Paul McCartney Directs His Own 'My Valentine' Videos Featuring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp

www.paulmccartney.com

APR

14

2012

Paul McCartney Directs His Own 'My 

Valentine' Videos Featuring Natalie 

Portman and Johnny Depp

Based On An Original Idea By Stella McCartney

This evening at an exclusive screening event at the Stella McCartney store in Los Angeles, Paul McCartney premiered his brand new, self directed videos for his song 'My Valentine'. The track is one of two original compositions on his new studio album 'Kisses on the Bottom', which was released in February of this year and went to Number One on the Billboard Jazz Chart as well as going Top Five across the world.

The gala premiere event hosted by Paul and Stella saw the likes of Orlando Bloom, Jordana Brewster, Julie Delpy, Zooey Deschanel, Jane Fonda, Dave Grohl and Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters, Woody Harrelson, Joan Jett, Quincy Jones, Miranda Kerr, Jason Lewis, Lykke Li, Chris Martin, Jayma Mays, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Perry, James Ransone, Amy Smart, Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal of No Doubt, Kristen Stewart, Rumer Willis, Reese Witherspoon and more applauding Paul's visual interpretations of 'My Valentine' featuring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp each translating the lyrics of the song into sign language--each giving distinctly different performances, making both videos compelling viewing.  A third version combined both Natalie and Johnny's performances into one film.

The videos were shot on 35mm and Paul worked with Academy Award winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (Inception, The Dark Knight),  editor Paul Martinez and producer Susanne Preissler to create these elegant and powerful films based on an original idea by Stella McCartney.

'My Valentine' is the second Paul McCartney music video Natalie Portman has starred in, the first being the Michel Gondry directed 'Dance Tonight' in 2007.  For this new performance, she was exclusively dressed by Stella McCartney. Johhny Depp also plays guitar in his version and recorded the track's guitar solo live.  His guitar take was then mixed and mastered into the final track.  The original guitar solo on the studio version of the song was performed by Eric Clapton. 

'Kisses on the Bottom' is a collection of standards Paul grew up listening to in his childhood - plus two brand new McCartney compositions 'My Valentine' and 'Only Our Hearts'. With the help of both Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and Diana Krall and her band, the album was recorded at the legendary Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, as well as locations in New York and London throughout 2011.

Directed by Paul McCartney
Featuring: Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp
Cinematographer: Wally Pfister
Editor: Paul Martinez
Produced by: Susanne Preissler