Adam Levite: Making the video By Jeffrey Levine Combining a background in graphic design with an eye for crisp, vibrant images, Adam Levite is counted among the next vanguard of music video directors. Collaborating with artists such as Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, and Interpol, Levite’s works have appeared everywhere from MTV and Lincoln Center to the permanent collection at the Library of Congress. Levite grew up in Buffalo, but for the past decade or more has been based in Manhattan, with his wife and three children. If the last name looks familiar, you’re right: his father is Spree publisher Laurence Levite—but Adam has clearly staked out a reputation all his own. Still images from videos Levite made for (l-r) Beck, Taking Back Sunday, Interpol, and Tortoise. Are there any directors who have influenced how you conceptualize your work? Mark Romanek described a music video as a poem, not a story, and I try to take that approach. I began directing as a music fan and I have tried to make imagery that supplements and complements the songs. I think that narrative music videos get in the way. Still image from Beans video. How do you put that theory into practice as you prepare to make a video? I think there’s only so much you can really think about beforehand, and it’s easy to get stuck in your own patterns. I try to start with very simple ideas: Beck made out of ASCii type or Taking Back Sunday filmed by cameras on radio-controlled cars circling around the band. For me, I really like to think of an interesting process for a project and not really be obsessive about the end result. Then you just sort of let it happen. You have a camera there and you try to capture something beautiful and compelling. If you had the hypothetical opportunity to make a music video for any existing song, which would you choose? Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.” Out of your body of work, which video stands out as the most indicative of what you do? I like the video for Tortoise “Salt the Skies”—beautiful, simple, and a little elusive. It was an homage to artist/filmmaker Robert Longo, who went to Buffalo State and cofounded Hallwalls. Portrait of Levite. All images courtesy Adam Levite. Your graphic design background is evident in your work, but how else have you drawn on your Buffalo heritage? Growing up in North Buffalo, some of my earliest and most inspiring memories come from the Albright-Knox: the mirror room, the Marisol big wood baby, Warhol, etc. I remember when I was younger being given some kind of kid’s activity book, going to a painting and trying to find a goat or a sheep with a tire around it so that I could check it off the list. Years later I realized it was a Rauschenberg. Where do you see the future of music videos going? The music industry is in such a state of flux. The big labels are crumbling and almost everything about the old way of marketing music has changed dramatically. I think it is a great thing for the music itself—as evidenced by all the recent great music—but the music video’s importance has waned. At the same time, bands and artists now have much more artistic control, so that can only be good for music in general and videos, too. Beck’s “Loser” was the first music video that Jeffrey Levine can remember watching in amazement. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top