Face photocopying, the goth life, a social network, nowhere, and the curious case of the street that wasn’t there.
Samuel Flynn Scott “War Over Water”
“War Over Water” was the first solo single from Phoenix Foundation frontman Samuel F. Scott. The video draws upon the ancient art of photocopying your face. It’s based on animation made from dozens on copies of SFS’s face, mixed with live(-ish) action footage of his face on the copier plate.
Director: Luke Savage
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Stylus “Sign of the Times”
Can My Chemical Romance be blamed for this? With all the cool kids dying their hair black and getting dramatic with their clothes, suddenly being an ordinary rock band seemed a bit boring. “Sign of the Times” is based around the premise of an ordinary guy who finds his girlfriend at some sort of goth ball. Only it’s not goths, it’s vampires. The rule of Chekhov’s gun dictates that he must be bitten and turned into a vampire, which means he loses his streetwear look and gets all gothed up. It’s a perfect example of how to go Black Parade in a music video without fully committing to the emo/goth lifestyle.
Director: Andy McGrath
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
The Black Seeds “Sometimes Enough”
The “Sometimes Enough” video is inspired by social media, but let’s remember that YouTube was barely a year old and MySpace was the go-to social network. The video is based around a website running the “Video Pie Karaoke Competition” where fans can lip sync to “Sometimes Enough”. So there are lots of shots of people (and band members) singing along. Technologically, it’s holding up, but it’s interesting to consider that the “fan lip sync” concept is now so ordinary that artists use it for their lyric videos. The concept for “Sometimes Enough” came from Seed and Conchord Bret Mckenzie, while the video won Best Roots Video at the 2006 Juice TV Awards.
Director: Jason Naran
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
The Feelers “One World”
It’s a simple concept: while James Feelers sings the song, the video shows clips of scenes from around the world, with captions indicating people’s deep and meaningful inner thoughts (like Van Halen’s iconic “Right Now” video). Ok, but look at this screen shot from the video:
“Christchurch” sets the scene and “Will be busted” reveals what will happen. But run these two captions together and it becomes “Christchurch will be busted”, which is kind of what happened five years later.
But wait! This isn’t even Christchurch. It’s Willis Street in Wellington. There’s the glass awning of the Grand Arcade, in the background you can see the pink tower of the Majestic Centre, and – of course – there’s a jaywalker. How could this have been mistaken for Christchurch?
Director: Ollie Langridge
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
The Mint Chicks “Welcome to Nowhere”
The Mint Chicks’ previous single “Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!” didn’t receive NZ On Air funding. This is a pity because it’s a really really good video and even won director Sam Peacocke Best Music Video at the 2007 New Zealand Music Awards.
But to view “Welcome to Nowhere” straight after “Crazy!” is a bit disappointing. “Crazy!” was an ambitious and artistic video that took the band out of their comfort zone of crazy studio antics. But “Welcome to Nowhere” goes right back to that older style and could easily have been a video from the Fuck the Golden Youth era. It’s just the band in a studio with a psychedelic background and the comedy sunglasses are back. Ok, it’s cheap, but it feels kinda lazy, like a video made by people who’d rather not make a video.
Director: Jonathan Gerard
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision