5000 Ways to Love You – Page 36 – Exploring the world of NZ On Air music video funding

Pluto “Dance Stamina”

Here’s Pluto sounding very cool, with hints of the Stone Roses and early U2. Far removed from the comedy world of “Bananas in the Mist”, “Dance Stamina” gets very moody and sexy. Oh yeah.

The video opens with Pluto silhouetted in red light against a screen. When we meet the band, they’re bathed in red and blue lights, with lead singer Milan looking all hot and bothered. Also – fabulous cheekbones.

The video is directed by Kezia Barnett, who has previously proven her talent for using quality choreography in music video with “Buck It Up” and “Cement” for Goodshirt. But rather than the extravagant formation styles of the Goodshirt videos, “Dance Stamina” just uses one dancer, who is dressed very similarly to the disco goth vamps of “Cement”. Only this time there’s no ironing board. She dances in a separate space to the band. Are they even aware of her existence?

As the band are playing it so very straight and so cool, the dancer – with her black wig, pale make up and bloody mouth – is a lively contrast. But how much dance stamina does the dancer have? Three and a half minutes into the video, she collapses, but then rises again in silhouette form.

What if she’s an immortal vampire who can dance for a long time? Things would have been good with the dance marathons on the 1930s, but it’s slim pickings in the 2000s when indie bands would only record songs that are a measly four minutes long.

“Dance Stamina” doesn’t seem like it had the larger budget of Goodshirt’s videos, but the simple set, dramatic lighting, fab performances from the band, and of course the dancer all come together to make something very slick.

This video was a finalist at both the Kodak Music Clip Awards and the Juice TV Music Awards.

Best bit: the dancer’s layers and layers of faux pearl necklaces.

Director: Kezia Barnett
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Sydney skate.

Opshop “Saturated”

Most enticingly, the YouTube description says this song was “featured on the hit TV series The Hills“. But “Saturated wasn’t listed on MTV’s official list of all the songs used on the popular scripted reality show, so I’ll never know if it was the Speidi love theme. Actually, given the that the main refrain is “let’s stay up all night”, the song was probably used for a scene where some characters – Speidi, perhaps – stayed up all night.

I did discover a couple of songs from other New Zealand artists that had been played on The Hills. Greg Johnson had “Save Yourself” on ep 208, and two years later Savage was there with “Swing”. And if you count Natasha Bedingfield as New Zealandish, well, she did the series theme song.

My searching also revealed that Opshop had another song on another MTV show. “One Day” was on episode 213 of 16 and Pregnant, where “Emily faces the pressure of starting over in a new school and new town” among other things.

Anyway. Back to the lecture at hand. The “Saturated” video is Jason walking along a beach, and that’s basically it. It’s shot in several continuous bits, with edits to show the passing of time or to change the action happening on the sandy ground behind him. There’s no sign of the rest of the band, letting Jason be the face of Opshop.

It’s just all regular beach activity – a dude hooning on a dune buggy, a couple strolling, a dog playing (Jason throws him a stick), a couple of surfers and a bit of beach cricket.

Sometimes the lighting makes it look like Jason has been superimposed on a beachy background, but as he replied to an accuser on YouTube, “I was definitely at the beach. true story.” And when you think about it, filming it in a studio would be a lot trickier than doing it for real.

It turns out all the walking has a purpose. Right at the end, as the sun is setting, he walks up and there’s a lady. His body language is all “Sorry I’m late. Do I still get a shag?” Oh, so that’s why all those people on NZ Dating put “long walks on beaches” in their profile.

Best bit: the impressive one-handed dive catch from a beach cricket player.

Next… can’t stop, won’t stop.

Katchafire “Bounce”

The video starts with Katchafire in a shed, performing a song about marijuana. I feel like this is the group’s default mode, and if you were to pay them a surprise visit at any time of day or night, they’d be in a shed performing a song about marijuana.

“What do you say we do ‘Bounce’ then get up out of here?” asks Logan. It’s an agreeable suggestion and the band start playing the song. And that’s basically the video – shot in black and white, Katchafire in a shed, performing a song.

The implication that it’s a sound check, setting up for a later evening show in the shed. It actually looks like it would be a great venue at night, complete with the “No Patches” sign and chickens scratching around the front.

And maybe that’s the problem. It’s a funky tune, but the video is like sitting in on basic soundcheck but being denied the band in full force at the main event in the evening. I suspect this is the eternal problem of Katchafire’s music videos – how do you capture the magic of their live shows without being able to replicate that smoky vibe?

Best bit: the chicken pecking at a cob of corn.

Director: Ivan Slavov
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… long walks on beaches.

