Chris Cunningham: If Lovecraft Directed Short Films

In my late teenage years I had a slight interest in video editing and short films, something that never really blossomed into a career path, but I still maintained a moderate interest. One of my siblings gave me a copy of The Work of Director Chris Cunningham. I cannot possible describe the mindfuck I went through. You might not know it, but you've probably seen his videos. Many people are familiar with the Monkey Drummer video he did in conjunction with Aphex Twin.

Pictured: penis drumming.

Speaking of Aphex Twin, Chris has done a large portion of his work for him. The videos he creates are just as bizarre as the music.

Warning: lewdness and... uh... what-the-fuckery. When you're done that,

watch "Come to Daddy"

There's a longer version of that, but you get the idea. However, the coolest part about Cunningham's works are some of the tricks he uses. You think Gondry can come up with some cool camera tricks? Well, you know that scene in 300 where they consult the oracle (a truly disturbing part, that I can't say I was a fan of for various reasons,) and she's floating around, seemingly like she's underwater? Yeah, she was underwater. They filmed her in a tank in front of a green screen. Chris Cunningham figured that out way back in 1998 when he directed Portishead's Only You.

They had to digitally remove any bubbles, and back

in the stone age that was really hard.

However, all the videos I've shown are either grotesque, or at least very bizarre. I could go on about more videos that fit that description, like his live work, or the forever disturbing Rubber Johnny (those images will stay with me to the grave.) That seems to be his forte, for sure. However, he's no stranger to creating pretty and uplifting things. He directed a video for Bjork's All Is Full Of Love that blew the top off what was considered possible for a music video. It's now on permanent display at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Keep in mind, this was filmed in 1999 and it still holds up today.

Ok, so Bjork-faced, lesbian robots is weird. However, it still proves he can make "nice" videos. In any case, that's not the only award he's received. It won "Best Special Effects," and "Breakthrough Video" at the MTV Music Video Awards (which meant a little bit more at the time, I hear). His Windowlicker video won "Best Video" at the Brit Awards and he was the first person ever to have a music video win a Gold Pencil at the Design and Art Direction Awards.

He is one of my favorite directors. He co-founded the Directors Label DVD series with two other phenomenal directors: Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze. It is a series dedicated to collections of short works of other striking directors. Their website seems to be down now, but you can find many of them online, and I absolutely suggest you get them.

Even commercials aren't safe from his creepiness.