ''I said that because I would like to see it. That's the way I work: I try to imagine what I would like to see.''

On the set of the video that day, Kate Moss was watching Robin Conrad, a professional choreographer who specializes in pole dancing, and a friend of a friend of Sofia's, as she slid up and down the metal pole ending in a modified back bend. ''Oh, I can do that,'' Moss joked, as she tried the same maneuver. Conrad, who studied dance at Cal Arts and has choreographed pole dances to Tom Waits songs, is a typical Sofia find. Conrad flew to New York a few days earlier and had been rehearsing with Moss since, downstairs at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo. (''There's a pole in the basement,'' Sofia explained.) Coppola was conferring now with Moss, telling her to snake up the pole a little more slowly. Moss, who turned down a short white robe offered by an assistant, was remarkably comfortable in her underwear and sat with her feet up in front of a fan. ''My body has not had this much exercise in its whole life,'' she said. While she rested, Sofia planned the next shot. ''I think the camera is too close to her behind,'' Sofia almost whispered to Acord, the cinematographer. She perched next to him. It was one of those moments when being a female director probably makes a difference. What male director wouldn't have had his camera relish close-ups of Moss's near-naked body? ''I'm self-conscious about that shot,'' Sofia said quietly. ''I know we're making a sexy video, but it's sort of brave not to show too much. We want it to be a little Fosse, but I also want it to have that weird Factory feel.'' During the 4 p.m. lunch break for the White Stripes video (they'd started at 1), a long table was set up in the empty garage of the studio. It was a beautiful afternoon, and an assistant opened the garage door onto West 12th Street. ''This is why I didn't want to shoot in Queens,'' Sofia said, as she surveyed the street in all its Greenwich Village charm. As it often does in Sofia's life, the scene outside fit perfectly with the video scene inside. The real-world mood -- a kind of polished bohemianism, full of interest -- and the movie mood matched, which is Sofia's way.

Jack: "I don't have much to say about it, It was completely Sofia Coppola's idea and I don't really have a comment on it."

[orangeshoeskid]

This video has been around forever, I'm surprised there are so many people who haven't seen it before..this is the second thread about it!

+1

[Kali Durga]

I hadn't seen that section in the faq, thanks for pulling it out. I definitely like the band's reaction, as I've felt this was the only lame video they've ever put out. Everything else they've done, even fluffier stuff like Fell In Love With a Girl, makes you think somehow. If nothing else, it makes you think about what went into the creation of it. But Sofia Coppola doesn't seem to have gotten that about the band, or at least didn't convey it if she did. There's no Fosse in that choreography at all, nor any of the wit of the Factory (I assume she's referring to Warhol). And how the hell does it reflect the "polished bohemianism", charm, or interest of Greenwich Village? It's exactly what Jack described, an underwear ad.

[trickster]

Since the posted link is not working in all countries, can someone confirm if the video on first post is this one?

[greginchains]

Yes it is, just with pop up facts throughout the video.

[anonymousbrunette]

I hadn't seen that section in the faq, thanks for pulling it out. I definitely like the band's reaction, as I've felt this was the only lame video they've ever put out. Everything else they've done, even fluffier stuff like Fell In Love With a Girl, makes you think somehow. If nothing else, it makes you think about what went into the creation of it. But Sofia Coppola doesn't seem to have gotten that about the band, or at least didn't convey it if she did. There's no Fosse in that choreography at all, nor any of the wit of the Factory (I assume she's referring to Warhol). And how the hell does it reflect the "polished bohemianism", charm, or interest of Greenwich Village? It's exactly what Jack described, an underwear
ad.

Agreed. It's vacuous. For the longest time I thought it was unsanctioned. Thanks for posting the story, OSK.

[Arran_Ramone]

I remember seeing this years and years ago on Kerrang!. I thought it was a pretty crappy video all in all... I'm glad i'm not the only one.