Colonel Blimp's Hope Shines Light on George Michael

Colonel Blimp's Hope Shines Light on George Michael

Fate rests in the hands of Kate Moss in "White Light," the new music video
for George Michael, directed by Ryan Hope with post from Prime Focus.

George Michael makes a stylish return in director Ryan Hope's "White Light."

Director Ryan Hope of the UK production company Colonel Blimp, the music video division of London's Blink, is out with a new music video for singer George Michael. Released yesterday, "White Light" unites the former Wham! star with supermodel Kate Moss. 
 
The video follows the success of the director's tattoo-as-fine-art documentary "Skin." For "White Light," his first project since joining Colonel Blimp, Hope went all out.  The video marks a return to big, sweeping productions for the music video genre, as the film has everything from desert scenes to tightly choreographed dance numbers to stark, monochromatic scenes of emergency rooms and life-or-death medical treatments.
 
The song is laden with meaning, too. "White Light" is a pulsing dance number written after the pop legend's near-fatal brush with pneumonia. Moss stars as a striking and mysterious angel of death, who decides the singer's fate with the toss of a coin in the midst of a standoff with armed L.A. police officers.
 
With his sharp conceptual style, Hope brings intensity to the film and captures the song's defiant spirit by contrasting a sparse, filmic narrative against scenes crowded with ecstatic, skin-baring dancers. The video film is interspersed with abstract imagery and flashes of the director's signature solarization technique, symbolizing the surreal and fragile moment between life and death.

Supermodel Kate Moss plays a key role in the "White Light" narrative.

The post-heavy clip includes numerous effects scenes integrated with highly stylized live action.  The director comments on the production, crediting the contributions of some of his key collaborators.  "I always work with Rich Fearon, as he's the one of the best colorists in London, in my opinion," Hope says.  "He's done all of my best work, that's for sure and Lesley Queen at Prime Focus always does an incredible job on the production side. Add my editor Ryan Boucher to this and you have my post dream team. These three are standards with my jobs without fail, and the reason for this is because they're genuinely amazing at what they do and we all have a brilliant working dynamic together.
 
"The one bonus here on this was meeting Flame Artist Dave Clifton of Prime Focus," Hope continues.  "Apart from being stupidly talented and a total pro, he was just brilliant to work with. To say he brought a lot to the table is a massive understatement. I'm looking forward to collaborating with him a lot in the future for sure."
 
The release of the video was widely anticipated by Michael's fans after a twenty-second teaser was released earlier online. Additional credits include Producer Laura Jones and Director of Photography Will Bex. The video was executive produced by Colonel Blimp EP Tamsin Glasson.

Published 19 July, 2012