NZ On Screen – Page 20 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Tama Renata “Theme from Once Were Warriors”

So, how do you sell a song that is the theme tune for a bleak film centred around themes of poverty and violence? The video for the theme from “Once Were Warriors” avoids all the rough bits, but still leaves plenty of menace.

Tama Renata plays his carved guitar, with plenty of whammy-bar action and intricate fingering. This is cut with scenes from the film showing gangs, fierce hakas and simmering tension that’s just going to lead to you-know-what. But there are also happier scenes – Jake filling up his plate with kai, the two gang bros doing the eyebrows, and a nice pash, and the girls sharing a laugh.

So it’s a pretty standard film soundtrack video. But yet while the song and the video don’t explicitly illustrate the violent bits of the film, we all know what’s coming.

Best bit: the eyebrows.

Director: Lee Tamahori
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

OMC “How Bizarre”

Guys, we did it. This song was in the August 1994 funding round, but the video wasn’t released until very late 1995, and didn’t become a bonafide massive global hit until 1996. Someone knew they had a hit on their hands.

A bit of history about the video. A first version of the video was made by directors Gideon Keith and Marcus Ringrose (who later directed the Headless Chickens’ “George” video). But their version was rejected because, among other reasons, the lighting made Pauly Fuemana look like “a raisin”.

So a reshoot was ordered, this film directed by film-maker Lee Baker who had also played the memorable guitar part on the song. So Pauly, singer Sina and a Filipino guy named Hill was stood in for Brother Pele cruised in a Chevy Impala along the gardens at Ellerslie racecourse.

Record label owner Simon Grigg notes that the video “had over 15,000 TV plays in the US between 1997 and 2000 and cost a total of $7000 to make.” And indeed it doesn’t look particularly fancy, with most of the action taking place in the lyrical Chevy or on a circus themed stage.

And Simon tweeted some more info about the making of the video.

it was a real rush job as we had rejected the first. It went to number 1 in NZ without a vid.

…and the opening sequences – the car – was copied countless times in the US. The director was offered heaps of US work

Then we left NZoA logo off accidentally and brendan rang asking if we could please add it. Happy to of course.

It’s the first video I’ve seen so far that has proper dancing girls – wearing sequinned bras and not playing any significant role in the video, other than to shake their booties. It’s a clever move – a lesser video would have had clowns in it.

Listening to the whole song for the first time in years, I suddenly realised that there’s a lot of accordion in it. This make it seem even more improbable that it would become a massive worldwide hit, and yet it did.

But at the centre of “How Bizarre” is Mr Fuemana, Mr Pauly Fuemana, looking dapper-as in a cravat. “How Bizarre” seems like a moment in time when Pauly Fuemana stood on top of the world, with unlimited possibilities in front of him. Knowing how the story ended is sad, but doesn’t stop the spirit of “How Bizarre”.

Doof it up, Pauly.

Best bit: Sina’s practical sports bra.

Note: Can things get more complicated? There are at least two versions of the music video. This version has the NZ On Air logo so I assume it was the first to be made.

And this video looks to be the second version. It’s based on the same clips at the first, but with less of the car and more of the dancing girls.

Director: Lee Baker
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… playing the November Rain card.

Headless Chickens “Cruise Control (Eskimos in Egypt mix)”

First, let’s watch the original “Cruise Control” video from 1991. It’s not hard to see why some Headless Chickens fans didn’t like Fiona having joined their favourite band. It’s like light vs dark, good vs evil. The sunny, cheery Fiona vs the gloomy goth Chris. But as it happened, “Cruise Control” was the gateway drug for my love of the Chooks.

A few years later it was remixed. The problematic Shona Laing sample was removed, Fiona’s vocals double-tracked, and most of Chris’ rap disappeared. It was a heavenly pop hit for the Australian market, with the video cheekily funded by NZ On Air.

The band are hanging out in a car, with a bewigged Fiona playing a forlorn passenger. The rest of the band take turns driving, as well as playing cards, reading the newspaper, talking on giant cellphones, sucking on lollipops, and displaying a Knight Rider banner.

