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44. Matthew Dear - "Slowdance" by Charles Bergquist
7 months ago
Almost a full year after the release of Matthew Dear's monochromatic opus, Black City, the album's swansong single, "Slowdance," gets a video.

San Diego filmaker Charles Bergquist was tasked with transforming the undulating piece of goth romanticism into a video. He received, basically, creative autonomy, and set about trying to decipher a track that is, in his words, "about the disruption of memory, at it’s visual core." The result is a fluid, heady, almost voyeuristic collage of urban landscapes, visual effects, and unsubtle shots of a certain ingenue. "In the song’s build and layering of memories of her," he says, "She, the environment shared, and the unknown becomes blended, fractured and infinitely heaped together." It does look like thinking backwards feels—uncertain, romantic, bizarre."

"The lyrics drove the photography and the sound drove the texture and slices," Bergquist says. "For most of the edit and post-production work, I let the track dictate the visuals."

That means slightly regimented cuts—timed to beats sometimes, but not always—a complete lack of color, aqueous imagery, and a microscopic attention to detail. And with that, the final piece of the Black City puzzle has fallen into place.

Director : Charles Bergquist
Produced : Charles Bergquist

_________

Director Of Photograhy : Charles Bergquist & Mark Shonka
Starring : Nicole Lively
_________

Hair and Make Up : Chantall Northrop
Stylist / Wardrobe : Katrina Adair
Production Assistants :
Andrew Martin
Tommy McAdams
_________

matthewdear.com/
ghostly.com/releases/slowdance-ep
ghostly.com/releases/black-city

Credits

Likes

  • Ian Perlman plus 6 months ago
    it looks amazing Charles, all that hard work really paid off.
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  • Sean Robinson 6 months ago
    beautiful! the video brings out qualities in the track i hadn't realized before. great stuff!
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  • Northern Lights plus 6 months ago
    love it!
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  • chubbstar 6 months ago
    its like a dream that drowned.
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  • MARATHON pro 6 months ago
    Great BW video, love the smooth snares!
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  • stockwerk23 6 months ago
    The video benfits from the music and vice versa... symbiotic.
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  • Koolik Visuals 6 months ago
    excellent work! love to see stuff like this - the electronic music scene needs more stuff like this
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  • kenia lima 6 months ago
    well done, feels so good to listen this! :)
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  • Accent Creative 6 months ago
    FMazing work Charles!
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  • KS12 plus 6 months ago
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  • Chris Barr 6 months ago
    Totally blown away, this is incredible!
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  • levan koguashvili 6 months ago
    nice, BW but no missing colours
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  • Joel Cosson 6 months ago
    ahhh, this video is AMAZING! It's actually better than the song, and thats saying something!
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  • Lucas Chu plus 6 months ago
    How did you achieve this? You filmed oil between glass and overlayed it on the footage?
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  • Joe Raymond Vega plus 6 months ago
    Nice!!
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  • mpared plus 5 months ago
    painfully good! its up at thecuriousbrain.com/ well done :-)
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  • Si Linsley 4 months ago
    The imagery and editing and wonderous! Great job!
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  • milkgirl 4 months ago
    A m a z i n g!
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  • Burdeau 3 months ago
    the song makes me cry
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  • lannalize 3 months ago
    Amazing editing!!
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  • Johanna Cutter 2 months ago
    greatgreatgreat
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  • Juan José Gómez 2 months ago
    Beautiful
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  • Jason Reed plus 2 months ago
    Love the mood, the textures and the sexiness!
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  • Micah Van Hove 2 months ago
    everything you want & nothing you don't
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  • Barton Robison plus 1 month ago
    Soooo good. I'm jealous of your skills!
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  • David Schreyer plus 3 weeks ago
    Amazing!
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