Prism Prize Video: Blue Hawaii - Do You Need Me

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On May 13, the biggest prize for Canadian music videos will be handed out in Toronto. We are profiling some of the nominees before that, including this clip from an acclaimed electronica duo from Montreal.

Blue Hawaii - "Do You Need Me" (Director: Kevan Funk)

Blue Hawaii’s “Do You Need Me” visual is one of two Prism Prize Top 20 videos directed by Vancouver-born Kevan Funk. Funk and Blue Hawaii’s Raphaelle Standell-Preston are long-time collaborators, having worked extensively on other critically acclaimed videos together, including those for Standell-Preston’s project Braids.  “Do You Need Me,” was made by the director/cinematographer team of Funk and Benjamin Loeb, who go by the project title of Everything All At Once. The two have worked together on videos for Belle Game, The New Pornographers, The Zolas, and Funk’s 2016 feature film Hello Destroyer.

Funk describes the video below:

"The video's concept was tied to the song's title. I was interested in how this concept simultaneously recontextualised and reinforced that express sentiment. The idea that we are now constantly constructing an idealized characterization of ourselves and projecting that out into the world is not a new observation, but here I was interested in the hypnotic consumption of that output, and our individual longing for approval. Our window to the world, particularly our social space, is quite literally through our phones, and I was interested in this meditative portraiture that simply gazed upon our gaze. The sense of stillness and isolation feels both striking and distinctly familiar, specifically because of how much of our social activity and interpersonal connection is spent in this stasis."

Directed by Kevan Funk

Cinematography by Benjamin Loeb

Funded by FACTOR