ITAP 3 Moving IMage

ITAP Moving Image 3

The Work of Director Chris Cunningham, Portishead video – Only You & Bjork – All is full of love. Then Making All is full of love featuring interviews with Bjork and Chris Cunningham

1.    How did Bjork and Chris collaborate on the All is full of love video?

Bjork had the basis of an idea wanting to show the transition of love in her sterile style. Chris, having once been very interested in robotics offered this as a medium to portray the narrative. He worked up the idea, Bjork, who is awe of his talents, was greatly impressed and they moved onto production. Once the filming was completed she left him to it, waiting till the completion till she viewed the finish product.

It was a happy mix of circumstances, as the video wasn’t part of an album release, there wasn’t the normal time pressure, so Bjork was laid back about the release date. As fait would have it, that was exactly what Chris needed, as he went into meltdown after seeing all the rushes, full of self-doubt about his abilities to pull off the endeavor, but having the time he needed to work it through, he found the direction he wanted and pulled off it to everyone’s satisfaction.

           

2.    What techniques were used on the Portishead video to create the unusual slow motion effects? Research this.

I have researched this without effect, cant find anything anywhere on the Internet about the making of the video. It appears that he has obviously submerge the cast in water and transposed their images into the scene, what techniques he used is a mystery, but seeing how Cunningham works, there will be a devilish amount of post production work.    

3.    What other music video directors have gone on to direct feature films? Name two and the feature films they have made.

It appears to me that the premise to this question is wrong as it implies that Cunningham has made a feature film, and although, I doubted my research abilities in the previous question, I am more confident to state such in this question.

By omitting “other” from the question, I would offer Gore Verbinski. He was a guitarist in a punk rock band, but sold his instrument for a camera. His first professional directing jobs were music videos for L7, Bad Religion, and Monster Magnet. He went onto a critically acclaimed advertising career directing commercials, most noticeably Budweiser campaign with the croaking toads.   

Verbinski directed his first film in 1997,Mousehunt, then his third in 2002, The Ring, was a box office success grossing $23m, then scaled it up a bit with his forth, Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003. He then went on to direct the next two films in series.

My second offering would be Spike Jonze. He started out as a BMX rider and photographer and very much part of the creative flare behind Dirt Magazine, which he became editor. He went on to prolific number of music videos, to critical acclaim and getting and MTV award for his contribution to the medium, his most popular video being Sabotage by the Beasty Boys in 1994.

He has directed short art and documentary films, and still is active within the music industry, as well as turning his hand to producing, writing, and acting.  His first feature film he directed was Being John Malkovich in 1999, for which he received a shedload of awards including be nominated for an Academy Award for best director. It cost $13 m and grossed $23m. In 2002 he directed Adaption, which did well but wasn’t as well received by the industry, had a smaller return on an increased budget. The trend continued with his next film, Where The Wild Things Lived, which had a much bigger budget but only just broke even on the $100m investment.

4.    Which famous sci-fi film did Chris Cunningham’s work on before he became a director?

Cunningham was sort out by Stanley Kubrick, who had been impressed by his video work, getting Cunningham to work on the robotics effects in AI, which in the end was directed by Steven Spielberg. Cunningham worked well on the project, but left before the films completion. Is feature film debut as a director has been long awaited, but he seems content to let people wait.

5.    What makes his work different or original compared to other similar directors?

Cunningham seems to be happiest working within the music industry and creating art films, which he has installed and exhibition at the Tate amongst others. His work seems fairly anarchic and dark, while his editing can be as fierce as his music. This is demonstrated in one of his latest works Come to Daddy, which seemed to owe a debt to Max Headroom, from 1988, for the location and TV concept.

Looking back at his earlier work, Madonna’s 1998 Frozen, demonstrates a trend towards this. Frozen, implies the obvious white and cold, but Cunningham goes black in a desert, which has a brilliant effect of underlining the narrative of the song. For the video, the golden girl of pop’s look is transformed into darkness, with obscured close ups, getting her face down in the dirt, brave man, I suspect this might not have been the typical way to shoot Madonna.