Goodshirt “Cement”

Kezia Barnett, the director of Goodshirt’s previous video “Buck It Up”, is back for another adventure inside her gothic world of dance.

Like “Buck It Up”, the “Cement” video is set inside an eerie old building – this time it’s a spooky looking house on a moonlit night. The band are playing outside the house which comes to the attention of a Rapunzel-like resident, who flips down her long blonde braid for singer Gareth to climb.

They curl up in bed together, but then Rapunzel mysteriously vanishes, leaving Gareth alone in the bedroom to face five dancing 1940s housewives who menacingly iron a tea towel with his face printed on it. And just to make things odder for poor Gareth, the women then begin to dance with their ironing boards, and then turn into 1980s disco goth vamps. Chaos ensues.

While all this is going on, the rest of the band are still playing away, chipping in backing vocals. But we only see them via a photo on the wall of the house, suggesting they’ve been magically transported inside the photo.

I’m slightly confused by the video’s ending. Gareth finds a dark-haired woman drowning in a bath and rescues her. Is she the Rapunzel lady with her blonde utility wig removed? Well, whoever she is, she’s the girl of Gareth’s dreams. They embrace, and we discover the rest of the band frozen in the framed photo.

I like the style of this video. It’s a lot more ambitious than your typical New Zealand music video. It’s always good to see dancing in a music video – especially when it’s not done as a parody of dancing in music videos. This video almost inspires me to drag out my ironing board and rhythmically flail about with it.

Best bit: the fierce dance of the irons.

Director: Kezia Barnett
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the chook look.

Goodnight Nurse “Loner”

If I’d come to this video a year ago, I’d have noted that the band split up in 2010, with the guitarist forming electro-pop group Kids of 88 and the lead singer co-writing and producing the Kids’ first album.

But now the skinny-arse lead singer is best known for being Lorde’s songwriting partner and producer. The young dude who sangs lyrics like “I shit myself whenever I see you!” is now the man with the richly earned Silver Scroll and Grammy for Song of the Year.

It’s fun to revisit Goodnight Nurse. The “Loner” video is a simple performance video, with the band on stage in front of a small group of enthusiastic fans, carefully shot to look bigger than reality. The video is bookended by a couple of stereotypical sexy nurses (it’s always classic nurse tunics, never modern scrubs) opening and closing the doors on an ambulance full of smoke.

The band’s sound is almost cookie-cutter pop-punk, but despite the shitty lyrics, there’s something infectious about the song’s chorus. There’s potential there, but there’s potential in a lot of New Zealand bands that never end up getting Silver Scrolls. In this video profile, Joel talks about his work with Lorde, and the importance of hard work. Is that the secret? He just keep working, from pop-punk to electro-pop and eventually to the top of the Billboard charts.

Best bit: the amazing fireballs, oh so casually whooshing up the back of the stage.

Director: Ivan Slavov
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… domestic terrors.

Goldenhorse “Northern Lights”

The video that’s been uploaded to YouTube is very dark. I don’t know if this is deliberate or whether something has gone wrong somewhere, but combined with the vintage scratchy styles of the film, the end result is like an old film that’s been rescued from a sunken ship.

Goldenhorse seem to make two types of videos – weird ones and winery tour ones. “Northern Lights” takes the same sort of winery tour approach that “Maybe Tomorrow” did. There’s the band performing and enjoying the great outdoors on their tour.

But the difference is the aforementioned vintage styles. It seems to have been shot on film and then hand-coloured, Len-Lye-style with all sorts of layers. And this is where the video seems to run into trouble with darkness. I looks like there are too many layers and when the song is reaching its peak, there’s a murky shot of Kirsten. Maybe it’s a comment on the song’s title. We’re in the south – ain’t no light here?

“Northern Lights” was the group’s last single from their debut album. The song and the video capture them in peak pleasantness, but I wonder if the literal darkness of the video is their weirder, darker side trying to come through.

Best bit: the layering that combines a live performance with scenic New Zealand.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a medical immergency.

Fast Crew “I Got”

Oh hey, it’s Fast Crew! We’re introduced to their fast and furious world as the group and their posse are hanging out in the brand new Britomart Transport Centre. That area has previous been seen in Dei Hamo’s “We Gon’ Ride” video, and even earlier Semi Lemon Kola were running around the old bus depot that was demolished to make way for the new. But for the first time, the Fast Crew ventured inside, all the way down to the train platforms.

Dane Rumble kicks of the song with a performance style that reveals he has a very very wide mouth and a piece of chewing gum in it. At this stage he was using the name Kid Deft, which I don’t fully understand because Dane Rumble – his real name – is the most perfect pop star name ever. He’s easily the most charismatic of the group’s three MCs, with the other two almost blending in with the posse.

