Once in a while a director just clicks with an artist for a certain period of that artist's output. Whatever the reason, the director and artist are on the same wavelength.
We're really glad this happened to MGMT and director Ray Tintori in 2009 when MGMT released Oracular Spectacular. Of the four videos made for that album, three were made by Tintori (the third, directed by Eric Wareheim, is a great video but didn't seem to fit). So today we're watching one of those videos, "Time to Pretend".
The video's style is made up of intentionally crude effects like jagged green edges around people and things in front of a green screen, and ridiculous duplication effects. The common thread throughout the video is a sort of bizarre tribal world where the band and their fellow people push money into firey pits, dance around the fire, and, of course, ride giant cats.
There might be no other explanation for this video other than to just say "it works". It perfectly fits the tone that MGMT struck at the time, and has just the right influences of college art project and self-awareness. We also really love the effect of using the sky as a green screen.
If you're in the Ray Tintori mood, check out his other excellent MGMT videos: "Kids" and "Electric Feel".
