Sarah McLachlan's Videos

[<@EDDIE.MIT.EDU:wonga@ee470.EE.McGill.CA>]

People have asked about Sarah's videos, so here my description of them.
I'm new at this, so my descriptions might not be very helpful.

I apologize to all of you who might not be interested in Sarah M. for
posting such a long article.

Sarah's videos were shown about 1 month ago on MusiquePlus on their
artist profile show Rock en Bulle. MusiquePlus is the French music video
channel on cable up here.

All of her videos are very nicely made in terms of production quality.

_Ben's_Song_
has a very simple and beautiful video. It has Sarah playing and singing
at a grand piano accompanied with someone playing the double bass. It is
in black and white and set what looks like a dance studio with a parquet
floor. They cut back and forth slowly between both of them, with a few
closeups. They also cut away to one short scene of Sarah standing next
to a window. I'm sure the video must have been quite expensive since the
camera moves are very smooth and complicated.

_Vox_
is set outside in what looks like a arid place with sandy ground and not
much vegetation. Sarah is singing and sort of dancing as they cut
quickly between different scenes. There is also scenes of sand falling
down to the ground. Sorry, but I'm having trouble describing it.

_Steaming_
has been described very well by Vickie, so here is what she said: 
"It's subtly odd, subtly weird and subtly creepy. Sarah is dressed to
the nines, on stage in a bar. She's playing a character, a nightclub
singer would be more accurate, I suppose. She's carressing a vintage
1950s microphone with a band behind her. The video focuses on various
patrons of the bar, never leaving the bar. These people look like
characters from a Community Theater production of _Blue Velvet_. That's
not to imply that the video is cheezy-looking. It's very lush, with
great lighting and deep, dramatic colors. I just mean that the patrons
of the bar are sleezyish. Nothing much happens, but it's weird while
it's not happening."

In and old MP interview that they showed with the videos, Sarah said
that _Steaming_ was made with her own money and Nettwerk's which allowed
her to have control of the concept of the video.
"Hopefully, they'll (Arista) will buy it off of us when we're done."(MP)
In the first 2 videos she didn't have much say in how they were made,
because I guess Arista was paying for them.

_The_Path_of_Thorns_
Through much of the video she is standing naked in the dark and singing
as a single soft light with a waving ripple effect illuminates her
occasionally. She is standing on a slow spinning table and they cut to
many different camera angles. They also cut to two dancers who, in my
limited knowledge of dance, doing a modern dance. (among other moves,
jumping and catching each other) They also cut to one of the dancers
standing as maple seeds fall down around him and to more conventional
closeups of Sarah singing. They switch between all of these scenes
throughout the video. Scenes with Sarah are in a monochromatic sepia
while the dancers are in light blue.

_Into the Fire_
The video starts off in monochromatic blue with a waterfall and cuts to
extreme closeups of her face covered in mud as she opens her eyes and
her mouth. It then cuts to Sarah in a floral patterned dress running in
the woods. Then there are scenes from different angles of her lying
naked, covered in mud, among trees, and singing. They then switch to a
girl, wandering among trees and rocks. As she sits down on a rock, the
image fades to Sarah in the same position in the floral dress. Then
there are closeups of Sarah overlaid with sprinkling water falling
upwards. Then in extreme closeup she is standing under a waterfall
washing off the mud. As she is washing off, the images changes to full
color, in very warm lighting. Mixed with this are cuts of her with her
hair styled and her face in makeup, in the same dress as before, singing
as falling water obscures her occasionally. Then she is lying in the
same spot as before, in the dress and in makeup. The video ends with
more scenes in the forest and with her singing as water falls behind
her.

phew!

I know the descriptions are a bit long and boring, but I couldn't figure
out how to generalize all the different images in _Into_the_Fire_. I
think the weirdness of this video might have influenced Arista's
behavior.
Has anybody else seen these videos?

Berton Wong
temporarily using wonga@ee470.ee.mcgill.ca
Undergraduate UNIX Lab, EE,
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada