BUG

The evolution of music video

BUG 05, Thursday 31st January 2008, 8:50pm, BFI Southbank

Download these notes as a PDF document, as distributed at the event

Welcome to the fifth episode of BUG, and our first of 2008. Tonight we have not one but two special guests who represent very different aspects of the modern music video-making: successful UK directing team Diamond Dogs, and Dutch artist/director Roel Wouters.

Our first video tonight is the latest by top British director Dougal Wilson, for top British dance-pop outfit Goldfrapp's new single 'A&E' – but on the face of it, it's an unexpected combination. Alison Goldfrapp has made bold, inventive and sexy videos, but they have not been loads of laughs, and Dougal is well known his brilliant visual comedy. But the team-up works because now Alison has softened the sexpot image, allowing room for some humour... That's where Dougal comes in, and he doesn't disappoint, with his failsafe method of bringing Alison back to nature. Incidentally this was shot in a wood near Paris just before Christmas in freezing conditions. Alison, who is wearing a shirt and not much else, was a tough little soldier...

Our second video also deals with nature, in a manner of speaking. Apparently Matt Dilmore wanted to make a documentary about animal carcass collection for a long time – but luckily he ended up making this low budget video instead, for spooky psychedelic/electronic outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow's 'Sun Lips'. Prepare to be astonished (and possibly revolted) at an unflinching look at the sterling work these guys do, disposing of dead racoons, skunks and, er, baboons...

Next we have New York-based Elliot Jokelson's video for Eastern Conference Champions' 'The Box'. It's a brilliantly executed twist on the familiar setting of the psychiatric ward, inspired by the director's own fug of confusion when trying to think of an idea for the video. It becomes a nightmarish but intoxicating fantasy, beautifully rendered in animation.

We begin the next section with the latest video for West Country rockpoetess PJ Harvey, here in earnest mode with 'The Piano', and a video created in an upstairs room of a house in Bristol. It's the home of Maria Mochnacz, who has been taking photos of Polly Harvey since before she released a record and making her music videos for almost as long. But this presents a fundamental departure from their previous collaborations, because the singer does not appear. Instead Mochnacz has created a conceptual piece addressing the problem of censorship in a forthright and somewhat controversial manner – mostly with the director's own porn collection.

Next comes a video for rockin' Georgia outfit Moros Eros by the Toronto-based director and artist Jesse Ewles, who has also directed videos for Grizzly Bear among others. As well as creating traditional animation, Ewles experiments with graphic forms of live action. This video for 'On Your Side' is essentially a live action cartoon-cum-parable on man's destructive capacity, where the characters and visual effects are culled from everyday objects – a combination of bravura filmmaking and Japanese mime theatre.

We then have something brand new from Kiwi director Sam Peacocke, whose video for Mint Chicks featured in BUG 03. Now he has directed New Zealand rock outfit The Checks' 'Tired from Sleeping'. Shot with a non-professional but charismatic couple, and with genuine early 60s Lotus Formula One cars, it is sensationally stylish filmmaking for a very catchy number, and we call it a hit.

Following that we welcome our first guest directors of the evening: Phil Sansom and Olly Williams, who work together under the Bowie-inspired title of 'Diamond Dogs'. The duo enjoyed a hugely prolific run last year, with inventive work for a wide range of British acts, including The Enemy, The Black Ghosts, 12 Stone Toddler and Newton Faulkner. And their hugely entertaining video for The Hoosiers' 'Worried About Ray', was one of the surprise hits of 2007: they openly paid tribute to the genius of master animator Ray Harryhausen, complete with Harryhausen-style monstrous Cyclops. By contrast, their latest video, for Sonny J's Enfant Terrible is set among circus performers with a period, almost Victorian flavour.

We follow the Dogs with an outstanding entry and the biggest winner at the second Radar Festival held earlier this month, which invited aspiring directors to make videos for any one of a range of tracks from signed artists. The video for Kylie Minogue's 'Slow' created by directors Terry Duthu and Kevin Phillips (and producer Trey Hock) – all recent graduates of Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia – is a junkyard-glam performance video crossed with martial arts surrealist fantasy. It won three Radar prizes, including the Popular Vote award, gaining an incredible 600,000 votes on the Dazed & Confused website. Now you can find out why.

