5000 Ways to Love You – Page 37 – Exploring the world of NZ On Air music video funding

Dimmer “Come Here”

I think this video counts as an animation. It consists of hundreds of Polaroid photos. They photos are filmed in sequential groups, creating a sense of movement, which is pretty much film-making 101.

Sometimes there’s a number of Polaroids being dropped in a stack on a table. Sometimes they’re filmed in close-up, giving a sense of jerky, slightly fuzzy film, rather than a series of photos. And things get really meta when people in the video hold up a Polaroid of themselves – a video of a Polaroid of a Polaroid.

Everyone in the photo is beautiful – Shane Carter, guest vocalist Anika Moa and the various model-like extras who wear clothes well.

It’s a cool, saucy song (well, it is Dimmer). The video gets that. Instead of taking a lazy route and having generic sexy antics, instead it creates a sexy vibe. What’s going on in the crimson-curtained room? Is it some sort of pervy audition or fashion shoot? Whatever it is, the video gives us a chance to flick through a fat stack of Polaroids and pretend we’re part of that world.

Best bit: the hand-numbering on the photos.

Directors: Simon Oosterdijk, Kelvin Soh
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… home by the sea.

Brooke Fraser “Saving The World”

This song feels a bit out of sequence, like it should have been released a couple of years later, but all evidence points to it being from 2004. Ok.

Brooke has got her tongue pierced, which changed the way she sung – a bonus for fans of acquired lisps. She also has a smoky eye thing happening, which I think is when the “set Fraser to stun” phase kicked off.

The video follows the journey of a toy squeezy ball globe of the world. It’s sitting in a rubbish bin and gets kicked and jostled around the city, including hitching a ride on a truckload of manure.

It’s also used as an impromptu rugby ball, manhandled by a dog, and just generally gets kicked around a bit. Oh, won’t someone save the world? Where is Brooke when we need her?

She’s singing at a bus stop, on a very rainy day. With water bucketing down around her, it’s not going to be good situation to busk in. It reminds me of the leakiest bus stop ever, which is Stop B outside Petone Station, in case you’re wondering.

As it happens, the toy globe ends up making its way back to the rubbish bin from the beginning, but this time it crosses Brooke’s path. Oh look – she has saved the world from ending up in a rubbish truck. Hooray!

The comedy antics of the globe aside, the scenes of Brooke at the bus stop are really lovely. They’re shot in a cool blue palette, and Brooke and her cool blue top and the falling rain all making being stranded at a bus stop on a rainy day look awesome and sexy.

Best bit: the dog perfectly dropping the ball out of a moving car.

Note: this video has fan-made Portuguese subtitles, which is pretty cool.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Amber Claire “At Seventeen”

Amber Claire covers Janis Ian’s outsider anthem “At Seventeen”. The original reached #37 in 1975, while Amber Claire’s cover made it to #28. In case you’re wondering, Janis Ian was totally down with Amber Claire’s version, and even did an impromptu duet with Amber Claire on a visit to New Zealand in 2005.

But back to Amber Claire’s version. The video is very simple. It sees Amber Claire performing the song on a grand looking stage area, along with her band.

But there’s something a bit weird about the band – the accordionist looks like Clayton Weatherston. OMG. He has the same shaggy blonde hair, the same light beard, the same narrow glasses. Of course, the video was made four years before the murder, and I’m sure this musician no longer styles himself that way, but it’s uncanny watching the video now.

If you ignore that and party like it’s 2004, you’re left with a rather restrained music video. The song is long – four and a half minutes – and the video doesn’t do much in that time. Just lots of different angles of Amber Claire and her band. Oh look, there’s the guitarist plucking the guitar strings.

The song is an ode to high school outsiders who go on to blossom into kick-arse adults. The lyrics have a strong a tension between the dorky teenage self and the successful adult self. But we just see Amber Claire looking glam in a pretty gown. How’d she get there? What was high school like for her? The video doesn’t care.

Best bit: the accordionist’s ability to also play a keyboard while the accordion rests on his lap.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… rainy day woman.

Dean Chandler “It’s Not Too Late”

So, the video starts and there’s Dean Chandler performing the song with his band, set up in a television studio with a cheerful orange background. And then I noticed that Dean and the guys in his band all had the same neatly trimmed beards, the kind that look obsessively overgroomed compared to the wild bushy beards of the ’10s. And then I realised – Dean’s band is Dean. Yes, he’s been cloned.

Of course, it’s all done with digital effects, and it would explain why the band are so spread out – there needs to be room to always get a clean border when splicing together the different parts of the shot.

It seems inspired by the Outkast’s epic and wonderful video for “Hey Ya”, where a band of Andre 3000s entertained a hall of screaming fangirls.

