Up&Up Music Video

[Guest diogo_sg]

Yes he did say that. Also he said in another interview that the "next MV" would be one of the best. Now that description fits this video.

 

I remember that as well, maybe they changed their mind on which video to release, but that wouldn't make sense as Up&Up was already announced as a single...

 

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Coldplaying mobile app

I just find it very strange, since this video is anything but simple. And yeah @flockofbirds222, that doesn't make much sense.

[guy42]

The Up&Up views are growing rapidly! Here's a list of the other official MVs by popularity (in millions of views):

 

1. Paradise 543

2. Hymn for the Weekend 325

3. Adventure of a Lifetime 285

4. Viva la Vida 285

5. A Sky Full of Stars 186

6. The Scientist 177

7. Princess of China 165

8. Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall 177

9. Magic 111

10. Yellow 111

11. Clocks 103

12. Fix You 93

13. In My Place 61

14. Charlie Brown 59

15. Violet Hill 47

16. Speed of Sound 46

17. Midnight 46

18. Trouble 45

19. Life in Technicolor ii 31

20. Christmas Lights 30

21. True Love 27

22. Atlas (Lyric) 18

23. Talk 15

24. Strawberry Swing 14

25. Hurts Like Heaven 12

26. The Hardest Part 12

27. Lovers in Japan 12

28. Lost 12

29. Ink 12

30. Miracles 11

31. Up&Up 10 <-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-

32. Birds 8.5

33. Shiver 8.1

34. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face 5.7

35. Don't Panic 5.4

36. Lost+ 4.6

37. Viva la Vida (Anton Corbijn) 3.8

38. All Your Friends 2.5

39. Ghost Story 1.9

[Rickulus]

I'm sure Up&Up will be one of their most viewed videos soon!

[#AnotherColdplayFan]

God, the single version sucks to be honest. I love Coldplay, but this turned out to be a disappointment. The album version is for 6 minutes, and single is for 4 minutes. They removed the best 2 minutes, where Chris goes 'OOOOOO...', or Guy gets his bass lead and the lyrics become beautiful with 'How can people suffer' and all. There were two leads that Jonny had, out of those leads, there isn't even one complete lead. There was only the first lead which was half. And it sounded so abrupt. Everything. I could understand if 'Believe in Love' was removed, which it was although it was a great message, because it was there for the album fluency. Singles are more famous than the album ones because they're available easily and there's a video for it. My friends must haven't heard the album version, so we could never sing the song together.

[The Adversary]

This video is fun, heartfelt, and incredibly symbolic. There is a ton of surreal environmentalism in this thing, and subtle political imagery that makes me feel good about being a human being.

 

Absolutely. My favourite shot in the whole video is the shot in black and white with the tear gas being shot at the police on horseback. I didn't realize until my third viewing that there's a house of cards in the background. I interpret the shot as reflecting authority's grip on society as being ready to collapse at anytime.

 

My favourite Coldplay videos are the alternative Violet Hill video, All Your Friends and now this. The political imagery is something they should do more of imo. Even the Politik visuals for the tour aroused in me the same feeling I had on first listen to the song back in 05!

[Batman]

Absolutely. My favourite shot in the whole video is the shot in black and white with the tear gas being shot at the police on horseback. I didn't realize until my third viewing that there's a house of cards in the background. I interpret the shot as reflecting authority's grip on society as being ready to collapse at anytime.

 

My favourite Coldplay videos are the alternative Violet Hill video, All My Friends and now this. The political imagery is something they should do more of imo. Even the Politik visuals for the tour aroused in me the same feeling I had on first listen to the song back in 05!

Fascinating :surprised:

 

And here I sit and dislike all of the political videos strongly as they have zero artistic value and are just boldly shoving things into our faces that we are aware of anyway because of news coverage and the internet.

 

The Up&Up music video still includes all kinds of political themes but they're wrapped up in very beautifully psychedelic visualisations and just flow into the meaningless pretty other scenes, so they don't really stand out much. I'm very happy about that.

