June 2007: Adi Dick, Age Pryor, Anji Sami, Anna Coddington, Atlas, Badtown

Punk-on-emo violence, a one-man show, cool overload, scenic New Zealand, and the last days of Carlaw Park.

Adi Dick “Beautiful View”

There is an interesting story behind this video. It was made via a competition where green screen footage of Adi Dick was provided to aspiring video makers. The competition was run in conjunction with music video channel C4 and here’s a promo explaining how things worked.

As a result, there are a few other versions of the video online, like this very busy one, this slideshow, and this teen gunfight version. Even though the green screen footage seems to be set up for some CGI rain to be falling on Adi, the winning version avoids this obvious path. Instead it puts him in a hot-air balloon, a boat and a car, where he surveys the rainy but beautiful Wellington landscape. The video isn’t a slave to the green screen, content to even use a tiny box with Adi’s face. It’s not perfect, but it works well.

Director: Preston McNeil, Jeremy Mansford
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Age Pryor “Shanks Pony”

This video is like the arty offspring of Shihad’s “Home Again” vid. It involves Age Pryor framed by a small stage, while all sorts of real-life special effects take place around him, thanks to “about 30 awesome volunteers”. Strangely, though, the video loses a bit of energy towards the end, but it’s generally a fun experience and gets even better with repeat viewings.

Director: Taika Waititi
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Anji Sami “El Dorado”

Anji Sami, whose sister Madeleine has both appeared in and directed music videos, has the very cool “El Dorado”. The video takes place in a small room, shot in high-contrast black and white. Anji stands in one corner while a line of cool kids watch her perform. It’s a very simple video and it creates a great tension from the potential of cool overload.

Director: Jonny Smith, James Gates

Anna Coddington “Hold You Here”

Anna Coddington’s first solo video takes her to the tiny village of Waihi, on the southern shores of Lake Taupo. Every shot in the video is picturesque and so New Zealand. There’s the local marae, the blue lake, the lush native bush and a pretty waterfall. It makes me want to get out of the house and go road tripping much more than all those coastal reggae barbecue vids do.

Director: Jos Wheeler

Atlas “Magic8”

Atlas’ previous single “Crawling” spent a very decent seven weeks at No.1 (only five other New Zealand No.1s have charted longer), but “Magic8” peaked at No.27 and spent only three weeks in the chart. The video is set in the ruins of Carlaw Park, getting closer to its late 2007 demolition that would put an end to its use as the go-to location for gritty music video shoots. Atlas are tied to chairs from which they eventually escape before dramatically running to freedom in the dark, dingy passage under the stadium. Watch out for used syringes, guys.

Director: Adam Jones

Badtown “Jonny Rude”

This video has so much acting in it that it almost matches Joint Force’s “Static (Part 1)”. The premise: ska-punkers Badtown have an audition in front of a record company boss (played by David Fane), but one of their band members is late. He’s on his way, chased by some thugs who are angry he rooted some chick. At one point Johnny smacks a bystander in the face, which seems like an act of senseless violence, until you realise that the guy is an emo and at the time it would have seemed hilarious. The song itself comes across as underproduced, but the video has a really old-school charm to it, like an updated Monkees caper.

Director: Anton Steel

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