Tag: NZ On Screen

Moana and the Moahunters “Tahi”

Moana’s all gothed up in black clothes and black lipstick, but the song is anything but goth. It’s a really uplifting dance track, that feels more like something from the mid-’80s crossed with some bangin’ house keyboards.

There is some green screen, but it’s done with much more style than we’ve seen over the past two years. As well as the Moahunters’ girl-group styles, there are kapa haka performers and some black and white footage of little kids in a suburban backyard.

The best thing about this song is the Moahunters lovely harmonies. In a way, I’d much rather see the trio singing their silky “Aue! Aue!” part against a green screen than any of the other stuff.

Best bit: the splendid bone and greenstone jewellery of the Moahunters.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the floating circles of sexy hard-sell.

Straitjacket Fits “Cat Inna Can”

This time Shayne Carter keeps his shirt on. “Cat Inna Can” is filmed in a warehouse, and there’s something funny going on with the colours. The warehouse is blue and the band’s skintone is a golden colour. It’s easy to do stuff like that with modern colour grading software, but how did that happen in the early ’90s? Witchcraft?

About halfway through there’s a thrilling dolly zoom – that’s when the camera physically moves in while at the same time the lens zooms out. So the band largely stays the same size in the picture, but the background warps and looks vertiginous.

The video is a bit of a grab bag of fun film tricks, with its central effect being the camera swirling around the band members. It feels almost out of control, as if Shayne Carter’s animal magnetism is having an effect on the cameras too.

Meow.

Best bit: the really strict cutting to the beat on the verses.



Director: Andrew Dominik
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the New Zealand national genre.

Shona Laing “Mercy of Love”

My introduction to Shona Laing was her angry phase in the ’80s, with US college radio hit “Soviet Snow” and “Glad I’m Not a Kennedy”. So when Shona grew out her punky mullet and returned to her barefoot folk singer roots, it was a bit of a shock to me.

“Mercy of Love” is a pretty song about how love comes along and changes your direction, makes you do stuff you can’t control, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

It’s a bit of a cafe song, and the video is a simple performance of Shona singing the song, with some symbols drawn on her face. At other times, the kinder, gentler Shona shrinks into a tiny box in the middle of the screen – about one-third of the screen size – and performs in front of green-screen superimposed static and some more symbols.

Best bit: chilled out Shona, relaxing in a chair.

Director: Karyn Hay
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… oh, meow.

Supergroove “You Gotta Know”

Finally, here come the Supergroove. Average age 18, they look so young in this video. Led by a fresh-faced Che and a mono-fringed Karl, the band lark about, channeling their pop forefathers The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night”. There’s a great energy coming from the video. It’s like they’re not trying to be crazy; they’re 18-year-old guys so they just are crazy.

The song is jam-packed full of everything. When Che is singing, Karl is yelling bits in the gaps, and vice versa. When one instrument quietens down, another blasts in the gap. The video is like this too. Non-stop goofball.

Contrast this with the second version of the “You Gotta Know” video, which I think was made for a later Australian release. It relies on one of Joe Lonie’s comedy video concepts – walking backwards, taking off their clothes – and it feels like they’re relying on a gimmick to make up for their natural energy.

In the funny mixed-up chronology of NZ On Air funding applications, “You Gotta Know” was the third Supergroove single. The second was “Scorpio Girls”, but that’s not coming up till later in ’93. The video also won Best Video at the 1996 New Zealand Music Awards – the second win in a row for co-director Joe Lonie!

Best bit: the hammer smash shot. Rock!



Director: Sigi Spath, Joe Lonie

Next… Uncle Ray gets smoochy.

Jan Hellriegel “It’s My Sin”

“It’s My Sin” is a cruisy ode to life. The video is shot in high-contrast black and white, usually on a close-up of Jan’s head. Sometimes her hair and makeup is neat, other times it’s a little messed up.

It’s a simple video, but has really strong visuals. Jan vamps up well, and the high-contrast effect emphasises this even more. Also appearing in the video is an occasional microphone, a blindfold, a candle and a freshly poured half-pint of lager. And given that Jan spends most of the video under what are obviously very bright, hot lights, a cold beverage would no doubt have been very welcome.

On the YouTube page, Jan notes, “During the video I start to melt,” which conjures up an image of a Doctor Who alien, the melting pop star who can’t sustain human form away from the spotlight.

Best bit: the random blindfold at the beginning.

Director: Matt Noonan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… indie fun day at the beach.

Andrew Fagan “Jerusalem”

Rather than set-dressing a New Zealand beach to resemble Israel, Andrew Fagan and his director/wife Karyn Hay went all the way to Israel and filmed the video out in the Middle-Eastern heat.

