research into music video director

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham made a name for himself in the early 90s working in the art and design department on many feature lengh films suchas Judge Dredd. He created many creatures and robots for a number of films and even got involved the film AI before Steven Speilberg took over the project. During 1995 Chris got to direct his first music video for Autechre with Second Bad Vibel. Throughout the next two years Chris directed further music videos from alternative british rock bands to further make a name for himself until 1997 when he met the artist APHEX TWIN who asked chris to direct a music video for them called come to daddy. This disturbing music video lanched Chris Cunningham's carrer greatly and his gone on to work with Madonna and Björk. Chris is now working on feature films after the success of his most recent short film rubber johnny made in 2005.

Mostly all of Chris Cunningham's music videos use a simuliar tonal palete where the colour has been drained out of the imagery. In his work with bands like APHEX TWIN he tends to be much more expressive as he as more creative freedom to do what ever he wishes in "come to daddy" the imagery used tends to be much more distrubing with APHEX TWIN's face being used over the top of school children to create a very dark and scary concept. the music video sort of follows the narrative Where a demon comes out of the television to seek revenge on an old lady whos dog did a piss on the television set at the start of music video, also school childrem who have all the same face (APHEX TWIN's face) begin to gaver around the television set in preparation for the deman to come out. His idea came from a bad childhood memory of being chased through the woods by a younger child who had a hammer in his hands.



Chris uses the same washed out syle for Madonna's frozen music video. The concept however is completely different from the disturbing and dark "come to daddy" music video, instead he keeps it quite simple with a plain desert background that leaves the audiences attention fully on Madonna herself, who throughout the music video is cloned many times over, she also transforms into a flock of crows and a wolf towards the middle of the video. Chris however wasn't pleased with the finished video as he says and I quote: "I didnt like any of the effects shots...I would rather have just had the shots of her singing in the desert dancing around with that cloak on". instead it was recond company who insisted oh him including the visual effects.



For Bjork's music video all is full of love, Chris originally had no interest in doing the music video as he didnt want to damage her reputation however once he heard the song he changed his mind because it mean't he could something alittle different. Bjork had asked for angelic theme for the song and for everything to be very soft or white. Chris came up with a robotic factory theme, where both the walls and the robits would pure white. Chris still uses a washed out look but unlike his earlier work the colour's used would be strickly white, with just a hint of dark and black for picking out details during the wide shots and close ups.





Audience reponse to chris cunninghams work













The feedback from youtube is mainly good and concerns the artist themselves, however because their watching and commenting the music video for that artist I argue that their also indirectly provide Chris cunningham with good feedback also, because they wouldnt leave good feedback if they hated the video and Chris directed the video so the audience for the song are also the audience for video.

On www.IMDB.com their is direct audience feedback from user Celluloid Rehab about the DVD "the work of director Chris Cunningham" Celluloid Rehab says "His style has more sexual ambiguity, much darker, more violent, more inclusive of technology and a general sense of strangeness and/or creepiness...My favorite video on the DVD is by far the Bjork video (all is full of love). I love the concept of robots making out. If they are made to simulate human movement, why not take it further...I highly recommend this DVD along with the others in the series." Celluloid Rehab is a perfect example that Chris Cunningham has an audience for his music videos and that he is popular because he has a totally different style of directing music videos. Afterall if one liked Chris Cunninghams work he wouldn't still be making short films and music videos today.

I like Chris Cunningham's music videos personally myself because each one is different and very visual to look at. Their all full of really interesting ideas and concepts that I like alot, I think that his ideas for his music videos are part of his own personality or interests. I like the fact that his music videos are alittle dark and disturbing because it makes them more visually interesting to look at, as a fan of horror films I relate more to his APHEX TWIN music video come to daddy because the look and feel of the video is that one of a typical horror film. Overall I find his video's both beautiful to look at and interesting to watch, as he always has a new and interesting idea that makes his videos so great to watch even if you dont personally like his work yourself, you can't say that he isnt a good director full of interesting ideas.