 

I really think this is their most beautiful video to date, the art department really did a great job including all these old footages and merging them with new media, adding old grainy noisy effects over them. It all fits perfectly together!

[guy42]

Fascinating :surprised:

 

And here I sit and dislike all of the political videos strongly as they have zero artistic value and are just boldly shoving things into our faces that we are aware of anyway because of news coverage and the internet.

 

The Up&Up music video still includes all kinds of political themes but they're wrapped up in very beautifully psychedelic visualisations and just flow into the meaningless pretty other scenes, so they don't really stand out much. I'm very happy about that.

 

I really think this is their most beautiful video to date, the art department really did a great job including all these old footages and merging them with new media, adding old grainy noisy effects over them. It all fits perfectly together!

I actually kinda like political messages in music videos (not too much though). The Up&Up video has next to none of it; you really have to look to find any.

I like it for its randomness :) and the fact that there's something "wrong" in literally every scene which makes it slightly disorienting but engaging. That's why it's best to watch this on a big screen. (Better yet, they could make a 3D version of this video for enhanced trippiness :))

[bluedippers]

Damn, this has got to be my favorite Coldplay MV ever.

Although I do agree with some of you that they cut out the best two minutes of the song for the radio edit- much prefer the album version.

[Jamesfish]

This is just such an amazing music video.

[42JTR]

I heard this on the Belgian radio today, it seems the Up&Up music video was inspired by Belgian artist Sammy Slabbinck. However there is no mentioning him at all in the credits. The Belgian radio station Studio Brussel talked to him and he said that he had no hard feelings, it might even be a compliment for his work but he still has mixed feelings about not mentioning him at all. I hope this won't be another plagiarism case. Because the similarities of the video and his work are evident (of course it is more the creative directors' work than the boys themselves but still...). Have a look at his work and the most similar one might be this one:

 

Link of interview (in Dutch): http://stubru.be/vincent/coldplayvergeetbronvermeldingvanbrugsekunstenaar

[Guest diogo_sg]

I heard this on the Belgian radio today, it seems the Up&Up music video was inspired by Belgian artist Sammy Slabbinck. However there is no mentioning him at all in the credits. The Belgian radio station Studio Brussel talked to him and he said that he had no hard feelings, it might even be a compliment for his work but he still has mixed feelings about not mentioning him at all. I hope this won't be another plagiarism case. Because the similarities of the video and his work are evident (of course it is more the creative directors' work than the boys themselves but still...). Have a look at his work and the most similar one might be this one:

 

Link of interview (in Dutch): http://stubru.be/vincent/coldplayvergeetbronvermeldingvanbrugsekunstenaar

Yeah, I too hope this doesn't become a plagiarism case. Let's see how things evolve. But I don't think the directors (nor the band) copied this artist's work. Maybe they took some inspiration, but that's it.

[42JTR]

Yeah, I too hope this doesn't become a plagiarism case. Let's see how things evolve. But I don't think the directors (nor the band) copied this artist's work. Maybe they took some inspiration, but that's it.

 

Yeah I also think it's not copied but the inspiration looks very evident to me. The (wisest) and the least they could do is give him some kind of mention in the list though.

[Guest diogo_sg]

Yeah I also think it's not copied but the inspiration looks very evident to me. The (wisest) and the least they could do is give him some kind of mention in the list though.

Agreed. It would be the right thing to do.

[guy42]

I heard this on the Belgian radio today, it seems the Up&Up music video was inspired by Belgian artist Sammy Slabbinck. However there is no mentioning him at all in the credits. The Belgian radio station Studio Brussel talked to him and he said that he had no hard feelings, it might even be a compliment for his work but he still has mixed feelings about not mentioning him at all. I hope this won't be another plagiarism case. Because the similarities of the video and his work are evident (of course it is more the creative directors' work than the boys themselves but still...). Have a look at his work and the most similar one might be this one:

 

Link of interview (in Dutch): http://stubru.be/vincent/coldplayvergeetbronvermeldingvanbrugsekunstenaar

This idea is not entirely new. Watch the following music video which is full of these kinds of things :)

 

[alisbe]

I found an interview with the directors of the video. I'm not sure if it was shared before but I'll leave the link anyways

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.722124?v=7A0C7781C6364733D3D272F4605B997C

[TheSavage_]

I found an interview with the directors of the video. I'm not sure if it was shared before but I'll leave the link anyways

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.722124?v=7A0C7781C6364733D3D272F4605B997C

I'm not sure if it is just me, but the article seems to be behind a paywall. I'm guessing it isn't for you?