After Britomart, the group do a bit of breakdancing down a cool looking brick alley, then move on to that Housing New Zealand housing on Great North Road on Grey Lynn – before the posh apartment block was built next door. The one thing that unites the different locations in the video is some black and white check vinyl, laid down for the Crew and friends to bust a move. Things are going well, until a limo full of the Crews rivals turn up, blasting their next single, “The Incredible”. “To be continued”, a graphic threatens.

This is the second Fast Crew video (the first was for “Mr Radio”), but in a way this feels more like their debut. This song was the first of the group’s run of three top 10 hits, and it established them as a goofy yet street, nerdy but hot hip hop/pop crew that had some business to do.

Best bit: the manic face-in-camera style for the rapped bits.

Director: Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a dark light.

Fang “I Can’t Help It”

Fang was led by Arch Hill label boss Ben Howe, and these cool indie grown-ups produced cool indie pop. “I Can’t Help It” was the first of their two NZ On Air-funded music video.

We find the band playing the song in an old villa. The walls are draped with colourful hangings and it’s all very boho. A mysterious furry figure quickly passes in front of the band. The version of the video that’s been uploaded to YouTube is very pixelly – looking very much like a product of the ’00s – which just makes the furry figure seem more mysterious. A Grey Lynn yeti?

The band plays on, then the furry figure reappears. It’s… a person in a novelty pink gorilla costume, just like the one seen in Voom’s “King Kong” video. And I like to think there’s some sort of narrative going on here, like a scene girl who likes hanging out with indie Auckland bands.

The band put down their instruments and take a seat, watching Pinky as she has a go on all the instruments. She even gets behind the drumkit, predating the Cadbury drumming gorilla by three years.

The band aren’t impressed with this furry newcomer and send her away, returning to their rightful places on stage. While they continue to pop-rock on, the gorilla is seen slouching down the road, seemingly saddened by her failure to become Fang’s new member.

The gorilla is important. The video would be pretty uneventful if the gorilla didn’t appear. I mean, if you were sitting in a living room watching Fang play, you’d want something eventful to happen.

Best bit: the enthusiasm the gorilla has in her performances.

Directors: Richard Bell, Stephen McCarthy

Next… big mouth strikes again.

Evermore “It’s Too Late (Ride On)”

“It’s Too Late” was the first Evermore single to chart, but here’s the thing – it only charted in Australia (#16), not New Zealand. It wasn’t until 2006 that the Hume brothers began charting in their home country. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that this video was filmed in Australia – Brisbane to be precise.

But the video doesn’t take advantage of the tropical Queensland climate. Instead the video is shot at night, set in a spooky enchanted forest type location. There’s the moon and a mysterious clock and not a pineapple in sight.

While the brothers are performing the song inside the trunk and/or above-ground roots of a giant tree, another guy wanders around the forest. He seems to be involved in steampunk treasure hunt happening, with cogs and other clock components being collected to make a clock. Maybe this is some kind of initiation ritual, casting for an extra guitarist to take on tour.

The wanderer collects all the clock pieces, assembles the clock and presents it to the moon. The moon, strangely enough, doesn’t respond.

Yeah, the video is a little bit silly, but the song is strong and by this stage Evermore were very experienced performers, so it all works. There aren’t many videos that can get away with a guy presenting a clock to the moon.

Best bit: skilful lighting that turns tropical flora into a Disney-quality haunted forest.

Director: Sarah-Jane Woulahan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… big pink 2: the return.

Emma Paki & Dam Native “Stand Alone”

Emma Paki’s song “Stand Alone” was remixed by Dam Native, adding some hip hop sounds and rapped verses. It’s a long track – over five minutes – and it seems like it could have easily had 90 trimmed from it and still had its epic sound.

The video sees Emma outside at a beach and in some woods. She’s wearing a kind of lavalava/sarong, like a funky mermaid. We also see her inside, in front of a wall hung with all sorts of artworks. It all has a really relaxed feeling, like visiting a hippy artist friend who lives at the beach.

We also meet the guys from Dam Native. They’re sitting in a really brightly lit room. There’s a problem with the way the shots are lit because the performers are seated in front of a large window with a carved piece on it. So either the background is bright white and the performers look regular, or the background is regular and the performers are shadowy.

As it is, much of the indoor scenes feel like a bunch of friends making a lip-dub video on their couch at home. Emma and the Dam Native guys are great, but the video (and the XXL song, to a certain extent) feel like they just need to be tightened up a bit.

Best bit: Emma in the ocean, like a mermaid of the south seas.

Director: Rongotai Lomas
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… by the light of the silvery moon.