B52s: Strobe Light - Tim Riley's 1982 student video

This is a pop video I made on the final year of my BA Graphic Design degree at Coventry Polytechnic in 1982. I managed to rescue it from a ropey VHS I found laying at the bottom of a drawer and transferred it to digital. The quality is a bit rough but it manages to add a authentic rawness.
The B52s were one of my favourite bands at the time and this track, although never a single, had great lyrics for creating visual scenes.
I shot the original on 16mm film in the college studio having made/acquired all the props weeks before. The captions were filmed in two passes on a rostrum camera using back-lit lithographic film and coloured gels. This strobing effect could be created in minutes today using Photoshop and AfterEffects but in the day was long, time-consuming process with little room for error. When the film arrived back from the developers I spent weeks editing the it on a Steenbeck flatbed film editing suite.
I've lost touch with the two actors in the film, Janet and Tim, but I hope they one day find this video and have a good laugh at themselves although, as the video is viewed today, I still think they look great and their performances are fabulous.
www.timrileydig...

[@MrMichel247]

Cool video, super 80s....wall paint and everything. What a great time for music and fashion! :D

[@myold80s]

Brilliant Video! These kids today don't know what a College project really is. This took a ton of hours, hard work and a love for The B-52's.

[@MissAnitaManbadly]

OK, so I instantly fell in love with you and your subject(s). Aaand I'm kinda jelly. From 82-84 I was in broadcasting classes in high school, and we occasionally made music videos, but not with this level of sophistication. I'm loving the timing, the sets, the direction, all of it. This really captures the ethos of the B's.

[@hannahkat7360]

Lollll 🌟 BRILLIANT !!

[@davidtillman4291]

This is awesome! I saw them do this song in 2018 at the USF Sundome. I was a bot puzzled when Fred said "body" instead of "pineapple". Great video. The B52s should make this their official video.

[@rjnagle]

This is a brilliant video. It's too bad you never contacted the group -- they would have probably loved it -- and maybe even used it on MTV!

[@hEV6060842]

omg that was amazing!

[@TomYaz]

was this originally shot on video on film

[@timrileydigital]

Shot on 16mm film, edited on Steenbeck, transferred to Vhs, remediated to digital film, uploaded to UA-cam

[@huw5ton]

Tim.... this is outstanding! I love it!!! x

[@FilthyBadges]

Hahaha !!! Wicked !! This is really well done man :)