[stephen]

I found an interview with the directors of the video. I'm not sure if it was shared before but I'll leave the link anyways

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.722124?v=7A0C7781C6364733D3D272F4605B997C

It's asking me to pay a dollar lol nope

[alisbe]

It seems some of you have trouble reading the interview I shared so I'll copy-paste it here

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

For 24 hours from the moment British pop-rock outfit

was released, its Israeli directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia were inundated with “countless text messages, emails and phone calls from people we know and don’t know,” Muggia said at the end of that first day. He said among the fan mail were very strange emails from Indians who had decided to praise them personally as well as unrealistic job offers from bands.

 

“‘Let’s film our clip next week,’” he recounted at a Tel Aviv hamburger joint to Natan Schottenfels, the clip’s producer, about one such offer. “We made a lot of noise.” Heymann joined in the conversation via Skype from his home in Chinatown in New York.

 

Heymann got the opportunity to submit a proposal for the clip about six months ago. He turned to Muggia, and the two developed a creative concept via transatlantic digital ping-pong. The duo, both 30, met each other four years ago. Heymann was directing short skits for the satirical television show “A Wonderful Country” when he was invited to direct an interactive video for Bob Dylan’s website and moved to Manhattan, where he mainly directs ads and videos, among them for CeeLo Green. Muggia directed ads and videos for Israeli artists like Dana Ivgy, Ester Rada and the electro band Terry Poison. The Coldplay video was their first collaboration.

 

This video was not the first one in which Coldplay turned to Israelis for help. Yaron Yashinski added all the visual effects to the band’s “Hymn for the Weekend,” which was released in January, in collaboration with L.A.-based Uzi Mor, a fellow Israeli.

 

The work on “Up&Up” was performed in utter secrecy until Chris Martin, the band’s lead vocalist, lauded the video a few days before its release on Beats 1 radio.

 

“The video is – I’m going to drop the mic here and say – I think it’s one of the best videos people have made,” he said. “Even if you take the music away. That’s my point. It’s made by these Israeli guys, these young guys. I can’t believe that that’s our video. If that was someone else’s video, I’d be so jealous.”

 

Gal Muggia. David Bachar

Muggia actually thinks otherwise. “I disagree with what Chris Martin said, that the video was good even if you mute the music,” he says. “The flow of the video, the editing and the movement in every shot is connected to the lyrics and the sound of the music at that moment. This video would not work with any other song.”

 

A few days earlier, when the video was almost ready, Martin invited the two for a personal talk that stressed them out. “He called us to discuss ‘some dramatic changes that need to be made,’” recalls Heymann. “We traversed the United States to make the meeting, and we were sure that it was over, that he was going to destroy the video. And what does he say to us? ‘I want you to remove some shots from the middle of the clip and make an opening shot of “Directed by” with your credits.’ Our jaws dropped to the ground … That was his big request. He couldn’t have sent that by email?”

 

Making the video involved complex planning, with detailed tables planning out each tenth of a second. It included three days of filming at Ukrainian studios and more days of filming in New York with members of the band at a studio and in the city streets, at a laundry automat and in a subway station. They stitched together different images to create incongruous new images, a technique known as compositing.

 

Heymann and Muggia’s compositions have been a subject of controversy among the clip’s viewers. “The Photoshop culture of our day inspired us,” says Muggia. “To take quality pictures from America’s golden age, the 1950s, the leisure and the abundance, and to put in them a small twist that reveals the future found within them, is an acceptable, collage-like aesthetic.”

