
When YouTube selected Spike Jonze to organize its first annual music awards, the renegade director threw out all the clich s. Jonze selected a cavernous warehouse to displace the usual theater space as the event venue, and dispensed with the red carpet roll ups. The evening's hosts were tasked to improvise in lieu working off a script; and, rather than staging a series of typical musical performances, the show featured the filming of live music videos by enormous names such as Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire. At the end of the evening, directing collective Syndrome delivered an earth-shattering grand finale: the video of a debut single by Eminem, created live in one take before the show's audience.
In a riveting pop-cultural moment, the iconoclastic rapper, who has worked on many projects with Syndrome in the past, delivered an intense, first-time performance of the six-minute epic Rap God. The song comprises six wildly different historic rap styles that at once encapsulates the pantheon of hip-hop and forcefully asserts Eminem's status as a leader in the music game.
This was easily one of the most intense performances Eminem has ever given, states Syndrome Director James Larese. The live filming of music videos on this scale has never been done before. We had no way of knowing what was going to happen, but it was absolutely awesome.
Syndrome spent weeks preparing to live-direct the shoot. Using just four cameras aimed at the performer, the team blocked various angles and shots to identify the optimal positions for capturing the interplay of the strobe effects with the dramatic half-black, half-white stage. During the show, a live crew in an edit truck cut to pre-determined angles throughout the performance, delivering the live edited music video to the audience as it was filmed.
The idea is to create all these little moments that would normally take hours to capture, and synch them up in one take, live, continued Larese. It was an enormously ambitious undertaking and there was no one we would have rather had behind the wheel than Spike Jonze. It was so amazing to watch him do the blocking for Arcade Fire and Lady Gaga. He is so approachable, so supportive, so eager to try new ideas, so forgiving of mistakes. He also fiercely resisted budget constraints from show organizers, delivering a rare thing in production: an open, budget-less frontier where we can simply create.
Syndrome most recently partnered with Eminem on a music video and spot for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Prior collaborations include music videos for Berzerk, Crack A Bottle, and 3AM, and an additional spot for Beats by Dre. Shady Records realized that this is more than just pointing the camera and recording - it's feeling the artist out and catching who he is and what he does, which is very specific, explained Syndrome EP Monica Blackburn. There is a level of trust that we've developed by nurturing this relationship over a long period of time.
The 90-minute YouTube awards aired Sunday, November 3 from Pier 36 in New York City.
Credits:
Client: YouTube
Artist: Eminem
Segment: Rap God
Creative Directors: Spike Jonze & Chris Milk
Director: Syndrome
Art Director: KK Barrett
DP: Chris Blauvelt
Producer: Cisco Newman
About Syndrome:
Syndrome is an award-winning design and live-action directing studio. From concept to completion, we bring original ideas to life. Utilizing skillful and inventive in-house talent, we integrate our individual creative expertise to find imaginative solutions to complex projects, pushing boundaries wherever possible. Our diverse experience working in multiple forms of media allows us to serve creative agencies, production companies, major networks and studios.
Clients of Syndrome have a wide-range of content requests, from elegant to explosive, and with a strong team built of varied experiences, we bring a broad spectrum of capabilities to the creative table. Our focus is strategizing, conceptualizing and delivering striking aesthetics in order to communicate the most effective messages possible.
Syndrome was launched as an art and installation-driven collective in 2002, in the heart of Los Angeles, by artists Micah Hancock, James Larese, and Mars Sandoval. Along with executive producer Monica Blackburn they evolved into an innovative and bold collaboration of creative synergy. A decade later, Syndrome continues to expand and reinvent its visual and technological repertoire in the ever-evolving world of entertainment.
###
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
12/07/2025
As the death toll continues to mount, with at least 120 killed and more than 170 people still missing on July 10 from devastating Texas floods, a number of broa...
12/07/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., and MIAMI -DirecTV and TelevisaUnivision have signed a deal that will make the ad-supported premium subscription tier of ViX, ViX Premium wi...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
If you've ever wondered what might be playing in Clark Kent's headphones...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Will Release Death Inc. Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Season 1
Season 2
Se...
11/07/2025
AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration launches two papers to guide the future of AI integration, today at the AI for Good Global Summit
The...
11/07/2025
Ceramics - the humble mix of earth, fire and artistry - have been part of a global conversation for millennia.
From Tang Dynasty trade routes to Renaissance pa...
10/07/2025
The current holder of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award has been forced to stop reporting over fears for her safety in Afgha...
10/07/2025
Spotify is turning up the volume on Australian music with a multipronged initiative designed to highlight the dominance of Australian artists on the global stag...
10/07/2025
This is not a drill: Oasis is back on the road-marking its first live performanc...
10/07/2025
The music industry depends on fresh ideas, bold voices, and emerging talent. Yet across the U.K., too many young musicians lack the space to develop their craft...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
10/07/2025
Local newscasts don't exist in a vacuum. News directors and station management constantly evaluate what's working, what isn't and perhaps most impor...
10/07/2025
Lawo has announced that Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) has comprehensively modernized its central recording studio after selecting an I...
10/07/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has opened early-bird registration for the Media Technology Summit, which will take place in a ne...
10/07/2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. TNDV Television has launched Aspiration 35, a new version of its 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multicamera productions....
10/07/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Key Code Education, a provider of instructor-led postproduction training, is growing its curriculum with new programs for beginner and intermedi...
10/07/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. Actus Digital will demonstrate how broadcasters can transform compliance monitoring from a necessary expense into a strategic revenue driver at...
10/07/2025
The Federal Register has published a summary of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Notice seeking comments on its ownership rules that lists a d...
10/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Presents the Official Trailer for SuperestarPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
10 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
10/07/2025
In the race to understand our planet's changing climate, speed and accuracy are everything. But today's most widely used climate simulators often strugg...
10/07/2025
As one of the world's largest emerging markets, Indonesia is making strides toward its Golden 2045 Vision - an initiative tapping digital technologies and...
10/07/2025
10 Jul 2025
VEON and Cohen Circle Secure Investor Commitments for Kyivstar Listing Kyiv, New York, Dubai, and Philadelphia - July 10, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq:...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...
10/07/2025
FOX Sports Reboots Small Control Room in Los Angeles as Hub for Vertical-First P...
10/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: MSE's Zach Leonsis, ViewLift's Rick Allen Go Deep on Joint...