Video Rewind 05.22.2015

The Pack A.D. “Animal”

The Pack A.D.’s latest video for “Animal” takes place out on a farm. Becky Black is some kind of science experiment. She has fangs, and is being held by Maya Miller and some other people. Maya’s group does a lot of dancing while Becky mostly is chained up. Becky does escape, twice. There’s no carnage, which is bizarre. She certainly seems quite angry at her captives. Of course, she could just be a vegetarian.

David Guetta Featuring Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Afrojack “Hey Mama”

David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Afrojack have come together for the song “Hey Mama”. The video for the song goes of to the desert like the Mad Max films. Only instead of fighting for freedom, David Guetta is having a massive party. There’s plenty of flipping, pop and locking, and Nicki Minaj. It’s a colorful display and some interesting use of bathtubs as well. Basically, this is how I imagine David Guetta rolling from city to city, in a moving party.

L.A. Girlfriend “Runner”

L.A. Girlfriend’s video for “Runner” isn’t the Rocky film, but there is some interesting training going on. While we never get to see who the singer fights against in the ring, we do see her training with her bruises and black eyes. For training, L.A. runs, jumps rope, has to balance things on her head, hands, and legs, and slap water in a cooler. As time goes by she gets better at all of it. The jump rope doesn’t get tangled in her legs. The items don’t fall off her and crash. Instead she can balance several items at once. And the slapping of the water doesn’t hurt her hands anymore. It’s not Micky having Rocky chase a chicken to become greasy fast lightning, but it does show how if you keep at it, it does get better.

A Tribe Called Red Featuring Northern Voice “Suplex”

A Tribe Called Red’s song “Suplex” features Northern Voice. The title is a wrestling move, so it’s no surprise the video centers around professional wrestling. It tells that tale of a boy who is a huge wrestling fan. He’s got all the poster and video games. He starts wrestling in back yards with his friends using knitted hats that are modified to look like wrestling masks. He grows up and goes to a local wrestling show. Soon he’s wrestling, and though things don’t the way he wants at first, he does eventually become champion with the fans cheering for him. At the time of his debut he’s traded in his knitted cap mask for a real wrestling mask. The video goes on to show a young kid donning the wrestling mask and jumping around on a trampoline. An old man looks on, obviously the wrestler now grown seeing the circle of life come about as now his grandson is dreaming of being a professional wrestler.

Kaki King “The Surface Changes”

Kaki King’s video for “The Surface Changes” deals with surface changes. The effects seen in this video are not done post production. Kaki King sits dressed in white, with a white guitar that is held in place by some stands. She plucks the strings on the neck with her left hand and taps the guitar with her right. As the video goes on the lights dim and a film is projected onto her guitar, and only her guitar. In that way, you see the surface of the guitar change while she strums and continues to play the song. Eventually lights hit the wall behind her, and over her as well, creating the illusion that the atmosphere is swirling around her. All the while, the guitar’s surface keeps changing. I’m really impressed how this worked out, because the projection on the guitar is perfectly framed. At no point does the strumming, plucking, or tapping jar the guitar out of it’s position. The slightest movement would have been rather obvious and ruined the effect.

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