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky.

One of the video’s impressive shots shows a bare concrete wall on a beach separating bathers from the sea. [see 1:40 of the video] “The idea was to place a border in the sea, a very simple image that would speak for itself, but people attribute local significance to it,” says Muggia. “In America they thought it was Donald Trump’s wall, and here everyone thinks it is probably the separation barrier. To tell the truth, it is a wall that the Israeli company Real Motion created for us in 3D.”

 

Vania Heymann. Natan Schottenfels

In addition, there are elements in the video that look like they draw upon Israeli current events, among them a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform, refugees in a bathtub and demonstrations against houses of cards. “It seeped in totally subconsciously,” says Muggia. “There’s a series of shots in the video that are more political but with a social context. There was no stage when we said, ‘Wow, we have to talk about Yitzhak Tshuva, we’ll put a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform,’” he laughs.

 

Schottenfels says it is a real butterfly. “We filmed it in the studios in Ukraine. They gave a little nectar to this cute one, and he stayed with us, and just at the right moment he spread his wings. They gave nectar to another butterfly, and he flew away. It is important to note that no animal was harmed during filming. And when the butterfly finished his job in filming he was immediately released.”

 

The video was well received on social networks, but many used the opportunity to point out its problem, that there is a Coldplay song in the background. “Coldplay is a band that arouses a lot of antagonism,” says Muggia. “When their first two albums were released when I was in high school, I loved them. After the third album came out I could not permit myself to love them …”

 

Because they became too big?

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

“If I am not mistaken, it’s the biggest band in the world,” says Heymann. “There is no band as successful as they are, only artists like Rihanna and Beyonce.

 

“I tried to maintain myself as a marginal entity. I went through a process to understand what I loved in the band, to identify the authentic element that manages to touch so many people,” adds Muggia. “I think that we found it and learned to love the song, because when you work so long it gets into your blood vessels.”

 

Heymann says that at first you don’t know if you love the song, and then it turns you on, and during editing it turns into white noise that your ears filter out. “I only enjoy it when it’s played on the radio, then I can experience the song for what it is,” he says. “When you hear the same work many times it becomes a continuum of strange sounds. I heard this song perhaps tens of thousands of times.”

 

From religious cynicism to New York

 

Muggia is a native of Tel Aviv, a graduate of Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and Tel Aviv University. His father, Danny Muggia, heads the theater department at the Beit Berl academic collage, who spent most of his career teaching high school. Heymann and Schottenfels grew up in Jerusalem. They met in the religious scouts and later studied at the Hartman School for Boys. Neither wears a skullcap today.

 

frontman Chris Martin and Vania Heymann.Natan Schottenfels

 

“We grew up deprived of a certain culture,” says Schottenfels. “Although we were not ultra-Orthodox, we were religious with a knitted kippa from left-wing homes. Because I didn’t have a television at home, I always feel the gap. Vania’s parents were actually not so strict with television, and we would come to his place to watch the NBA and videos on MTV all night.”

 

Heymann recalls he was a terrible student. “Natan was the teacher’s favorite, a very sharp Talmud student,” he says. “We grew up as part of the religious Zionism that has many faces and many shades, and I am glad I grew up in a shade that maybe was religious in every respect but also did not reject another shade. It was a shade that recognized that our culture is part of all cultures, and people create all over the world amazing things, and there is no reason not to enjoy their creations, their movies, television and music. We heard very varied political voices at my home, not out of obsession but out of an aspiration that every child compile his own manifesto of what he believes.”

 

Heymann says his aspirations in general are to make a feature or perhaps a series, but notes that these are only dreams. “To direct a video for [rapper] Kendrick Lamar is an aspiration that I hope to fulfill sometime,” he says. “And to get less worked up by critiques or reactions, that I will have the ability simply to create and not to relate to what comes back to me.

 

 

Ps. it's strange I can read the article on my phone but I can't on my computer

[Rickulus]

What a great interview!

