Billy Joel Music Videos
Steve Cohen
Tour & Event Visuals
Lightborne had the privilege of bringing three of Billy Joel’s timeless songs into the visual era with fully realized animated music videos. Originally released before music videos became part of the cultural landscape, these works offered us the opportunity to reinterpret masterworks of American songwriting with cinematic treatments that honor their artistry while adding a new visual dimension.
Expertise
- Creative Direction
- Motion Design
- Video Production
- Post Production
- Color Correction
Vienna: Lightborne had the distinct honor of creating the official video for Vienna—46 years after its original release. Inspired by the deliberate craft of linocut art, we combined live-action, physical illustration, and digital animation. Sequences were shot in-studio and then composited into textured, hand-carved environments. The result is a visually poetic interpretation that mirrors the song’s intimate storytelling and emotional depth.
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant: For this epic narrative track, we leaned into the storytelling at the heart of the song, designing an animated journey that unfolds through the pages of a living comic book. Using an original mix of hand-drawn artwork, 2D animation, and 3D elements, we crafted a dynamic visual world that tracks the characters’ lives as the music itself shifts and evolves.
Zanzibar: With Zanzibar, our aim was to capture the atmosphere of a late-70s/early-80s New York sports bar, evoking the kind of imagery you might glimpse on a flickering tube television perched behind the counter. Drawing inspiration from vintage broadcast graphics, optical printing effects, and retro film textures, the video layers analog-inspired treatments with bold animation. The result pays homage to the song’s jazz-rock energy while nodding to the gritty nostalgia of the era.
