Beyond Digital

Dennis Liu has turned his back on the pixel. The young director created a viral sensation when he made his no-budget fan video for The Bird and the Bee’s Again and Again – which was effectively a long commercial for the creative possibilities of the Apple Mac, from conception to delivery.

Then came his video for Kyle Andrews’ Sushi – where shapes were created from 1.4 million tiles of clickable YouTube screens. It was followed by another viral smash, this time the Microsoft-based trailer spoof Office 2010: The Movie. But although his new video for Sia Furler’s catchy You’ve Changed remains within the techno-zeitgeist, this time he has abandoned the digital domain.

Sia finds herself in a video karaoke game, with the lyrics of the song passing along the bottom of the screen. But everything has been created for real – in a distinctly homemade, hokey fashion: words appear on little signs carried along a rudimentary wooden track, clearly fed through by human helping hands.

Video-game Sia is also manically sped up – while remaining in sync – and also undergoes continual costume and backdrop changes. But this is also intercut with another aspect of video gaming in DIY form: genuine, notably uncomfortable teenagers have become Sim- or Wii-style avatars, their clothes and backdrops changing with rods, string and pulleys. All in all, this vibrant video is packed with such detail it takes several views to fully absorb.

In fact, Liu admits he underestimated the amount of work involved. “It sounded easy in the beginning – a video game like SingStar done for real,” he reflects. “But it took a really long time. There were so many words in the song, and we made each one. We ended up with 50 metres of track!”

This sheer physical volume was the main reason why Sia appears sped up in the video. “We slowed the song down 500 per cent so we could work all the track through the camera frame,” Liu reveals. “Imagine an assembly line of seven or eight PAs pushing it through. We could have done this like a one-shot video.”

However there were also the teenagers, effectively trapped as their own avatars until, following the theme of Sia’s song, they relax and take control of their own destinies. “It is supposed to be uplifting,” says Liu. “We were going for something that kids could relate to.”

He adds that he had the enthusiastic support of Sia throughout, affirming her growing reputation for making strongly conceptual (if often low-budget) videos that challenge conventions of how female performers should look and behave. She also helped out during the shoot at Radical Media’s studio in New York, providing her own wardrobe.

“It’s great that Sia is trying to break down barriers in terms of image. She makes great music, that’s a given. But then she puts herself out there. She’s all for the idea – and having fun.”