[Gideon_Mx]

It seems some of you have trouble reading the interview I shared so I'll copy-paste it here

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

For 24 hours from the moment British pop-rock outfit

was released, its Israeli directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia were inundated with “countless text messages, emails and phone calls from people we know and don’t know,” Muggia said at the end of that first day. He said among the fan mail were very strange emails from Indians who had decided to praise them personally as well as unrealistic job offers from bands.

 

“‘Let’s film our clip next week,’” he recounted at a Tel Aviv hamburger joint to Natan Schottenfels, the clip’s producer, about one such offer. “We made a lot of noise.” Heymann joined in the conversation via Skype from his home in Chinatown in New York.

 

Heymann got the opportunity to submit a proposal for the clip about six months ago. He turned to Muggia, and the two developed a creative concept via transatlantic digital ping-pong. The duo, both 30, met each other four years ago. Heymann was directing short skits for the satirical television show “A Wonderful Country” when he was invited to direct an interactive video for Bob Dylan’s website and moved to Manhattan, where he mainly directs ads and videos, among them for CeeLo Green. Muggia directed ads and videos for Israeli artists like Dana Ivgy, Ester Rada and the electro band Terry Poison. The Coldplay video was their first collaboration.

 

This video was not the first one in which Coldplay turned to Israelis for help. Yaron Yashinski added all the visual effects to the band’s “Hymn for the Weekend,” which was released in January, in collaboration with L.A.-based Uzi Mor, a fellow Israeli.

 

The work on “Up&Up” was performed in utter secrecy until Chris Martin, the band’s lead vocalist, lauded the video a few days before its release on Beats 1 radio.

 

“The video is – I’m going to drop the mic here and say – I think it’s one of the best videos people have made,” he said. “Even if you take the music away. That’s my point. It’s made by these Israeli guys, these young guys. I can’t believe that that’s our video. If that was someone else’s video, I’d be so jealous.”

 

Gal Muggia. David Bachar

Muggia actually thinks otherwise. “I disagree with what Chris Martin said, that the video was good even if you mute the music,” he says. “The flow of the video, the editing and the movement in every shot is connected to the lyrics and the sound of the music at that moment. This video would not work with any other song.”

 

A few days earlier, when the video was almost ready, Martin invited the two for a personal talk that stressed them out. “He called us to discuss ‘some dramatic changes that need to be made,’” recalls Heymann. “We traversed the United States to make the meeting, and we were sure that it was over, that he was going to destroy the video. And what does he say to us? ‘I want you to remove some shots from the middle of the clip and make an opening shot of “Directed by” with your credits.’ Our jaws dropped to the ground … That was his big request. He couldn’t have sent that by email?”

 

Making the video involved complex planning, with detailed tables planning out each tenth of a second. It included three days of filming at Ukrainian studios and more days of filming in New York with members of the band at a studio and in the city streets, at a laundry automat and in a subway station. They stitched together different images to create incongruous new images, a technique known as compositing.

 

Heymann and Muggia’s compositions have been a subject of controversy among the clip’s viewers. “The Photoshop culture of our day inspired us,” says Muggia. “To take quality pictures from America’s golden age, the 1950s, the leisure and the abundance, and to put in them a small twist that reveals the future found within them, is an acceptable, collage-like aesthetic.”

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky.

One of the video’s impressive shots shows a bare concrete wall on a beach separating bathers from the sea. [see 1:40 of the video] “The idea was to place a border in the sea, a very simple image that would speak for itself, but people attribute local significance to it,” says Muggia. “In America they thought it was Donald Trump’s wall, and here everyone thinks it is probably the separation barrier. To tell the truth, it is a wall that the Israeli company Real Motion created for us in 3D.”

 

Vania Heymann. Natan Schottenfels

In addition, there are elements in the video that look like they draw upon Israeli current events, among them a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform, refugees in a bathtub and demonstrations against houses of cards. “It seeped in totally subconsciously,” says Muggia. “There’s a series of shots in the video that are more political but with a social context. There was no stage when we said, ‘Wow, we have to talk about Yitzhak Tshuva, we’ll put a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform,’” he laughs.

