Hexstatic - Deadly Media (Windows Media) [sputnik7]
Hexstatic - Deadly Media (QuickTime) [Cookiecrook]
Hexstatic - Deadly Media (Update) (QuickTime) [Hexstatic]
Third and last of three clips this week that visualize multiple tracks in music.
Hexstatic are a UK audiovisual duo who have produced many fun videos for themselves and Coldcut among others. Their expertise is in visualizing songs based (often entirely) on samples, using separate video tracks to represent each sample and layer. Usually, the videos reveal the origin of each sample or a close substitute. For example, a buzzing noise is represented by a clip of a buzzsaw cutting through a tree, and each time that noise appears on the track, so does the clip.
The video for Deadly Media follows a similar approach but integrates the different video tracks into one whole using split screens - as we saw with Sid Laverents's Multiple SIDosis and Dosh's Call the Kettle Back. The layout of subframes feels a bit random at first, but it works well enough: the eye is drawn rapidly to different parts of the overall frame as the voice samples play out and create a strobe-like effect.
The updated version adds a little 3D flavor to the original video. Normally, I would be very excited by the mix of 3D and split screens - I think there's a lot to be explored in that additional dimension. But in this case, I'm not sure it improves much on the original.
Thanks to Ben.
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