Reel Dealer

Dark Deviations

Words: Sandy Hunter

Massive Attack, like many British bands, has been instrumental in elevating music video beyond mere harmonic shill to fine art. "Butterfly Caught," the second video from the most recent Massive Attack album, was directed by South Africa's Daniel Levi, who works in the UK through London's Independent. The brooding, shadowy piece depicts Massive Attack survivor 3D mouthing the song's lyrics while seated on a bed in a starkly modern institutional room. The fluorescent lighting of the room harbors a fluttering moth, the wings of which are beat matched to the track; the moth itself is an avatar of the transformation 3D undergoes throughout the video. Intricate patterns, inspired by the elaborate markings adorning the wings and body of a death's head moth, slowly spread like bruises beneath his skin as he whispers the song's lyrics. The patterns were actually done in highly detailed makeup, removed layer by painstaking layer by the digital artists of London's Glassworks.

Other details attest to Levi's exacting attentions; the fluorescent lights flicker in time with the moth' percussion mirroring wings. "Butterfly Caught" is both a mysterious portrait (is 3D some kind of moth powered mutant?) and visually unique. Levi is perhaps best known for his work in European television commercials, but got his start directing music videos back in South Africa.

http://www.massiveattack.co.uk/