 

Schottenfels says it is a real butterfly. “We filmed it in the studios in Ukraine. They gave a little nectar to this cute one, and he stayed with us, and just at the right moment he spread his wings. They gave nectar to another butterfly, and he flew away. It is important to note that no animal was harmed during filming. And when the butterfly finished his job in filming he was immediately released.”

 

The video was well received on social networks, but many used the opportunity to point out its problem, that there is a Coldplay song in the background. “Coldplay is a band that arouses a lot of antagonism,” says Muggia. “When their first two albums were released when I was in high school, I loved them. After the third album came out I could not permit myself to love them …”

 

Because they became too big?

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

“If I am not mistaken, it’s the biggest band in the world,” says Heymann. “There is no band as successful as they are, only artists like Rihanna and Beyonce.

 

“I tried to maintain myself as a marginal entity. I went through a process to understand what I loved in the band, to identify the authentic element that manages to touch so many people,” adds Muggia. “I think that we found it and learned to love the song, because when you work so long it gets into your blood vessels.”

 

Heymann says that at first you don’t know if you love the song, and then it turns you on, and during editing it turns into white noise that your ears filter out. “I only enjoy it when it’s played on the radio, then I can experience the song for what it is,” he says. “When you hear the same work many times it becomes a continuum of strange sounds. I heard this song perhaps tens of thousands of times.”

 

From religious cynicism to New York

 

Muggia is a native of Tel Aviv, a graduate of Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and Tel Aviv University. His father, Danny Muggia, heads the theater department at the Beit Berl academic collage, who spent most of his career teaching high school. Heymann and Schottenfels grew up in Jerusalem. They met in the religious scouts and later studied at the Hartman School for Boys. Neither wears a skullcap today.

 

frontman Chris Martin and Vania Heymann.Natan Schottenfels

 

“We grew up deprived of a certain culture,” says Schottenfels. “Although we were not ultra-Orthodox, we were religious with a knitted kippa from left-wing homes. Because I didn’t have a television at home, I always feel the gap. Vania’s parents were actually not so strict with television, and we would come to his place to watch the NBA and videos on MTV all night.”

 

Heymann recalls he was a terrible student. “Natan was the teacher’s favorite, a very sharp Talmud student,” he says. “We grew up as part of the religious Zionism that has many faces and many shades, and I am glad I grew up in a shade that maybe was religious in every respect but also did not reject another shade. It was a shade that recognized that our culture is part of all cultures, and people create all over the world amazing things, and there is no reason not to enjoy their creations, their movies, television and music. We heard very varied political voices at my home, not out of obsession but out of an aspiration that every child compile his own manifesto of what he believes.”

 

Heymann says his aspirations in general are to make a feature or perhaps a series, but notes that these are only dreams. “To direct a video for [rapper] Kendrick Lamar is an aspiration that I hope to fulfill sometime,” he says. “And to get less worked up by critiques or reactions, that I will have the ability simply to create and not to relate to what comes back to me.

 

 

Ps. it's strange I can read the article on my phone but I can't on my computer

Thanks for sharing this.

[Guest diogo_sg]

It seems some of you have trouble reading the interview I shared so I'll copy-paste it here

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

For 24 hours from the moment British pop-rock outfit

was released, its Israeli directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia were inundated with “countless text messages, emails and phone calls from people we know and don’t know,” Muggia said at the end of that first day. He said among the fan mail were very strange emails from Indians who had decided to praise them personally as well as unrealistic job offers from bands.

 

“‘Let’s film our clip next week,’” he recounted at a Tel Aviv hamburger joint to Natan Schottenfels, the clip’s producer, about one such offer. “We made a lot of noise.” Heymann joined in the conversation via Skype from his home in Chinatown in New York.

