Music video: Do the Evolution

Concept

This animated music video based on the song “Do the Evolution” from the American rock band Pearl Jam. It recounts the entire history of life on the earth, from the first cell appeared in ancient ocean, to the final world war which destroying the whole earth by humans. The main purpose of this video is to demonstrate the nature violence of human species. It was nominated for “Best Short Form Music Video” in the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, and named as “Best Video” in Rolling Stone Magazine’s Annual Readers Poll.

Design

This video was released in 1998, and it was co-directed by Kevin Altieri, known for his direction on Batman: The Animated Series, and Todd McFarlane, better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn. As a result, the entire video strongly represents a kind of 1990s American animation style. The basic tone is dark, gloomy, although it is a colour animation.

                            Batman: The Animated Series by Kevin Altieri

(http://www.mbird.com/2012/05/batman-the-agony-of-loss-and-the-madness-of-desire-part-5a/)

Spawn (the comic book by Todd McFarlane) 

Characters and events in this video were designed with representatives of significance. For instance, throughout the entire video, a black haired woman dances and laughs, representing the meaning of “Death” as it follows human through all of its history. Furthermore, slaughters during the Crusades, America's KKK dancing around bonfire, a rally by Nazi-liked military, prisoners in concentration camp, book burning during Kristallnacht, battles during the World War I, the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet (representing Bloody Saturday), Businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings (representing Black Thursday during the Wall Street Crash). Other social and environmental issues such as slavery, whaling, uncontrolled urbanization, vivisection, pollution and genetic modification are also included. The design style changes from realist style into science fiction style when the video shows some future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including “the carpet bombing of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves not only a city in ruins, but the planet damaged beyond recognition.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_Evolution)

However, near the end of the animation, the earth is briefly seen as an ovum, suggesting a rebirth and the perpetuation of the human condition.

Edit/Animation

Because of the rock music video form, the entire sequence plays in an intensive pace. The content in every scene portrayed complements the song’s meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. As a result, during the four minutes’ time, the amount of shots is an incredible number.