Polica 'Wandering Star'
Polica's music video for Wandering Star directed by Eugene Lee Yang has both a captivating story and enticing cinematography. The video features an elderly woman sitting on a stool in the middle of an art room, looking slightly absent minded. One after the other, contemporary dancers with intense make up and costumes appear from the canvas' on the wall. Slowly one by one the dancers seem to bring the woman back to conciousness. The choreography brings elements of compassion, happiness, lust, sadness all seemingly telling the story of who this woman once was. The video offers a variety of different shot types and angles depicting the story of the woman and her dancing art. The video starts with the woman all alone in a minimal room covered in paint. She sits on a stool aimlessly staring at nothing. These shots immediately make you feel sympathy for this woman as she looks as if she's giving up. The first dancer is mainly wearing green face paint and a green skirt, green is a natural, calm colour which worked parallel to to the choreography. He's obviously showing compassion to the woman, stroking her arm and placing his face in her hand. I noticed cross fade transitions between the woman and the first dancer which I think showed a connection between the two because you could often see him through the woman's head giving the impression that he is her imagination. After the first dancer fades away, blue paint drips down the woman's face and we see another dancer with the theme of red. I believe the red symbolises passion as the female dancers movements are so powerful and she has a very strong presence in the scene. Yellow paint drips from the woman and the third dancer appears. This dancer's make-up is black and almost tribal looking covering more of the dancer than the other two's make-up. This character is not like the others as his movements are much eerier and he has an aggressive expression on his face. The woman is obviously upset and afraid of him due to the fear and frustrated look she displays. The final artistic looking dancer is floaty and joyful much like the green dancer, leaping elegantly around the room. During her dance its noticeable that the woman is making effort to involve herself in the dance as it is obviously making her feel comfortable and at ease. We see many close ups of the two smiley at each other until they finally hug and the dancer whispers in the woman's ear. After she disappears many dancers wearing white leotards enter the shot gracefully as the camera tracks backwards showing the large room, the woman seems overjoyed and I think this is because these dancers represent blank canvas' ready for the woman to create art with. Over the course of their piece the dancers and the woman become covered in paint until they reveal the woman lying on the floor from a birds eye view looking straight down. I believe that the woman knew she was soon going to die and she wanted to surround herself with art, thinking over the many years she's had to create. What I like about this video is that it tells a story, you automatically empathize with the woman allowing you to feel her emotions throughout the video. I also like that the shots were paced matching the passive beat of the music making the video feel quite hypnotic and as if you're in a trance.
Canopy Climbers 'Far'
Canopy Climbers 'Far' was filmed by LA film maker Danny Brown using a double exposure effect on a 16mm film. The video is composed of dancing silhouettes against shot of a city scene. The double exposure is what drew me to this video as it is something I am hoping to include in my own video. However the way he has used it is slightly different to how I would want to. The transitions in POLICA's 'Wandering Star' showed both of the frames as one, with one picture faded over the other, which is more like the effect I want to have.Alike 'Wandeering Star' this video is very hypnotic due to the amount of colour. This matched with the dancers, fast paced editing and all around energy of the video is perfect for the song, leaving you feeling happy and serene.
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