Jack Whiteley, director: "I started with the question: how do you make people care about your video? In the age of the internet anything seems to go. Videos can be controversial and shocking or just purely bizarre or beautiful, and they don’t necessarily have to make sense. So, in collaboration with the band, I came up with a set of vignettes that attempts to tick these boxes in order to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.
We then threw in an added meta curveball layer by deconstructing what you’re seeing within the video itself, to the point where we’re essentially presenting a step-by-step guide on how to make a video that people will care about and therefore will want to share online.
I love videos that challenge perceptions, pull the rug from under the viewer, offer twists and subvert things, and so that’s what we’ve reached for here. I hope you care about it. And if you do, don’t forget to share. Because sharing is caring."
Anyone even remotely familiar with the respective catalogs of Massive Attack and Young Fathers knows that those two acts are capable of conjuring an eerie blend of malice and beauty. Add Gone Girl actress Roasmund Pike and a mysterious orb, and you get a visual that also nails that same balance.
They say the scariest horror films are the ones where the violence is unseen or merely implied. The same could be true of this Young Fathers video, filled with menacing images of clamps, knives, hammers and other implements of displeasure.
The rubber gloves keep everyone's hands clean, but the same probably can't be said for our consciences.
As you possibly know, I'm in SXSW for a few days. As always, the surprises are the best part and Young Fathers was the highlight of night.
Young Fathers are a Scottish hip-hop group that's decidedly alternative, teetering on the edge of malice and malice. This video is more of a lyric sorta thing, which doesn't capture the band's kinetic energy at all, since these guys go from Full Metal Jacket staredowns to Basehead seizures in a matter of seconds. Somebody needs to make these guys a killer video.
