NZ On Screen – Page 6 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Brooke Fraser “Arithmetic”

It’s curtain up on a stage, revealing a grand piano, a string quartet and several kilometres of fairy lights strung around the place. All this provides the setting for Brooke Fraser to perform her very sweet ballad “Arithmetic”.

It’s a very pretty, very atmospheric video that perfectly works with the tone of the song. Brooke always looks serene in the golden glow of the fairy lights. Sitting on the piano is a frame photo (her inspiration for the song, perhaps) and a glass of water, which – OMG – the number one rule is no drinks on the piano, ok?

Interestingly the string quartet members are all senior citizens. It’s a bit of a cliche having attractive young orchestral players, all long hair and sensual poise, so it really stands out that the video used a group of grandparents for the video. It gives the song’s message – a declaration of long-term love – a more serious context. It’s not just a young girl declaring she’s sooo in love with her bf. No, it’s the message of someone who sees herself growing old with the love of her life, just like the oldies down the back.

NZ On Screen notes that the video was the “winner of the (satirical) award for “Most use of fairy lights in a video clip” at the 2004 Studio 2 Awards”. And a rightly deserved award.

Best bit: the playing face of the granny on cello – she’s seen it all.

Director: Tim Groenendaal
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Friday night in town.

Soane featuring Tha Feelstyle & Boh Runga “All I Need”

Soane mixes up some freshness featuring Tha Feelstyle on the verses and Boh Runga delivering a killer chorus. The video is a blue screen job, with Tha Feelstyle, Soane and various cool kids dancing in front of a urban themed background.

One of the cool kids is a girl with a broken arm. That’s not something you normally see in a music video. Usually people are healthy and intact, but here’s a girl (looking about 15) doing a slightly awkward dance with her right arm plastered right up to her elbow.

The style of the video doesn’t change. It’s just people – or silhouettes – moving in front of interesting backgrounds. But here’s a curious thing. The chorus of the song is a lot stronger than the versus, so much so that the mood of the video seems to lift when the chorus comes along.

Soane only makes an appearance at the end of the video, shown at work with his decks. And then the video ends with a wide shot reveals Soane hard at word in front of the blue screen, surrounded by film equipment that had previously been digitally removed.

That’s something that isn’t normally seen in New Zealand music videos – the final show of “Oh, none of it’s real!” But in this case, I don’t think anyone would have previously been under the impression that Soane and pals were grooving in front of a purple sky with giant red and white butterflies flapping about. So what does the shot signify? Hey, here’s the busy modern hip hop producer, hard at work having just finished his latest music video.

Best bit: the breakdancing on turntable top.

Director: Miki Magasiva
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cabin fever.

Salmonella Dub “Slide”

Salmonella Dub’s three previous videos have all been animations, which I always assume is the result of a band too busy touring to shoot a video in person. The other way of handling that dilemma is to shoot the video on the road, and that seems to be what the Dub has done for “Slide”.

The video is shot in Sydney, as part of the band’s 12-date tour of Australia in August 2003. Much of the video is shot at a gig at the Metro Theatre. It’s a relaxed song, an ode to letting the worries of the world just pass you by.

We see the various members of the band up on stage, but there’s no sense that they’re performing to the cameras. It’s more like the camera is an audience member, just passively checking out the band as they perform.

But just in case things were getting a little claustrophobic in the club, the action moves outside. There we meet a skateboarder who is blissfully hooning down a hilly suburban street. You know you’re not in New Zealand when the footpath is smooth enough to confidently race down on a skateboard.

He then moves to the CBD, skating through a grey pedestrian mall past guys in suits (take that, guys in suits!), then it’s around a few corners and in the front door of the Metro and into the gig. Just in time for the song to end.

The video feels like a quickie, and more effort seems to have gone to filming the skateboarding scenes than the live footage. But I think Salmonella Dub have always been an album band and a live band more than they’ve ever been a singles or music videos band.

Best bit: the quality moves from the skateboarder.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a broken arm.

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.

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.

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.

Scribe “Not Many – The Remix!”

Here’s a funny thing. The double A-side single of “Stand Up”/”Not Many” spent a total of 12 weeks at number one, but when the “Not Many – The Remix!” single was released, it was kept from the top spot by the debut single of Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian. As it happens, Guy Sebastian has had a longer and more conventionally successful career than Scribe, and even has a song in the New Zealand top 40, as of February 2014.

But the remix of “Not Many” is still a brilliant track with one of the catchiest choruses over. The original was given new life with rhymes from Savage of the Deceptikonz (and his memorable cry of “Pito Saute Aukelagiiiii!”) as well as up-and-coming rapper Con Psy aka David Dallas.

As director Chris Graham told the Grindin blog, he was inspired by P-Money to make the “opposite” of the busy “Stand Up” video, he decided to keep things really simple, paring the video down to just the performers, filmed in colours but with all the players dressed in black and white.

Things start off in a black space, with a shadowy Scribe introducing the song. But suddenly the song starts breaking up and Savage breaks into the picture, a bold presence against a white background. He’s joined by a few other New Zealand hip hop figures (Footsouljahs, the rest of the Deceptikonz daring to wear red).

Then there’s Con-Psy, initially seen from the nose down. He delivers his rhymes in a pretty low key way, but with a few hints that he would mature into the artist he is as David Dallas.

This video just feels right. It captures four of New Zealand’s best hip hop artists doing what they do best. They’re confident but not cocky, and just having a great time.

Best bit: the crazy white dog, enjoying the song just as much as anyone.

Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cold and wet and just plane scared.