 

Heymann got the opportunity to submit a proposal for the clip about six months ago. He turned to Muggia, and the two developed a creative concept via transatlantic digital ping-pong. The duo, both 30, met each other four years ago. Heymann was directing short skits for the satirical television show “A Wonderful Country” when he was invited to direct an interactive video for Bob Dylan’s website and moved to Manhattan, where he mainly directs ads and videos, among them for CeeLo Green. Muggia directed ads and videos for Israeli artists like Dana Ivgy, Ester Rada and the electro band Terry Poison. The Coldplay video was their first collaboration.

 

This video was not the first one in which Coldplay turned to Israelis for help. Yaron Yashinski added all the visual effects to the band’s “Hymn for the Weekend,” which was released in January, in collaboration with L.A.-based Uzi Mor, a fellow Israeli.

 

The work on “Up&Up” was performed in utter secrecy until Chris Martin, the band’s lead vocalist, lauded the video a few days before its release on Beats 1 radio.

 

“The video is – I’m going to drop the mic here and say – I think it’s one of the best videos people have made,” he said. “Even if you take the music away. That’s my point. It’s made by these Israeli guys, these young guys. I can’t believe that that’s our video. If that was someone else’s video, I’d be so jealous.”

 

Gal Muggia. David Bachar

Muggia actually thinks otherwise. “I disagree with what Chris Martin said, that the video was good even if you mute the music,” he says. “The flow of the video, the editing and the movement in every shot is connected to the lyrics and the sound of the music at that moment. This video would not work with any other song.”

 

A few days earlier, when the video was almost ready, Martin invited the two for a personal talk that stressed them out. “He called us to discuss ‘some dramatic changes that need to be made,’” recalls Heymann. “We traversed the United States to make the meeting, and we were sure that it was over, that he was going to destroy the video. And what does he say to us? ‘I want you to remove some shots from the middle of the clip and make an opening shot of “Directed by” with your credits.’ Our jaws dropped to the ground … That was his big request. He couldn’t have sent that by email?”

 

Making the video involved complex planning, with detailed tables planning out each tenth of a second. It included three days of filming at Ukrainian studios and more days of filming in New York with members of the band at a studio and in the city streets, at a laundry automat and in a subway station. They stitched together different images to create incongruous new images, a technique known as compositing.

 

Heymann and Muggia’s compositions have been a subject of controversy among the clip’s viewers. “The Photoshop culture of our day inspired us,” says Muggia. “To take quality pictures from America’s golden age, the 1950s, the leisure and the abundance, and to put in them a small twist that reveals the future found within them, is an acceptable, collage-like aesthetic.”

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky.

One of the video’s impressive shots shows a bare concrete wall on a beach separating bathers from the sea. [see 1:40 of the video] “The idea was to place a border in the sea, a very simple image that would speak for itself, but people attribute local significance to it,” says Muggia. “In America they thought it was Donald Trump’s wall, and here everyone thinks it is probably the separation barrier. To tell the truth, it is a wall that the Israeli company Real Motion created for us in 3D.”

 

Vania Heymann. Natan Schottenfels

In addition, there are elements in the video that look like they draw upon Israeli current events, among them a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform, refugees in a bathtub and demonstrations against houses of cards. “It seeped in totally subconsciously,” says Muggia. “There’s a series of shots in the video that are more political but with a social context. There was no stage when we said, ‘Wow, we have to talk about Yitzhak Tshuva, we’ll put a butterfly on an offshore drilling platform,’” he laughs.

 

Schottenfels says it is a real butterfly. “We filmed it in the studios in Ukraine. They gave a little nectar to this cute one, and he stayed with us, and just at the right moment he spread his wings. They gave nectar to another butterfly, and he flew away. It is important to note that no animal was harmed during filming. And when the butterfly finished his job in filming he was immediately released.”

 

The video was well received on social networks, but many used the opportunity to point out its problem, that there is a Coldplay song in the background. “Coldplay is a band that arouses a lot of antagonism,” says Muggia. “When their first two albums were released when I was in high school, I loved them. After the third album came out I could not permit myself to love them …”

 

Because they became too big?

