I had a long reply written and it got eaten.
Spotnick wrote:
Michael Shamberg never directed a video.. he produced them...
If you read the website, he's behind even The Perfect Kiss and others...
That's my mistake for not checking the credits before stating my opinion, but I think my original statement still stands: as producer he's ultimately responsible for the end product, and quite a few of the videos with his name on them are sub-par.
For every "The Perfect Kiss", "Bizarre Love Triangle", "True Faith", "Touched By the Hand of God", "Blue Monday '88" and "World", there is a "Fine Time", "Run", "1963", "Ceremony", "Temptation", and "Turn". Nevermind that fact that at least four of his videos have the same general outline.
I don't think a 50/50 track record speaks well for him.
As for the argument that the band didn't want to be involved, well, they never had a whole lot of input (if any) for Saville's sleeves, and those are now legendary. Also, having a big budget doesn't make a bad concept any better, it just makes it pretty.
Forgive me if this comes across as sounding harsh. I'm an opinionated person and my frustration doesn't stem from any sort of personal hatred of Shamberg, it stems from wanting New Order to do better. I don't care for his aesthetic and three uninteresting, no-budget videos for a thwarted single seems so completely pointless to me when one smart, interesting video could potentially generate momentum and air-time.