The fake “Hey Ya” band all feel like individual characters, not just Andre in eight different shirts. But “It’s Not Too Late” has the strange effect of a band that doesn’t really interact with each other. After seeing Shihad’s loved-up live performance of “Home Again”, the band of Dean clones look like they all hate each other and are on the verge of breaking up. Dean Chandler is a nice enough singer and songwriter, but he doesn’t have much on-screen charisma. Multiply that by four and it’s still not a lot.

The digital splicing is done really well. There’s just one bit right at the end where the drummer’s head suddenly disappears (don’t worry, boys and girls, it comes back). But a digital trick isn’t enough to make a compelling music video. I just wish there was more to it than “hey, a band of Deans!”.

Best bit: drummer Dean, who is probably the one who gets the girls.

Director: Tim Groenendaal
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next…

Stoods “Redlight”

We last saw Stoods in an art gallery, being tortured by the process of creating art. Their second and final NZOA-funded video puts the band in a car, but things are even more complicate than the world of art.

We meet Phil in the back of a car, with what looks to be a professional driver in the front. Sometimes Phil is sitting on the left, sometimes he’s on the right. That’s cool. But then sometimes we see his driver behind the wheel on the right-hand side, but other times she’s on the left. Are they hedging their bets so they don’t alienate fans from the 65% of the world who drive on the right?

Suddenly Phil leaps out of the right/left side of the car, runs off and jumps in the back of a vintage American car that just happens to be driven by the Stoods drummer. This car also changes from left to right. They pick up the Stoods bass player and the trio drive to a bricky alcove (possibly at the Wintergarden) and rock out.

It’s a stylish video, attractively shot in black and white. But “It’s too confusing,” goes the song’s chorus. Yeah, the video is a bit like that too.

Best bit: the slow-motion sprint.

Director: Andy McGrath

Next… four for one.

Pacifier “Home Again (Live)”

This live performance of “Home Again” was released to tie in with the band’s 2003 double album Pacifier Live, a collection of live recordings from live shows in New Zealand previously that year. It’s also the only video to be funded from the band’s Pacifier phase, with their record company otherwise picking up the tab.

The song choice feels like a treat for their core fan base in Australia and New Zealand who might have been feeling a little neglected after the band changed their name and ran off to America. What better way to win back fans than with a thrilling live video of the band’s most beloved song?

The band are keeping things very simple. They’re dressed in black and dark denim and the stage is lit with plain white lighting. I think this counts as making it all about the music, man. Though it doesn’t stop rockstar showmanship.

The video is cut together from at least two performance. This is evident as one has Jon with a t-shirt on, the other shirtless. He puts a lot into the performance, making it a thrilling and sweaty showcase, accented with rockstar leaps.

Near the end Jon goes for a wander, edging along the balcony, climbing down to the audience below, and crowd-surfing (or rather, swimming) his way back to the stage. The song has a new lyrics, “Yes, we’re coming home again” also serving as mission statement.

The video ends with Jon being a golden god on a speaker stack and/or being a golden god on the drum riser, in love with everything he does.

It feels like if there’s one thing Shihad can do really well, it’s playing “Home Again” to an audience full of New Zealanders. This video captures that. They might have less success with their other songs (would “Comfort Me” have got such a reaction?) but if they can make a theatre full of people feel happy for even just one song, that’s a good thing.

Best bit: Jon’s speedy swim across the top of the audience.

Next… left, right, straight ahead?

Scribe “Dreaming”

At the 2013 Silver Scrolls awards, Scribe surprised a lot of people by singing in his and Mark Vanilau’s performance of the Dave Dobbyn song “It Dawned on Me”. But here’s Scribe singing on a track 10 years earlier. According to the Crusader album retrospective on Grindin, Scribe originally wrote the chorus for Che Fu to sing, but P-Money convinced Scribe to sing it himself – and it works.

“Dreaming” is a testament to Scribe’s childhood, his hard work at becoming an MC, and his dreams for the future. And it includes a simple, sung chorus – a hint at his other talents.

Directed by frequent collaborator Chris Graham, the video keeps things simple and uses a lot of old photos to illustrate Scribe’s early years. The first 20 seconds of the video is timelapse footage of clouds – a deliberate choice by Graham to avoid obvious hip hop iconography. Then we step inside Scribe’s photo album – a cool-dude little boy, a surly teen, a budding MC.

We also catch up with present-day Scribe hunched over a notebook, writing down his lyrics. This isn’t a fancy Moleskine – it’s a cheap-arse, dog-eared notebook, with lyrics written in all available spaces.

He’s also rapping in a recording studio and freestyling on the street with his friends – all signs of a successful young MC, someone who turned those notebooks full of lyrics into songs.

