Micro Video Tricks
A music video that has been haunting me with its transparent yet elegant photographic genius is the Yeah yeah yeah’s “Heads Will Roll” video viewable at Mtv.com and Youtube.com. This video has a lot of photography in it. Light is used as a symbol and as a tool. The colors of the video are muted, and at times its looks like mere video and not high definition stock is used.
There is a lot of texture going on, much more than the usual music video. The lead singer’s dress is like a piece of red tinfoil with saran wrap over it. The shape of the sleeves of the dress show up under the lights of the video, but the tree lights and the klieg lights of the rock band are shining from behind the band, turning focus of the video to the audience.
The introductory shot of the video turns the band into an observer instead of a performer, because we see who the performer is. The camera interrupts the “concert” point of view and turns 90 degrees, then introduces to the camera eye an individual who intersects the relationship between rock performance dazzle and critical onlookers of the darkened audience.
This is a MichaelJackson homage, a dark suited dancer of incredible litheness and agility which stuns the audience with his fancy steps on the classic “Billie Jean” lighted dance floor. The fedora is thrown with a twist, the silver rhinestone socks flicker as the dancer steps lightly onto the stage. Inside the performance is the beast, however.
The lead singer’s dress looks like it was made with leftovers from Wonder Woman’s costume. The red underdress points up her resonance to the beast “Jackson” and their dual roles as “performers”. The opening frame of the video is fingers working an electronic keyboard in the murky club darkness, and certain keys flash red in warning/danger.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, for the first time, to me look like a rock band in this video, which features like a Stephen King short story set to music. Heretofore there was always an alt-rock note to their videos. The plastic dress, the serious tones, the fantasy crooning against the hard rock beat deliver, deliver, deliver.
The director of this music video is Richard Ayoade, some kind of brilliant British actor and director. The lean style of the direction, the focused scenes leading to the end of the video bring a cinematic talent to the fore that makes the video music genre to a theatrical level. The watchability of this video extends far past videos that MTV insisted on showing us hundreds of times, and for that, Richard, I thank you.