It feels like the Chickens are mocking the trappings of success, and acknowledging that sometimes things aren’t always so happy.

Best bit: the establishing shot of Auckland, just to prove that they’re actually on the (pretend) road.

Director: Jonathan Ogilvie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the battle between goth and pop.

Dave Dobbyn “Language”

Finally, Dave Dobbyn. Finally you grace us with your presence. Dave is a man of many appearances, so I feel it is important that these be logged. In “Language”, Dave wears a goatee beard, but it should be noted that in 1994, goatees were very hip. Although, like any youth fashion, that hipness did not necessarily extend to dads.

“Language” takes part in two universes. There is the colour, gloomy world of Dave Dobbyn. He lurks about in the shadows of either a junk shop or maybe the symbolic cluttered home of the tortured subject of the song. The other world is black and white, evenly lit, and with people of all sexual orientations who stare at the camera and look soulful, intense, angry or gloomy. This video must have been a boon for unemployed actors.

I don’t think this video does the song many favours. The video takes the gloomy tone of the lyrics, and ignores the much more upbeat music. And why dress Dave Dobbyn like a bogan dad?

Best bit: the hot guy with jean-clad legs akimbo.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… what happens at the pool in winter.

Supergroove “Sitting Inside My Head”

Supergroove, average age 19, get soulful. “I walk around this town. There’s buildings closed, the windows are boarded,” Che Fu murmurs, while the band struts around a very lively looking Queen Street. Irony?

Che is given a pebbly beach to walk along, and also joins the band on a quarry, as a digger digs. The quarry scenes are filmed by a swooping helicopter. Yeah, why not? All this is cut with shots of a long-haired girl washing her hair and legs in a bowl. Doesn’t she have a bathtub? Is Che’s girlfriend a Depression-era street urchin?

Wait – the city street, the beach, the quarry, the waif – “Sitting Inside My Head” is like a drinking game of music video cliches. And yet, again, Supergroove pull it off because they totally believe in it. They are young and all they know is how to absolutely throw themselves into their work.

Best bit: the faceless hairwashing girl, like a hipster Cousin Itt.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… getting in touch with one’s metal roots.

The Mutton Birds “Anchor Me”

“Anchor Me” was released two months after “Ngaire” but they were funding-round buddies. And like “Dominion Road”, there was also a UK version of “Anchor Me”.

The UK video sees a leather jacketed Don with his golden curls hair tamed back into a solid rock barnet. He gives the camera video sex-face while the Mutton Birds do their best to break into the lucrative UK music scene. In the foreground, goldfish swim.

Meanwhile, back in 1994, the New Zealand version is totally Don-centric, with the rest of the band absent. Don is dressed as a salty seadog, but then the nautical theme goes overboard (ha!), with blobbing lava lamp action, a boat, a rained upon car, before Don gets totally wet for the chorus.

There’s also a naked swimming lady, with visible nipples. I don’t remember there being any controversy around this video. Perhaps because no one expects there to be boobs in a Mutton Birds video, no one sees it when it happens.

I don’t quite find this video to be satisfying. The UK video make it feel like a Stereosonic song, while the original seems like a student film project.

Best bit: the faux rainy car driving.

Director: Fane Flaws
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a hard day’s work down at the quarry.

Grace “Black Sand Shore”

The Ioasa brothers return, and this time they’re spending a night at the museum. Using the grand marble halls of Auckland Museum as a dramatic backdrop, the trio pose and generally look awesome as they stand in a variety of symmetrical formations. The only other people in the museum are two very glamorous-looking women, who are probably security guards trying to track down the source of the smooth Pacifica soul they can hear wafting from the top floor.

Much of the band’s intense posing takes place outside the entrance to the exhibit formerly known as Centennial Street (later Auckland 1866, later demolished). The exhibition included replicas of ye olde Auckland business premises, and – frankly – would have made a brilliant setting for a music video. I wonder if Grace had a look around it when they were shooting the video.

The “Black Sand Shore” video is filmed in sepia tone, with a stylish and respectful feeling. I bet they were all absolutely on their best behaviour, and probably had a stern museum director saying that if anything was broken, the museum would be closed to all musicians forever.