Near the end of the video we get a recap of his previous music videos, including some behind-the-scenes bits from the Chris Graham-directed ones. It’s a nice touch, especially as his videography contains some of the best New Zealand music videos.

Best bit: Scribe playing with the dog on the “Not Many” video set.

Other good thing: YouTube commenter Cruzin Streets says, “For whatever reason this film clip makes me feel better when i’m down.”

Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a homecoming.

Savant “Distance”

“Distance” is the final of Savant’s three funded videos. And like the other two (“Solitary” and “Underground”) it’s a well made video. It looks good and I’d guess Savant were very happy with it.

We find the band sitting around in a dark room, noodling on their instruments, having some lolz. The blinds in the room are pulled, but there’s a light dramatically shining outside. So goth.

One of the band members suggests calling it a day and they’re all about to pack up and leave when suddenly the lead singer says, “Hang on, boys. Just one more time.” This may have something to do with his notebook, full of scribbled lyrics and “I WILL” in thick lettering.

The band kick into it, but because the video has drawn attention to it, my focus is on the lyrics. “She said, show me all your human nature, just how deep it goes.” Whoa.

And that’s pretty much the video – the band playing in a dark room. Director Greg Riwai and DOP Geoff Andrew have done a good job playing with light. Candles and the outdoor light are used to create dramatic silhouettes, until finally the head singer notices it’s getting light outside, and the video ends with him peeking through the blinds at the outside world.

Well, yay. Savant may not have had the most original sound (this song is very reminiscent of Incubus), but their music videos were good quality.

Best bit: the notebook, a masterclass of cinema serial killer penmanship.

Director: Greg Riwai

Next… looking back and forward.

Rubicon “Rubicon City”

“Rubicon” was the final of the seven tracks Rubicon had funded from their debut album. That’s pretty extreme, and by this final video it feels like they’re not even making much of an effort.

For a start, the band aren’t even in the video. It’s animated, done in that rough style that involves lots of repetition and little action.

The animated Rubicon are playing a gig on top of a tall building, when along comes a woman looking like Trinity from The Matrix – a film that was already five years old and becoming a bit of an overused trope. The Matrix drama continues with Rubicon city suddenly getting the shimmering green outlines of the Matrix, then all the concertgoers turn into Agent Smiths.

The drama progresses from Smiths to trolls to cyborgs, and then in a twist worthy of M Night Shyamalan, it turns out it was all a dream – or rather, a computer simulation called Rubicon City Training Program. With the program ended, Rubicon go back to, er, the rooftop concert simulation where the fake crowd wildly cheer their heroes.

The animation feels rushed and the video doesn’t have any original ideas behind it. For a song that’s a stonking rock number introducing the band (it’s the album’s opening track), the video’s simple animation struggles to capture the band’s spirit.

Best bit: the giant’s loin cloth.

Director: Ian Moore
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… lazy bogan afternoon.

Revolver “Out Your Window”

Remember Jackass? And remember when everyone blamed every societal ill on Jackass? Well, there’s another thing to blame on it. Specifically blame goes to the fifth episode of the second season of Jackass where the act of milk chugging was demonstrated. This involves drinking a gallon of milk (3.87 litres) in one go. It also involves lots of multicoloured milk spew because it’s very difficult to drink that much milk without puking.

So director Joe Lonie took the art of milk chugging and give it one of his trademark twists. In this case, a backwards video. Combined with a reference to the song title, the result is a video in which the band members appear at a bathroom window and suck up a thick layer of vomit from the bathroom floor. Eeeeew.

The video begins with a hot chick finishing up in the bathroom. It’s a reminder of how rare video vixens are in New Zealand music videos. As she leaves the bathroom, the camera pans down to reveal the floor entirely covered with regurgitated Primo. The camera’s slow pans looks like the movement of a remotely operated camera, suggesting a scene too gross for a human to film.

One by one the band members pop up at the window and reverse-vomit all the puke out of the room. They’re all wearing t-shirts with the names of Auckland suburbs – New Lynn, Westmere, Kingsland, Greenlane and Arch Hill. This along with the Jackass reference firmly roots the video in 2003/2004.

Then the chick comes back and closes the window. And that’s the video. If you see it once, it’s like, “Whoa, this is crazy!” But it doesn’t hold up after multiple viewings. I mean, who wants to see a bunch of guys reverse puking, again and again?

And the worst bit – the song manages to be the least interesting part of the video. The visuals are so bold and obnoxious that the song pales in comparison. In fact, you could swap it with any song, really, and it would still work. Like, try it with “Yakety Sax” and it would actually be an improvement.

Best bit: the nice clean bathroom floor at the end.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cyber matrix 2000.