Oh Yeah Wow is animation and film production company who has received many awards for their incredible work across animation, commercials, short films and music videos. After receiving the Best Video award for Millington’s ‘Being’ at Clipped over the weekend as well as St Kilda Film Festival last month, we made a list of our favourite videos from this production studio.
Millington – ‘Being’
Director: Josh Thomas & Darcy Prendergast
Inspired by B-grade horror movies and speed dating comes this inter-special love story of a girl who falls in love with a parasite. This music video turns a relatively straightforward indie pop-rock love song into an increasing dramatic and strange sequence of events. Though most of the video also is a montage of the highs and lows of a modern relationship. However, the dramatic end is too strange to be spoiled here so you’ll just have to watch it for yourself.
The Jezabels – ‘Come Alive’
Director: Darcy Prendergast & Xin Li
This incredible video is a rare example of an painterly style of animation, which is rare in music videos. The ominous and obscured depiction of the witch hunt and burning beautifully compliments the darker elements of the track and the crescendo is elegantly and dramatically matches the images. This evocative video shows the diversity of the collaborators that Oh Yeah Wow works with and is a music video that truly stands out.
Client Liaison – ‘World Of Our Love’
Director: Mike Greaney & Aaron McDonald
As many of Oh Yeah Wow’s music videos embrace a retro and fun aesthetic it is unsurprising that they have been enlisted by highly stylised, Client Liaison. ‘World Of Our Love’ is an incredibly slick video which has a retro vibe while still looking really fresh and tapping into the contemporary consciousness. The adoption of icons of modern day life as well as Australiana icons such as Fosters, Koalas and Ansett, gives the video an endearing and nostalgic appeal. While it embraced the distinct aesthetics of Client Liaison, this clip has a unique touch that definitely sets it apart.
Gotye- ‘Easy Way Out’
Director: Oh Yeah Wow
This dreary animation is inspired by the 1980 short film Tango by Zbigniew Rybczyński in both the aesthetic and the layering of characters. The narrative which documents the increasingly depressing and devastating series of events which has an Eastern bloc. A highly stylised stop motion also gives a bleak view on the banality of everyday life shows Gotye engaging in the same activity each day until his world starts to fall apart. This causes an interesting contrast with a message of the song as well as documenting some incredible production design.
Adalita – ‘Trust To Rust’
Director: Timothy Melville
Playing with the narrative timeline so that the opening gives you a clue as to the events of this video, what is a relatively oft-covered subject matter becomes quite powerful. The painfully slow pace of the shots is reminiscent of Australian suburban thrillers gives the viewer a pervading sense of dread to the events that unfold. Although the narrative is more conventional and more attention is given to Adalita’s performance, creative flair is shown through the beautiful cinematography and editing.
