Alt-J Music videos

Breezeblocks was directed by Ellis Bahl, a relatively unknown and yet-to-be discovered director. Apart from the Alt-J Breezeblocks music video is was hard to find any other work from her. Because of the relative unknownness of the director and also the bands uniqueness the video hasn't been awarded or particularly highlighted. This does not mean however that the video wasn't good, the video itself demonstrates the attention to detail needed when playing back a video, especially when it includes a complex story line. Throughout the music video we assume that the make character is attacking the woman, this is until the last minute of the video where we see what's really happening. The storyline takes a huge twist as we now see the woman has his wife hostage and is in fact attacking the man, he is just defending his way of life. 

In my research to find out more about the director, Ellis Bahl, I came across the website www.ellisbahl.com/. The site has a number of work from various directors/artists, they all incorporate and embrace they indie warmth feel(?). The site has other work of Ellis, one is the example below called Ohio by Robin Bacior. The video is split into twelve, showing a dancer dancing in a empty room. The is effective as it keeps the attention of the audience.



Fitzpleasure is another music video from the band, this time it was for director Guillaume Cagniard to make his own, and he does just that. The video for ‘Fitzpleasure’ was shot in one day in a studio in Paris. The video includes living artwork performer Tim Steiner, tattooed by Wim Delvoye a Belgium artist who works with COSA. Tim turned his back into a piece of art and came especially from London to be part of the shoot.  Wim Delvoye was also asked to assist in the music video, we can see his input with the strong themes that run throughout the video. Delvoye takes inspiration from art history, Gothic cathedrals and sculptures of the 19th century, these themes can easily be recognised with in the video. 



Cagniard has previously worked with French artist and photographer JR, creating music videos for his huge urban based artwork. Also Cagniard is not afraid to nudity in his videos. With it appearing moderately in 'Fitzpleasure' and also blurred in 'Ain't Got No' by Patrice. Below is the music video, it uses a stop- motion animation effect of the speaker artwork to make it look like the artwork face is singing (I'm not sure of the significance of the naked people with trolleys is though). The other video below is just one of the examples of the collaborations the director has with JR.

 I feel by looking into other music videos of the band and also the directors, producers and artists they have worked with I am able to understand the bands specific characteristics and criteria for making a music video for them. After my research I am now more confident that the plan I have for my music video will fit into Alt-J's style of music video.