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
Questions:
How did Bjork and Chris collaborate on the All is full of love video?
They had mutual friends in London, Aphex Twin video happened, and people suggested that Bjork should ask him, so she sent him the B side mix to a song from her last album, he loved the track, and decided to do it. It would more be like a mini film, she wanted it to be very white, to describe some sort of heaven, and to bring lust into it also. She brought Chinese status, of white figurines, that were making love. She wanted the figures to be clean and hard and melt, and turn soft. Cunningham brought her an idea that she loved, and he was using industrial robotics, what he used to do as a kid and turned it into the video ‘All is Full of Love’.
What techniques were used on the Portishead video to create the unusual slow motion effects? Research this.
The video, shot largely underwater with the air bubbles removed digitally, features some of the most precise and beautiful choreography of movement in any video. It was then placed into the dark alley, to create the final product. Not only does this video prove Cunningham a master of capturing in images the personality of an artist and the mood of a song, but it also proves him a director with a keen eye for the possibilities and capabilities of the human body in motion.
What other music video directors have gone on to direct feature films? Name two and the feature films they have made.
Spike Jonze did music videos for artists such as Bjork, Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Fatboy Slim, the list goes on, he has been able to shoot feature films, such as ‘Being John Malkovich’ in 1999, ‘Adaptation’ in 2002, and ‘Where the Wild Thing Are’ in 2009.
Michel Gondry also shot music videos for Bjork, Kylie Minogue, Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, The Rolling Stones, again, the list goes on, and from this he has shot many feature films, such as: ‘Human Nature’ in 2001, ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ in 2004, ‘The Science of Sleep’ in 2006, ‘Be Kind Rewind’ in 2008, ‘The Green Hornet’ in 2011 and upcoming this year ‘The We & the I’.
Which famous sci - fi film did Chris Cunningham’s work on before he became a director?
Cunningham was Stanley Kubrick’s head of visual effects on his version of A.I., which failed to come to fruition before Kubrick’s death. None of Cunningham’s work on the robotic boy survived in the subsequent Spielberg version, replaced as it was by the insipid Haley Joel Osment.
What makes his work different or original compared to other similar directors?
Because he wants every work to be completely different, he is constantly working to make it better. And with Bjork’s video, it was mostly all done is post production, with computer graphics, he barely shot any movement, mostly stills on the day of shooting before assembling it all for her video.
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