Feb 16, 20212 min read

Shadows Music Video Review

★★★

Starring: #hZA

Shadows is a song by musician hZA. The music video is directed by Rakesh Jaitly. The video was released on YouTube in June 2019. Jaitly who has had other music videos reviewed by UK Film review. Very positively as well, delivers again with this one.

This video was clearly made for a very small budget. However, it does show a lot of signs of creativity. The opening shots accompanied by the music really get you into the mood of the song. They are simple shots of various sunsets from a car window but it’s very effective, but after only fourteen seconds we see where the video excels. That is random animated shots of whatever we’ve just been looking at. For example, after the last sunset shot, the film changes for a second or so into an animated shot of the sunset. It’s these little creative touches that set this video apart from the others.

On the other hand, we do get some slightly rough-looking shots. These are clearly shot with a phone or low-quality camera. After these sunset shots, we begin following hZA as he prepares to begin recording the song we are listening to. Some of these shots include shaky footage of a garden shed AKA hZA homemade studio. Also, some of the shots as he prepares his studio to start recording are very hard to see what's happening. But then we keep getting treated to these little animations so it makes up for it.

Jailty has proved he’s got a real eye for directing. It would be interesting to see what he could with a bigger budget; or any sort of budget. This particular video doesn't have much to offer except for the animated shots but yet it manages to keep you entertained. I think it helps that the song isn’t particularly long.

I’d definitely be interested in seeing what Jality does next. It would be good to see him try his hand at short filmmaking if that interests him. He uses various filmmaking techniques throughout with quick cuts and zooms. The zooms do struggle to keep focus but I’m just nitpicking. I think he could translate all the skills he’s acquired from his music videos and use them towards narrative filmmaking.

#MatthewSawyer