 

 

An image from the Coldplay’s video 'Up&Up.' Roman Linetsky

“If I am not mistaken, it’s the biggest band in the world,” says Heymann. “There is no band as successful as they are, only artists like Rihanna and Beyonce.

 

“I tried to maintain myself as a marginal entity. I went through a process to understand what I loved in the band, to identify the authentic element that manages to touch so many people,” adds Muggia. “I think that we found it and learned to love the song, because when you work so long it gets into your blood vessels.”

 

Heymann says that at first you don’t know if you love the song, and then it turns you on, and during editing it turns into white noise that your ears filter out. “I only enjoy it when it’s played on the radio, then I can experience the song for what it is,” he says. “When you hear the same work many times it becomes a continuum of strange sounds. I heard this song perhaps tens of thousands of times.”

 

From religious cynicism to New York

 

Muggia is a native of Tel Aviv, a graduate of Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and Tel Aviv University. His father, Danny Muggia, heads the theater department at the Beit Berl academic collage, who spent most of his career teaching high school. Heymann and Schottenfels grew up in Jerusalem. They met in the religious scouts and later studied at the Hartman School for Boys. Neither wears a skullcap today.

 

frontman Chris Martin and Vania Heymann.Natan Schottenfels

 

“We grew up deprived of a certain culture,” says Schottenfels. “Although we were not ultra-Orthodox, we were religious with a knitted kippa from left-wing homes. Because I didn’t have a television at home, I always feel the gap. Vania’s parents were actually not so strict with television, and we would come to his place to watch the NBA and videos on MTV all night.”

 

Heymann recalls he was a terrible student. “Natan was the teacher’s favorite, a very sharp Talmud student,” he says. “We grew up as part of the religious Zionism that has many faces and many shades, and I am glad I grew up in a shade that maybe was religious in every respect but also did not reject another shade. It was a shade that recognized that our culture is part of all cultures, and people create all over the world amazing things, and there is no reason not to enjoy their creations, their movies, television and music. We heard very varied political voices at my home, not out of obsession but out of an aspiration that every child compile his own manifesto of what he believes.”

 

Heymann says his aspirations in general are to make a feature or perhaps a series, but notes that these are only dreams. “To direct a video for [rapper] Kendrick Lamar is an aspiration that I hope to fulfill sometime,” he says. “And to get less worked up by critiques or reactions, that I will have the ability simply to create and not to relate to what comes back to me.

 

 

Ps. it's strange I can read the article on my phone but I can't on my computer

Thanks! It's a great interview [emoji4]

[coldplayisawesome]

behind the scenes! :cheesy:

 

 

 

i am like super nerding out over this video right now :smart:

i hope they win the VMA because these guys deserve it

 

 

although now i think Coldplay need some more women-produced videos... so, you know, i just started grad school but i can make time in my schedule :whistle:

[alisbe]

behind the scenes! :cheesy:

 

 

 

i am like super nerding out over this video right now :smart:

i hope they win the VMA because these guys deserve it

 

 

although now i think Coldplay need some more women-produced videos... so, you know, i just started grad school but i can make time in my schedule :whistle:

I'm not sure I want to watch it. It feels like the magic tricks have been revealed. It’s such a wonderful video that this time I want to keep the mystery of how this video was done

[flockofbirds222]

behind the scenes! :cheesy:

 

 

 

i am like super nerding out over this video right now :smart:

i hope they win the VMA because these guys deserve it

 

 

 

Same, I just love it so much! I really want to learn how to do something like this[emoji16]

[coldplayisawesome]

I'm not sure I want to watch it. It feels like the magic tricks have been revealed. It’s such a wonderful video that this time I want to keep the mystery of how this video was done

 

i think that sounds fair. this is my area of expertise, so even watching the original video i basically can figure out what they did :P

it's actually pretty simple overall, just a LOT of (time-consuming) work... for me, the concept of the video is definitely more innovative than the actual process they went through to make it :P