While spring starts to show up for 2021, our call for submissions for this year ends tomorrow. As we prepare for our ninth edition, we come closer to our tenth anniversary which will be celebrated in 2022. We want to show how grateful we are to have such a strong network and for how you, the creatives, keep trusting our institution. As a matter of fact, that is the reason we created the TENQ (thank you) segment!
Since it is Sunday, we present you a new article today, featuring ten videos nominated in the past that are in Black and White. Be ready for all the existing shades of grey!
KCPK – Better Love
Let’s hit the road with the band KCPK and their track ‘Better Love’, out on Pias Recordings. Produced by French company Iconoclast, this video was directed by Mathieu Cesar. It received a nomination in 2015 for Best Art Director. Black and white go perfectly with the intense beat of the song and the transcending stares of the actors in this video. With soldiers looking like models ready to hit the runway while defending their ruler, this is the perfect mix of glamour and thrill.
KCPK – Better Love via Dailymotion
Susanne Sundfør – Accelerate
Now let’s go to Norway with the music video ‘Accelerate’, directed by Stian Anderson for Susanne Sundfor. The title is perfectly transcribed in the way the camera moves and how the lights relentlessly go on and off around the moving figure of our protagonist. Their use helps create a seizing contrast between white and black that will grab your guts. The contrast of shades gives visual support to understand the duality that resides in love relationships by combining sensuality and violence. After watching you’ll understand why it was nominated for Best Cinematography in 2016.
Susanne Sundfør – Accelerate via Dailymotion
The Shoes – Submarine
Here is another nominee from 2016! And it comes from the French electronic duet The Shoes, with their video ‘Submarine’. Okay… This one is not in black and white in its whole length. Although, it surely makes the opposition between past and present even more powerful. The use of black and white is often used to convey the idea of memory. And as the main protagonist recalls, director Karim Huu Do teaches with great sensitivity the feeling of loneliness, this impression you get of being lonely in a room full of people. That’s when the others start losing their faces.
The Shoes – Submarine via Dailymotion
Odesza – It’s Only
Forget the Tardis to travel through time and hop on with Odesza for an epic tale. Released on label Counter Records (part of the big Ninja Tune family), their video for ‘It’s Only’ featuring the voice of Zyra was nominated in 2016 for Best Art Direction, through the teamwork of production designer Karl Lefevre and set decorator Darcey Zoller. From antiquity to World War I and beyond, the video succeeds in delivering a chronological journey that takes us to the forefront of several historical moments that marked human history. Directed by Dan Brown, it expresses the universality of the fight for survival and the search for a better world for humankind.
Odesza – It’s Only via Dailymotion
Thom Yorke – Last I Heard (He Was Circling the Drain)
Let us now leave the real world for a futuristic metropole by following the steps of a lost astronaut in the video ‘Last I heard (He was circling the drain)’. Performed by former Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke on his last release ‘Anima’, you will be swept off your feet through the ethereal visual poetry of this production. The variety in the grain of the images appeals to the eye which mistakes animated visuals for real restless silhouettes. Made from the fruitful collaboration between Art Camp studios and Saad Moosajee, it was nominated for Best Experimental in 2020.
Thom Yorke – Last I Heard (He Was Circling The Drain) via Dailymotion
Drumcell – Disturbance
Let’s push the limits of the imagination a step even further with one of our Most Bizarre nominees from 2014. Made by The Automatic Message for Drumcell’s track ‘Disturbance’, it uses simple but expressive techniques through a blinding white background and black insect-like marbles. This footage creates a feeling of uneasiness that strikes your mind and makes you hope this is just a hallucination.
Drumcell – Disturbance via Dailymotion
Wolvves – White on White
Keeping up with a gloomy atmosphere, we take you to the United States with a video by Wolvves called ‘White on White’. Located in a dark New York City, editor Adam “Zuk” Zuckerman succeeded in transmitting a dystopian and bizarre feeling through the visuals of this artistic work hinting towards the supernatural. His contribution turned out to make the video nominated for Best Editing in 2015. It was directed by Daniel Gomes and produced by Good Company.
Wolvves – White on White via Dailymotion
Bob Dylan – The Night We Called It a Day
The 50’s: what a great time for cinema and its development, especially for stories of glamorous affairs and gangsters. The video ‘The night we called it a day’ by Bob Dylan refers to that genre and mimics the techniques of Film Noir thanks to its retro setting, voluptuous actress, and of course, guns. Nash Edgerton was behind the camera for The Directors Bureau.
Bob Dylan – The Night We Called It A Day via Dailymotion
Nasser – I’m a Man
And from the fancy 50’s NYC we jump to fabulous Paris, the city of love, romance… Or just forget those clichés and let’s get straight to the point with ‘I’m a man’ by Nasser. Appearing as the representation of men’s sexual fantasies here is described what directors Alex & Nico call ”material love”. They play with phallic symbols by making an erotic scenography around objects, suggesting without crossing the borders of pornography, worth a nomination for our Most Trashy category in 2015! you will want to question sexual representations and how you position yourself and others in regards to them.
Nasser – I’m a Man via Dailymotion
Aaron – Blouson Noir
We close our list with one of our Best Song nominees from 2014: ‘Blouson Noir’ by Aaron, starring the charismatic John Malkovich. Directed by Olivier Coursier for Cinq7 this video links poetry and the fear of existence that resides in Aaron’s dark electro-pop. Put on your black jacket AKA blouson noir whether you have hope or no espoir.
Aaron – Blouson Noir via Dailymotion
While we are looking forward to this year’s edition, it is always heartwarming to remember those who made it in the past years. We do not have a black and white category but this style is definitely important in the videos we receive, in any genre or technique that creatives like you use to entertain us.
Our call for submissions for the 2021 edition ends tomorrow! So, if you haven’t submitted yet, what are you waiting for? Head over here!
Author: Mélissa Fondeur
