Music Video Director

Cyriak

Cyriak is known for his short web animations which can be described as very surreal. Despite his undoubted talents he has never worked with a band to produce a music video, instead deciding to make animated videos to his own self made electronic music compositions.

He has mentioned to his fans via YouTube that he uses both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects for the animation side of things, which shows us that a normal person like you or I could produce something like Cyriak to it, obvious there would be a vast difference in quality but it’s something that is easily available to the public.

Interestingly he is a freelance animator which means he isn’t tied down to any certain projects for certain bands and can choose various different things and people to work for.

Links To His Work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Xa4bHcJu8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNwCojCJ3-Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw&feature=related

RepetitionOne of the main constant themes throughout Cyriak’s different videos is the use of repetition throughout. This is prevalent in most videos but especially prevalent in the Cycles video with the Teddy Bears. There’s very little in terms of different things in the video but there’s enough changes with the Teddy Bears, Cars etc to keep us interested throughout.

The repetition is fascinating and keeps you glued to the screen. Having random Teddy Bears throughout shouldn’t be as effective as it is but the way Cyriak has used the animation and differences in the animation keeps us hooked throughout.

WeirdnessI’m sure Cyriak would be the first to admit it himself that his videos do seem incredibly weird but this is a good thing.

For example in the Cows video, the first 30 seconds basically just features Cows nodding their head. This normally would not be of interest at all but it has a hypnotising effect that keeps us fascinated and want to watch more.

The video gets weirder throughout as Cyriak uses his animating brilliance to showcase the weirdness. Cows start becoming different sizes, with weird shapes and movements. The theme of cows nodding their head is maintained through this.

I think the key word to this is that we are simply fascinated by what Cyriak is producing, it’s different to anything else that is out there which makes him unique and the experimentation that he does, however weird it may seem should be applauded.

Music

One key element that should not be ignored in Cyriak’s work is the role that the electronic music plays in the background.

The music is usually a constant tune throughout, with very few changes used. While it is harder to use Andrew Goodwin’s forms and conventions to Cyriak’s work (Lets be honest, Cyriak’s work is so unique you wouldn’t expect him to be following any forms and conventions) the music that is used by Cyriak follows the 2nd of Andrew Goodwin’s forms and conventions.

“There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music)” – The music combines with the visuals to give that hypnotising feel and the two compliment each other perfect.

Star IconographyThe one other Andrew Goodwin theory that you could relate to Cyriak is “The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time, becomes part of their star image”

I don’t think there’s many video directors out there who have created a star iconography similar to that which Cyriak has created for himself. With Cyriak you expect the weird, you expect the mental and you expect for your head to be completely spinning after just watching one of his videos.

In the Meow video you have cats clawing eyes out, eating brains out etc. This could be seen as disgusting but it isn’t, at least to me. Because of Cyriak’s star iconography you automatically associate it with just being the weird and the wonderful which you’ve come to expect from a Cyriak video.

If you could somehow manage to watch 5/6 videos of Cyriak back to back you would notice similarities in all of them, which creates the star iconography. However there’s plenty of differences in all of them also, making the viewer want to keep coming back to his work.

Why I like Cyriak

One of the main reasons I researched Cyriak is because having seen one video of his I was immediately intrigued. I watched around half a dozen of his videos back to back and was amazed by the weirdness of every single one, despite the weirdness it seemed perfectly natural to watch.

If I decide to use any sort of animation in my final project, I feel Cyriak is one of the best music video directors to take inspiration from. He’s taking basic things such as images of animals and doing extraordinary things with them and creating fascinating pieces of work. As mentioned earlier, while it’s impossible to reach the standards that Cyriak has set it is possible to aspire to achieve similar stuff to that which Cyriak has produced, although I doubt I have the creative mind to have the ‘weirdness’ that Cyriak has managed to convey throughout his work.