_Cv_

[harvard!kaos!romkey@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Romkey)]

> From: IED0DXM@OAC.UCLA.EDU

> KT News: ~~~~ Nothing big, but it should be put on the record. Peter
> Gabriel's first compilation video, appropriately titled _CV_,
> includes _two_ versions of "Don't Give Up". Version 1 is the
> well-known video which MTV televised, featuring one unchanging
> camera angle of Kate and Gabriel embracing, and lip-synching the
> song in front of an eclipsing sun. Version 2, however, is a kind of
> impressionistic montage of narrative film which shows scenes of
> unemployment lines, driver's-seat shots of long, winding roads in
> the rain, and decaying factory-towns.  In this version both Gabriel
> and Kate appear only sporadically, lip-synching with faces toward
> the viewer in super-imposed head-shots which fade in and out in one
> or another corner of the screen.

I got both _Cv_ and _The Whole Story_ on video tape a couple of weeks
ago.  I have to admit to being kind of disappointed in some of Kate's
older videos. "Wuthering Heights" left me in fear that the rest of the
tape would be that bad (even though I'd seen some before), but
"Cloudbusting" has to remain one of the best videos I've ever seen.

[disclaimer: I realize that many of these videos are fairly old, but I
viewed the tape from a 1988 point of view, not a 1977 point of view, and
was disappointed by most of the older videos.]

      [	There were only a small handful of people even doing videos
	back in 1978, and all of their videos were at a level of
	production that is not very impressive compared to what is
	common today.  Kate is considered one of the pioneers of music
	videos, and the frontier is always a little rough.  -- |>oug ]

Anyway, this is really about _Cv_. In version 2 of "Don't Give Up", I
found that the little Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel heads that kept
fading in and out of the corners of the screen (or the little Kate
head that faded in in the bottom left hand corner, moved right and
*grew* and then shrank and faded out again) were completely gratuitous
and pretty irritating. I don't need to see the singer singing the song
in a video. I was disappointed that they put the little heads in.

Most of the reactions of friends who've seen version 1 of "Don't Give
Up" so far has been 'cheese-o-rama', and how could Peter Gabriel and
Kate Bush have let that be done to them?

      [	Blame Peter, not Kate.  She wouldn't have let that be done to
	her if it was her video.  In any case, the video isn't all
	that bad -- it just isn't all that outstanding, either.  --
	|>oug ]

Most of us didn't like the design of the video very much, and the
production quality was pretty poor - the matting was very badly done.

Did anyone else notice who directed version 1? Godley & Creme.

Version 1 of "Don't Give Up" was really the only disappointment for me
on _Cv_. 
			- john romkey
		...harvard!spdcc!kaos!romkey
		       romkey@kaos.uucp
		    romkey@xx.lcs.mit.edu