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Local Director Jason Miller Turns Audio Visual
yourself out of it and pay the crew and get
the locations and the actors, and it's your job
to make sure you have enough money to pay
yourself. Most young people in the industry
spend all their money making Sure they make
the best product they can to get more jobs."
At 23, Miller owns his own business and
has directed videos for Ben Folds, Dead
Confederate, Hope for Agoldensummer, Allison
Weiss, Lullwater, Venice Is Sinking, Modern
Skirts, Quiet Hooves and Dark Meat, among
others. Two years ago, he created the produc
tion company "Eikon" (pronounced "Icon")
with around $35,000 in seed money. Recently,
he made a pilot for Al Gore's news channel
Current.tv to be called either "Diplo's World
Tour" or "No One's Safe." In the episode, he
and Diplo visit New Orleans recording the
"Bounce" and "Sissy Bounce" musical subcul
tures. If picked up, Miller and Diplo will travel
the world, uncovering and documenting more
obscure music scenes. He also directs TV com
mercials and short films.
When I met with him for an interview,
he had just returned from Brooklyn, filming
Major Lazeris new video for "Keep It Goin'
Louder," and capturing Race Across America
in Phoenix. Yeah, he keeps busy. But he's not
quite a one-man band: "I think it's important
to credit the people who've helped me along
the way. Mainly Ethan Payne. He's been there
since the start... and a lot of bands have also
given back."
His work definitely has an interesting
aesthetic, too. His music videos have a fly-on-
the-wall voyeuristic tableau that levitates off-
kilter, exploring the humane crevasses of the
awkward shot and the vaguely unflattering.
It's the floating tambourine flotsam and the
disembodied head of the lead singer—it's the
paradox of making the viewer feel like they're
seeing everything panoramic by obscur
ing the obvious. His work is very intimate.
Take his video for Hope for Agoldensummer's
"4th Night," which won as one of five Jason
Miller-directed videos for the Flagpole Award
for "Best Music Video." The short, with its
melancholic hues and occasionally unfocused
lens, captures the fraternity of commerce and
discarded monuments at the J & J Flea Market.
So, what's next? "I don't want to do little
project after little project forever. Everybody
who gets their foot in the door and achieves
some level of success in Athens has to leave
in order to get some type of work. It's a bum
mer because no one wants to be that person
who takes advantage of the town to get their
success and leave and forget about the town.
There's amazing music here, but it's also: how
do you stay in a town where there's no money
in making videos?"
Really? Resenting the flight-from-Athens-
to-greener-pastures-to-make-it-big metanarra
tive? Yeah, that's Jason Miller; and I can tell
no matter what he decides, he'll still support
the local scene. His production company Eikon
does reference Athens—it's Greek for a beauti
ful image. Shortly after this interview, Miller
sent an email about yet another project he's
working out. He's creating a library database
of local music to use "in various video and
multimedia projects, kind of like a publishing
company, but with an emphasis on spreading
the Athens sound.
Surely one of the nicest guys in Athens and
a big-behind-the-scenes supporter of Athens
art, Miller is about to blow up, and wherever
he goes, it seems he'll bring Athens with him.
//|A l e all talked about.it, and you can
111 I come on tour with us and film
W V and see what happens." Although
Polyvinyl could only pay $50 a day, who would
pass up a job little-brothering Of Montreal on
the band's Skeletal Lamping tour, shooting a
few vids and getting wasted with local heroes?
Well, when fate calls...
"I expected going out with a band to be
rampant drug use and groupies, which there
were none of, but most of the band are in
relationships... and they're all very profes
sional," Jason Miller says.
Reclined and monitoring two side-by-
side LCDs, Jason Miller zooms around Final
Cut Pro, opening frames of Drew Barrymore
and bf Justin Long (who, I must add, were
spotted canoodling a few days later at the
Eastside Jittery Joe's) waiting in the VIP area
for Of Montreal's performance, who will later
destroy their instruments at the end of their
Bonnaroo set. He is pre-screening for me his
latest/greatest project: Of Montreal's In a
Fit of Hercynian Prig, Oculi. (Yes, we are now
announcing the name of the band's previously
untitled concert docuDVD + CD, three-disc set,
to be released this fall.)
But Hercynian Prig, Oculi? Jason Miller
shrugs off an "I dunno," but hopefully it'll
mean more gigs and awareness for the direc
tor, whose life imitates his art—meaning, the
life of the music video director is a % bout the
same as the musicians he directs. Here's the
metaphor. The musician must build grassroots
support, mostly through free acts of kindness.
(Most of the local videos he's done have been
for free or for minimal, like gas money.) For
the musician, talent and resume help, but it's
still about who you know and the meaning
ful coincidence: "I met B.P. Helium from Of
Montreal and Dark Meat, and Diplo at the same
time through Nick Canada to do a job filming
them at the 40 Watt. If I hadn't gotten that
job I don't know what would be happening
right now because everything I've done cool
in music in the last year has been through
Of Montreal or Diplo. So, in the same day the
seeds were planted for both," Miller says.
And payment is like an album advance:
"They give you a budget you have to pay
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Jason Miller, along with frequent collaborator Ethan Payne also makes acoustic, DIY
music shorts called Soundies. an idea borrowed from Vincent Moon and La Blogoteque's
"Take Away Shows." The duo has produced free videos for touring acts like Pattern Is
Movement. Dr. Dog and Chairlift, and for locals like The Empties and The Corduroy Road.
While Athens may not have the cultural artifacts of say. Paris, seeing quality acts perform
acoustically at your favorite local joint, like the kaleidoscopically carnivalesque. Agora or
the curiosity that was once the Nuwaubian temple, should make any Athenian crack one,-
* ‘ Jason was cool enough to let me follow him on two shoots—one‘for Canadian Matthew
Barber and another for the Modern Skirts dudes. Here are my impressions:
May 8, 2009: We shot outside an old pottery factory-near a sparse-train yard off
Barber Street. At one point Jason and his assistant Res Kent scaled a train to get an odd
shot. Coot. Although a guy from the railroad company tried to shoo us away, it was a
great place for Matthew Barber to be shot, really. His back-to-basics slow-bufners have an .
antiquity to them that suggests the fragile old pots around, and the dusty fleas flirting
between vision and new sun were like the past-tinted phantasmagoria of Barber's latest ‘
LP. Barber played two songs twice to get it right; all in, it took about an hour.
May 29, 2009: Although the Athens zoo has nothing and pretty much blows, it's a
great place for a Soundie; and Modern Skirts are very nice. Phillip Brantley chased ducks
arid turkeys around whjle strumming playfully, and the whole vibe was like a chill kickback
among friends^s there were 11 crew members and entouragers on the shoot..
With Soundies, everything is’impromptu and you really must roll with the punches.
Ambient noise, hosy passersby and complete disaster are all part of the whole when spon
taneity's the name of the game. You can watch*'the entire collection of SoYindies at wvv.v.
athenssoundies.com. [Christopher Benton]
.Wl-FI
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