Michael Franti Gets Steamy for 'The Only Thing Missing Was You' -- Video Premiere

Posted on Aug 22nd 2011 11:43AM by Cameron Matthews
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Polly Armstrong

Michael Franti's music is a true reflection of his quest for happiness. While on tour in 2010, the singer suffered a ruptured appendix, which landed him in the hospital for over a week, bringing him closer to death than he had every been. After that experience, Franti's music began to reflect the beautiful things in life, which is highly apparent on his latest album with Spearhead, 'The Sound of Sunshine.'

Franti's newest video for 'The Only Thing Missing Was You' is a bit on the sexy side. Through grainy film, Franti and his lovely lady engage in honeymoon antics throughout a beachfront hotel room as a trippy snyth washes over the hypnotic vocals.

"'The Only Thing Missing Was You' is a song about love, longing and connection. I wanted to make a video that was steamy, sensual, playful and that pushed the boundaries of anything I had done before," Franti tells Spinner. "While on tour in Byron Bay, Australia I was messing around with the settings on a friend's 8mm iPhone app (by NEXVIO inc.) when we stumbled across a cinematic look that I thought perfectly captured the old school sound of the song. We decided to shoot the video right there in the hotel room using one iPhone to film, and another iPhone as our only light source (using the light app, Flash Mania by Pocket Books)."

"The idea behind the video is simple: A woman shows up at her lover's apartment in the middle of the night, and they film themselves as they seduce each other. Our director of photography and editor Polly Armstrong was the only person on the set with myself and the stunningly beautiful actress Jolene Rust. As you can see in the video, having only the three of us there enabled us to be truly uninhibited. A woman of many talents, Jolene also sang the background vocals on the song.

"We were inspired by the challenge of making the video entirely on iPhone, but in the end found it so easy to use that we were able to let creativity flow spontaneously, in a cost effective way that is not possible when shooting with a larger crew and much more gear. In the end we spent $2.99 for the 8mm Vintage Camera app, $0 for the Flash mania app, $15 for a tube of M.A.C lipstick and $4.99 on some coconut skin oil, bringing the total production costs for the video in at a whopping $22.98!!!

"After years of making videos that have had strong social messages in them, I thought it was time to do something different and make a video that expresses something I feel is equally important: The beauty of love."

Watch 'Only Thing Missing Was You'

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