It’s a really successful video (and probably relatively low budget) and I like to think it marks a turning point for New Zealand music videos. Don’t need no green screen.

Best bit: how incredibly amazing Auckland Museum looks.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Captain Don’s nautical adventure.

Purest Form “Message To My Girl”

As the cruel hand of history would have it, Purest Form are best known for their barbershop quartet performance in the Rainbow’s End ad.

But then they weren’t singing the praises of the Motion Master, they were having a go at a proper pop career. Their first single was a sweet cover of Split Enz’s “Message to my Girl”.

Dressed in suits of the ’90s power palate (deep red, teal green, sky blue) the quartet perform the song on a west coast beach. It’s a fine day, with plenty of golden sunshine, but the jagged rocks on the beach don’t quite make it as romantic as perhaps the band intended.

The song is ok, but the arrangement tends to overegg the pudding. “I don’t wanna say I want you,” one singer croons. But that’s not enough. Another comes in with a sensually whispered, “I want you.”

The song has a really ambitious, epic quality to it, complete with a spoken break that starts with “Giiiirl, you know me…” But where were Purest Form when vocal harmony groups like Backstreet Boys and Nsync were tearing up the charts around the turn of the millennium? The Form came too soon.

Best bit: the smooth velvety spoken bit.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a trip to Taumarunui.

Upper Hutt Posse “Stormy Weather”

Let’s go back to April 1991, the very first NZ On Air music video funding round. When I started 5000 Ways, I could only find two of the three videos in this found. But it turns out that four days after I posted the entry saying the “Stormy Weather” video wasn’t online, it was uploaded to YouTube by its director, Upper Hutt Posse frontman Dean Hapeta. Nice one!

“Stormy Weather” starts provocatively with footage of riot police, which I’m guessing was from the Springbok Tour protests. We discover D Word is watching this on his TV. It affects him deeply, prompting him to pick up a Sharpie and notepad and make a list of the troubles of the world.

The video is made with a green screen, with members of the Posse performing against scenes of global strife. Nuclear bombs, Bastion Point, troubles in the Middle East, the KKK, bombs over Baghdad – these are a few of my least favourite things.

But despite all this strong imagery, the song itself is laid back, with the ever-popular “Funky Drummer” drum loop and a particularly smooth chorus courtesy of Teremoana Rapley’s silky vocals. And it’s just as well. With lyrics like “I got a real strong fear, you know, that things will only get worse”, there needs to be a little sweetness.

Despite the international influences in the song, it’s a very New Zealand video and it seems a perfect choice for being one of the first three videos to receive NZ On Air funding.

Best bit: the really nice handwriting on the list of troubles

Director: Dean Hapeta
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Sisters Underground “In The Neighbourhood”

I just listened to this song for the first time in years and a lyric stood out:

It’s a cruel June morning on the edge of the city.
It’s so damn hot, and my neck is feeling gritty.

An unpleasantly hot day in June? This is not a New Zealand lyric. And I don’t think you’d find many “brothers talkin’ ’bout their damn MAC-10” around these parts.

It makes more sense to discover that Hassanah, Sisters Underground’s MC, is from Nigeria by way of New York, so I figure she’s allowed to write about her experience of stinking hot June days and guns in other cities in other hemispheres.

The “In The Neighbourhood” video is very cool, with footage of Hassanah and singer Brenda mooching around the streets of South Auckland wearing different combos of baggy jeans and buttoned-up shirts. Even though they both look like sweet teenage girls, they also have a toughness to them. Hey, they’re Sisters Underground. You do not mess with them.

And the video captures bits of ordinary South Auckland life. South Auckland has to be the most filmed area as far as music videos go. No videographers ever film people down at the Bucklands Beach shops.

This video rightly deserves its place as a landmark New Zealand music video. While it’s not the first music video to feature South Auckland life, with photographer Greg Semu behind the camera, it was the first to do it with beauty.

Best bit: the Sisters chillin’ in the golden afternoon sun. So cool.

Director: Greg Semu
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… too much is never enough.