Music Videos - The James Coleman Collection

It was a deceptively complex undertaking: curate a showcase of NZ's finest music videos. Could it be simpler?

That was six months ago. 

Needless to say there could be worse jobs. I had a couple of main aims in curating the collection:

1. Be objective. 
2. Consider the video before the song. In other words judge a clip, regardless of the success (or otherwise) of the song it promotes. Some great songs have very average videos - you won't find those examples here. However you might find a particularly ordinary song with breathtakingly clever video.

And so in the interests of impartiality, an extremely complex empirical evaluation matrix was invented, based on four criteria, through which each and every video I could lay my eyes on was fed. 

That is - until I discovered one serious flaw in my methodology. More about that later...

Concept is key. It is the framework upon which the entire production rests. Without even the most basic of concepts we're left with a collection of often unrelated pretty images - I've waded through plenty of those. A great concept can transcend budget and be the making of a clip.

Production values, that is, all the business of cinematography, editing, effects, etc. Production values can make the finished product look a million bucks.  And there's the crux. Big money buys you a flash looking clip. But a million bucks spent on production won't fix a crap concept.

Execution is the consideration of how the concept is realised, that is, how effectively the idea has been put on the screen. We'll most likely never know what the video maker's original lofty ambitions were, but given what we can see, how well have constraints like budget, weather and time been overcome to realise the dream?

And finally, and very importantly: Impact. How well does the finished product serve both the song and the band, in terms of branding, themes and general connections? We've all seen clips that look amazing - stunning animations, footage and imagery - but how does what we're seeing relate to the song? Was the video even made for the track - or could it have been produced independently, and cut to fit? Is it stock footage, purchased from a catalogue? It happens. And it's nasty.

Now, it soon became apparent I had a problem with this set of criteria as it stood. In NZ, the occasional clip gets a decent budget, but most bands will get by on a $5000 NZ On Air grant given as part of an agreement with a record company (who may or may not choose to honor that agreement and match the cash).

And so, given budgetary limitations, what we do get in spades is ingenuity. Magnificent concepts realised for stuff-all money, thanks to the passion and generosity of local film crews.

Consequently, a problem arose when considering a music video with a killer concept, shot for next to nothing. Look at Greg Page's Exit To The City by The D4 for example - stunning concept, magnificent performances, maximum impact for both the track and the band. Is it fair to mark the video down on production values? No - especially in this example - because the production is inextricably linked to the concept. 

Consequently I removed the 'Production Values' criteria altogether, and instead made it a factor when considering the 'Execution' of the video's concept. That way, clips like Autozamm's You Don't Know Me and Feelstyle's Su'Amalie/Ain't Mad At You can compete on an even playing field with bigger budget productions like Gin Wigmore's S.O.S. and Goodnight Nurse's Death Goes To Disco.

What we do have here is a remarkable showcase of our formidable creativity. From our earliest example - the trippy Swinging The Lambeth Walk by Len Lye produced in 1939, through the early 80s with the pastel coloured Tears by The Crocodiles (starring Bruno Lawrence), and Split Enz's kooky supernatural gem I Got You to Tall Dwarfs' Nothing's Gonna Happen (way ahead of its time), into the 90s with Stuart Page's astonishing Killer Clown by Superette and Andrew Dominik's Down In Splendour by Straitjacket Fits, to the standout modern work like Leah Morgan's Macchina by Decortica, Chris Graham's F.R.E.S.H. by Scribe and Sam Peacocke's Walking Off A Cliff Again by The Mint Chicks. 

There are several controversial clips. I won't draw attention to all of them, but look closely and you'll be rewarded with the odd blood curdling abattoir scene, full nudity, and a clip banned by our state broadcaster in 2008. 

These music videos represent, for me, a cross section of the finest in the country. Go ahead and disagree. I look forward to your feedback.

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