This is the first of what we hope will be a recurring column. Since we interviewed him for our podcast last year, Mike Krumlauf has been very busy. We follow Mike’s work closely because he is consistent with his production techniques and quality of his videos.
We rate all videos the same. First we look at the production quality — because this is the most obvious. Then we look at the creativity aspects — how different from everything else we see (and we see a lot of videos). Last, but certainly not least, is the quality of the editing. Probably the category we consider the most important. Editing is where the producers vision comes into focus. Quality editing is not editing so fast and furious that it triggers vertigo in the audience (wow, do see a lot of these types of videos). Quality editing brings together all the elements in such as way as to create a memorable experience for the viewer.
But it is this last feature of editing that most people don’t quite understand. Mike is not like most producers. When watching his videos you end up feeling something profound. Maybe it’s a sadness or just a recognition of what he is showing. This recognition brings back a memory — good or bad, you are now thinking how his videos make you feel. They have touched a memory.
Consider his video “Naperville North Homecoming 2007." The title says it all; this is about a high school homecoming. Very likely the same thing happened all across the country, for every high school student. It is the same everywhere, and every time. For me it was if I was time traveling back to my high school days. It could even be my old high school. Here he captures what makes this experience the same for everyone. The joy on all the faces. Cheerleaders doing cartwheels. And the three-legged race. All flashbacks to another time — or yesterday.
As with all his music videos he finds just the right soundtrack. In the case of the video mentioned above it is “Fahrenheit Fair Enough” by Telefon Tel Aviv. His tastes in music is so broad I find myself adding many of the tunes he uses to my personal playlists. He introduced me to The Presets with these videos: “This Boy's In Love,” “Girl And The Sea” and “Down Down Down.”
Whether purposeful or not, Mike saves his most memorable work for videos about his hometown, Chicago. Living in Denver is where his work takes him, but watching his videos you can see his heart is still in Chicago. In a very recent video, Spinning, with music by Brian Eno and John Cale doing “Spinning Away,” we are taken on a trip to the Chicago suburbs with everyone having a good time in the middle of winter.
Mike’s videos have a title that reflects his mood at the time; usually very personal. For example, the video he calls “Element” is set to the Michael Andrews and Gary Jules song, “Mad World.” What we see is an autobiographical sketch of his life starting with him much younger. Then the camera pans over all the elements of what his life has become. The computer monitor. A piano keyboard that transitions to a computer keyboard. As we see simple things that make up a life the camera pans down on a brick wall and he fades into view. Then he fades out of view. While all these elements that make up his life pass into and out of view we hear the song with the lyric as it talks about the people running in circles, “it’s a mad world.” As Mike’s image fades out the camera pans down to some unrecognizable images, resting upon a sleeping dog. Is this where we think, let sleeping dogs lie?
This brilliant production that is just a highlight of how Mike Krumlauf shows us his life. And how we think about our own lives. He also shows us how he questions that life. “What I Was Made For?” is even more personal with home movies of him as a newborn. We call his work vérité, and qualify that by saying a vérité video is a slice of life. The beauty of his videos is not that they are about Mike — even though they are — the beauty is he knows enough about his audience to show us all a slice of our own lives.