Sensibly dressed in the heat-reflective colours of white and rock-star silver, he wanders about playing his guitar and basking in the golden Middle East sun. It’s all very rock, as if the sweeping landscape exists for the sole purpose of highlighting how brilliant Andrew Fagan looks against it.

A video effect is used, where two images are overlaid with one flickering like a flag. I think this was done by using the clear blue sky as a natural blue screen. Otherwise, it’s a really simple, good-looking video.

While the video received funding in the February 1993 round, the video wasn’t shot until October 1993, and wasn’t released until 1994. That’s a lot of planning.

Director: Karyn Hay
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Annie gets emotional.

Maree Sheehan “Fatally Cool”

Maree Sheehan crouches in the grass in One Tree Hill and, in a low, quiet voice, she raps like Prince Be of PM Dawn in “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”.

It’s an unusual mix. The video is full of kapahaka performers, and yet the songs is a slow jam that sounds more like a female Aotearoan LL Cool J. Later in the video, we see Maree standing outside an office building and driving across the harbour bridge, both times wearing the same clothes she’s wearing in the One Tree Hill scenes.

So here’s my theory – when we see her in the city and alone on the hill that’s real life. When we see the kapahaka dancers, that’s her fantasy; being in love is so awesome, it feels like being surrounded by a whole troupe of kapahaka performers doing their thing.

Best bit: the finest poi work in a NZ music video since the “Poi E” video.



Director: Josh Frizzell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Don pre-empts William’s wedding suit.

JPS Experience “Breathe”

The internets have really come to the party with this one. Not only is the “Breathe” video on YouTube, but there’s also a making-of video. Director Matt Palmer talks about the process of making the film, and admits it was made with only $5000. Not that he’s bragging – the video should stand up on its own.

The video does look cheap, but not terrible. It takes the concept of breathing “cool, cool air” by contrasting an icy cold environment with flaming fire. The coldness looks to be replicated by smoke, rather than using an actual cold environment (Excessive? A few years later another band would do just that.) There’s also a bit of fancy layering of the visuals, but at its heart it’s a really basic music video. In fact, the tightly shot live band combined with the fire visuals remind me of Push Push’s “What My Baby Likes” vid.

But I like that even in 1992 people were taking music videos quite seriously. Oh, and the making-of reminds me of the older New Zealand term for music videos: film clips.

Best bit: white feathers start flying around the band for no apparent season.

Director: Matt Palmer
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Lady LL Cool J stylez.

Headless Chickens “Juice”

I’d forgotten what videos look like when they’ve got more than the minimum $5000 (or less!) behind them. The vid for “Juice”, Fiona McDonald’s ode to childhood, is a slick black and white job. Fiona sings on a windy shore, clad in jeans and a baggy sweatshirt (as a possible middle finger to haters who reckoned she’s only joined the Chickens as a bit of sex appeal).

This is cut with footage of young girls running around some craggy trees, , playing hopscotch, swinging on a tyre (that’s a childhood 101 signifier), as well as plenty of shots of those dark menacing trees.

That’s what makes this video work. Yeah, it’s a song about childhood but it’s a Headless Chickens song too, so it’s never straightforward. There’s the pleasant reminiscence of childhood, but that’s tempered by the knowledge that childhood will end and the darkness of adulthood will eventually swoop in.

Best bit: near the end, Fiona briefly breaks character and smiles at someone.

Directors: Grant Fell, Bruce Sheridan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cool, cool air.

Upper Hutt Posse “Ragga Girl”

Girls of the world, do you love the ragga? Upper Hutt Posse like girls who like the ragga and have gone on a musical mission to inform the world of this.

The video takes part at an impromptu performance by la Posse down a graffiti-covered alley. The MC and his trio of backup singers have attracted a substantial audience of ragga-loving girls. There’s a lot dancing. The ragga girls are really digging it.

The camera work is based around a ton of crash zooms, which gives the video a hand-held, “Breaking the Waves” feel. Take that, Lars von Trier – Upper Hutt Posse did it first.

My favourite part of the song is when Teremoana sings that ragga “make me feel so irie”, except the way she sings it sounds like “make me feel so irate”.

I wish Upper Hutt was really like this. Instead of the half-tenanted mall and lunch bars with white bread sandwiches in plastic compartments, instead you could wander down a dark alleyway and come across a crowd of cheerful, smiling people, getting down to rap group, the world alive with music.

Best bit: the woman wearing a gold flat-top hat with giant black polka dots on it.

Director: Dean Hapeta
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a look back at Pat and his sister’s old group.