One of the most widely recognised music video directors is perhaps Chris Cunningham. He has made videos for several artists including Aphex Twin, Bjork aand an award winning video for Madonna.
His most captivating work is that for Aphex Twin, in which he creates surreal and sinister images to compliment the bands somewhat surreal and sinister music.
In 'Come to Daddy', Cunnigham creates a dark atmosphere on a built up, rough housing estate. We follow an old woman walking a pitbull dog, as she comes across a TV with a harrowing face which sings the lyrics 'I Want Your Soul.' We then see a group of schoolchildren pick up the television set and start running around and playing with it in a manic manner. It seems the television set represents the 'devil', and at the end a creature comes out of it and screams in the old womans face.
Various techniques add to the videos sinister tone, there seems to be a blue hue on the footage which gives a cold atmosphere, and loud noises such as screams and barks are silent; something about this is unsettling.
The video fits perfectly with the music, as I said before it is sinister and makes people uneasy.
Another video he did for Aphex Twin, Windowlicker, was award winning. This follows a more conventional narrative, with the full length version having a significant proportion of dialogue before the music even begins. We are shown two guys comically trying to chat up two women, in a parody to a hip-hop music video. Throughout, convetions of hip hop videos are parodiedied as scantily clad women dance around, though they have warped, ugly faces. Again, there is a sinister undertone to the video in the same way there is a sinister undertone to the music.
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