Chris Cunningham is an English video artist from Reading and he is also a music video film director. He has been nominated for several awards for his work from 1996 to 2011 and he even won the MTV Breakthrough Video Award for Bjork’s “All Is Full of Love”. He also directed the successful music video “Frozen” for Madonna in 1998 winning the VMA for ‘Best Special Effects’.
From watching a few of the videos that Chris Cunningham has directed we have noticed they all have a linear narrative, the lyrics link with the visuals and a message is portrayed in each video. Both videos have an empowering element as the video progresses, this being either the music or the lyrics.
Aphex Twin’s – Windowlicker
Madonna – Frozen
Bjork – All Is Full Of Love
In the music video ‘Frozen’ by Madonna, his main special effect is Madonna turning into different animals including birds and a dog. In the video for Bjork he uses special effects to make her into a robot. The video for ‘Windowlicker’ by the Aphex Twins is a typical hip-hop video because it consists of fancy cars, pretty women and a party island. This one doesn’t really include many special effects, it’s simply a story being told from beginning to end, and therefore it has a linear narrative.
The flock of birds Madonna turned into...
The dog Madonna also turned into...
Madonna falling backwards...
Madonna performing her song 'Frozen'...
Special effects...
One of the recognisable signatures of Chris Cunningham’s work is colour. We have noticed from watching all three video’s that he mainly focuses on using black and white. ‘Frozen’ was a very dark video consisting of black and grey tones, whereas ‘All Is Full of Love’ and ‘Windowlicker’ were mostly white and silver tones.
The camera shots and transitions tend to be shorter when there are special effects involved. The ‘Windowlicker’ video is very upbeat so Cunningham used fast moving transitions to match.
The ‘All Is Full of Love’ video has a linear narrative however the music is overpowering the lyrics. Without the music the story is much clearer through the visuals.
The ‘Windowlicker’ video also has a linear narrative. As I previously said, the video is a typical hip-hop video and the girls used in the video are stereotypically ‘party girls’. It has an upbeat vibe and was a very successful video. Without the music to this video, the viewers wouldn’t be able to understand as there aren’t any lyrics.
Fancy limousine...
Aphex Twin and female dancers performing to create a party scene...
The music video for ‘Frozen’ has juxtaposing visuals and lyrics as she’s located in the middle of a desert yet singing about a person whose being distant and doesn’t have any emotional attachment.
The location for the music video ‘All Is Full of Love’ by Bjork is set in what looks like a factory. This is an appropriate choice as the concept of the music video is Bjork being made piece by piece and in the end finds love and is complete.
Bjork's robot being made piece by piece...
The robot's face...
Bjork's robot body created via special effects...
The two robot's together at the end; a happy ever after...
When it comes to actors within the music videos we have looked at, each video varies. Madonna is the only person to star in her video whereas Bjork is joined by a male love interest who is also a robot and in the Aphex Twin’s video he is the main character yet he is joined by several extra’s in order to create a party atmosphere.
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