Nesian Mystik “Brothaz”

The Brothaz adventure beings with the group shooting a video for their song “Operation F.O.B”. As far as I can tell, this is a fake video shoot and a full video for this song was never made. That video shoot involves a huge number of extras, all dancing in a tall lobby of a building.

But after the video shoot is over, things get a little quieter. Awa walks away from the video shoot, taking a path that involves walking along all the most gritty and urban looking places around K Road. Like, why walk on the side of West Terrace with a footpath when the road side is that much more picturesque?

This all leads Awa to a support meeting of Brothaz Anonymous, seemingly inspired by the testicular cancer support group scenes of Fight Club. Support groups are great comedy material, but this one isn’t really done for laughs. All the activities at the group are played straight – the group confessions, the trust-building exercises. It all seems like it could be a legit group.

We never see any of Nesian Mystik actually performing the song, so it feels a bit like a short film with a soundtrack by Nesian Mystik. The song – about the importance of male friendships – is sweet and uncynical, but the video seems unsure of how to tackle the subject. The only plot involves a nearby cleaner being invited to join the group, but even that doesn’t feel fully explained. It’s like something is missing. YouTube commenter MrKebabs summed it up when he asked, “there’s a deeper underlying message to this music video, other than unity of brothers, that i can’t quite grasp… anyone??”

Best bit: the pass-the-wink circle game.

Director: David Garbett
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a horse, of course.

Mareko feat. The Deceptikonz “Stop, Drop & Roll”

The phenomenon of “Mareko feat. The Deceptikonz” was like when the Supremes became Diana Ross and the Supremes or Miami Sound Machine became Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. Except in this case, Mareko isn’t the star – he doesn’t even show up until halfway through the song. Instead it’s Savage who gets the impossibly catchy hook, making it very much Savage feat. the Deceptikonz.

The fire-safety catchphrase of the chorus is turned into a military command for the video – which would be a whole lot easier than shooting people with flaming clothes. It’s filmed at what looks like actual military barracks, complete with the New Zealand flag flying.

The video opens with Mareko broadcasting over the camp’s PA, with his personality flipping between Robin William’s cheerful Good Morning, Vietnam DJ, and R Lee Ermey’s draconian drill sergeant of Full Metal Jacket.

The action alternates between the day and night. In the AM, drill sergeant Savage keeps the troops in line. There are outdoor exercises, head shaving, bunk inspection and some attempts at formation dancing. While at night, the troop’s barracks have been transformed into a party zone, with dancing girls wearing sexy camo. (This is actually what happened with Work & Income’s Limited Service Volunteer programme under Labour.) There’s also a bit of jungle action, where waterguns take the place of serious weaponry.

By the way, this song has one of the greatest lines in New Zealand hip hop, where Devolo tells all opponents to bring it on, adding, “I’ll pay for your minibus!” Yeah, that’s serious.

This is a really fun video, playing along with the cheeky spirit of the song. After the previous branding-intense video for “Mareko (Here to Stay)”, it’s very refreshing to just have the Deceptikonz being these cool dude MCs.

Best bit: the lack of discipline during the bunk room inspection. Eyes front!

Director: Sophie Findlay
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision “dirty” version and “clean” version

Next… a menace II society.

Scribe “Stand Up”

So here it is, the New Zealand single to spend the most number of weeks at number one, spending a total of 12 weeks in the top spot – equalled only by Freddy Fender’s lament “Wasted Days and Wasted Night” in 1975 and bettered only by Boney M’s permanently amazing biblical groove “Rivers of Babylon”, which managed 14 weeks in 1978.

I remember at the time “Stand Up” came out, someone saying something like, “This is an important moment for New Zealand hip hop, but it’s going to be even better when this song seems really naff.” That is, it’ll be better when the New Zealand world of hip hop is so strong, it doesn’t need a motivational song praising it.

Are we there yet? Well, in 2003, the overall year-end singles chart had five hip hop singles from New Zealand artists, 2004 had six, but the 2013 chart doesn’t have any. It’s not until you drill down to to the New Zealand artists chart that “Runnin'” by David Dallas shows up. Hip hop is still around, but it’s not the pop superpower it was a decade ago.

The “Stand Up” adventure starts with Scribe and P-Money in a car, teasingly soundtracked by the intro of his next single “Not Many”. The pair get out and run towards a door and – bam! – they’re in a secret underground party, attended by their friends, fans and other New Zealand hip hop players.

Scribe is surrounded by the other artists he name-drops – the D4, Blindspott, Nesian Mystik, Deceptikonz – and there’s a certain awkwardness when everyone in the video feels compelled to pull a cooldude face when the camera is near them. But full credit to director Chris Gregory for getting great levels of energy in the crowd. This doesn’t look like a bunch of people roped into making a music video – they all want to be they’re and they’re having a great time partying.

In 2003, the video was great and inspiring. If Scribe could manage this with his first solo video, there could only be great things to come, right? It turned out the future was more complicated than that. Sometimes hip hop is in fashion, other times it’s the turn for minimalist electro teen pop.

The “Stand Up” ends with a preview of the next single, “Not Many”. It introduces the listener to the very sticky chorus that would soon be repeated all around New Zealand, leaving viewers wanting so much more.

Note: Hip hop label Grindin has a track-by-track look at the making of Scribe’s Crusader album, including a lot of info about the “Stand Up” video. From this we learn that much of the people in the video are audience members from a De La Soul concert that Scribe opened for earlier that evening.

Best bit: P-Money’s deft hat flip to obscure his mouth saying the F-word.

Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a screen test.