W.I.Z - Music Video Director Profile

W.I.Z. has earned a reputation as one of the best music video directors working in the UK and is one of my personal favourites. Breaking onto the music video scene in 1992 with the music film to accompany Flowered Up's extended version of Weekender. Capturing the whole clubbing and ecstasy culture that had become prevalent in England following the acid house movement, the film follows the hedonistic weekend of a London window cleaner.

Weekender opens with one of the most amazing and impressionable shots I have ever seen: starting on a tight close up of the protagonist's eyes, the subject essentially tracks out and reveals the window cleaner laying on a platform descending a high rise building in the centre of London. Progressing through the weekend, the film paints a portrait of the nightlife and drug culture that was (and still is) rampant amongst the young people of Britain, contrasted with the mundane events of everyday working and family life. A hybrid between a music promo and a short film, Weekender perfectly encapsulates the times in which it was produced and remains a classic as far as I am concerned.

Weekender by Flowered Up

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The subsequent music videos directed by W.I.Z. have largely followed a strong narrative line with a political or social comment. For more insight into W.I.Z's working methods, the making of the Club Foot video shows W.I.Z. at work and how he goes about making his videos.

The former musician, DJ and photographer is (in my mind) a true music video artist. Working with such wide ranging musicians as Oasis, Happy Mondays, Ian Brown, Jamelia, Will Young, Arctic Monkeys, Shakira, Smashing Pumpkins, Leftfield, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Marilyn Manson, Jamiroquai, Suede and the Manic Street Preachers. Whether you like the music or not, all of the videos in WIZ's oeuvre are well worth a watch.

Want to read more? An analysis of the Weekender film