19-year-old British songstress Syron’s "Breaking" video employs a curious sequence of visual effects, alternating between crisp HD and wavy, bleary VHS style. Most faux-vintage videos try not to reveal they're faking it, but here the illusion-ness is made apparent. For both looks, the source footage is the same; in a single shot, you see Syron crystal clear, then an editor flicks on the processing. Maybe transparency is the entire point. The song is about feelings that won't die after a breakup—the head's message taking a while to make it to the heart—and the video's indecisive effects give it a similar obsessive quality. You can imagine that editor fawning not just over his job but over Syron too, rewinding and playing back until he frames her face just so, the song's refrain echoing over the scene: I keep forgetting that I’m not allowed to love you.
(via Guardian)