In The White Stripes' 'Conquest', Jack Black gets to play a bullfighter who allows sentiment to get in the way of a decent kill. It's very funny but it has a cutting edge – the setting and the story playing perfectly off the melodrama of the mariachi-drenched music. It was directed by seasoned director Diane Martel, although the idea originated with Martel's friend, the acclaimed author Jonathan Lethem. Jack is not the only one to display his acting chops either – Meg does a nice turn too...

Then, as an introduction to our second guest director, we have an exceptional and arguably unique music video, made in the middle of last year. There have been many one-shot, single-take videos before, but probably none were also a live performance played before an audience. Consequently zZz's 'Grip' is really performance art (about music videos) first, and a music video second. Its director, the Dutch conceptual artist and director Roel Wouters is here tonight to explain the story behind this amazing work, and also to introduce the equally conceptual and fascinating follow-up for My Robot Friend's 'Robot High School'.

That's followed by an animated tale for new outfit Annuals. In fact the theme of the clip directed by Trunk, the prolific Shoreditch-based animation collective, is decidedly similar to that of the Stripes' video. In short, it addresses the problems that are likely to arise when you convert your girlfriend to vegetarianism – if she happens to be a crocodile. More animals, more death... do we recognise a theme developing here?

In our last section, the evening's tendency towards humour (albeit sometimes grisly humour) is reinforced by the final choices. Firstly, we have a late addition to the programme: the brand new video for Mark Ronson's version of Just. Of course you know the original by Radiohead, and the seminal video for the track by Jamie Thraves. So does Jim Canty – our guest from the last BUG – and he has taken the most enigmatic video ever made and continued the storyline – and then frankly taken a few liberties. But don't worry, he got Jamie's blessing first.

And finally, we have the sexually controversial Temporarily in Love by New York band Group Sounds, directed by band member Randy Scott Slavin. It's stupid, puerile, shocking, extraordinary and, we think, really rather amusing. Yes, the band are in the lady's vagina. And yes, the director really is called Randy.

David Knight

Artist	Title	Direction	Production company	Record company	Nationality	Length
BUG	Title sequence megamix	Model Robot	Model Robot		United Kingdom
Goldfrapp	A&E	Dougal Wilson	Colonel Blimp	Mute	United Kingdom
Black Moth Super Rainbow	Sun Lips	Matt Dilmore		Graveface Records	United States
Eastern Conference Champions	The Box	Elliot Jokelson	Ghost Robot	Suretone Records	United States
PJ Harvey	The Piano	Maria Mochnacz		Island Records	United Kingdom
Moros Eros	On Your Side	Jesse Ewles	Nude Mouse (Toronto)	Victory Records	United States
The Checks	Tired From Sleeping	Sam Peacocke	Robbers Dog New Zealand	Full Time Hobby	New Zealand
The Hoosiers	Worried About Ray	Diamond Dogs	HSI London	Sony BMG	United Kingdom
Sonny J	Enfant Terrible	Diamond Dogs	HSI London	Positiva	United Kingdom
Kylie Minogue	Slow (Radar winner)	Terry Duthu and Kevin Phillips		Parlophone	United States
The White Stripes	Conquest	Diane Martel	HSI Productions	Warners US/XL Recordings	United States/United Kingdom
zZz	Grip	Roel Wouters (a.k.a. Xelor)	Nexus Productions/Goeroe Commercials		Netherlands
My Robot Friend	Robot High School	Roel Wouters (a.k.a. Xelor)	Nexus Productions/Goeroe Commercials		Netherlands
Annuals	Dry Clothes	Trunk		Virgin Records	United Kingdom
Mark Ronson featuring Alex Greenwald	Just	Jim Canty	HSI London	Sony BMG	United Kingdom
Group Sounds	Temporarily In Love	Randy Scott Slavin	Videe This		United States