Music Video
The music video for "Queer" directed by Stéphane Sednaoui for Propaganda Films and was filmed in July 1995 in Los Angeles. Sedanoui's video concept developed from his own personal experience of being "shredded into pieces" by a beautiful woman. Garbage loved his storyboard for "Queer", feeling it matched the ambiguous nature of the song. Manson had chosen Sednaoui as director after she saw the "Big Time Sensuality" music video he directed for Björk, and later said that Sednaoui "doesn't just take an idea an apply it to different artists, he seems to be able to figure out where the artist is coming from and make the photographs and the videos unique to that group."
The black and white storyline of the video saw a young male's first person perspective of exiting an elevator onto a Los Angeles street and meeting Manson. She coyly entices him to follow her to her home where the men from Garbage are waiting. They detain him inside, forcing him up onto the second-level of the house, where Manson throws him to the floor, strips him of his clothing and blinds him with gaffer tape. He recovers to find Manson shaving his head, before she drags him outside by his legs. He is then seen strangely happy, and in full colour, leaving the street.
Sednaoui operated the camera for the whole shoot. To capture the victim's struggle, Sednaoui positioned the camera at ground-level facing upwards towards Garbage, who were standing on a rotating platform. To suggest the victim was almost hallucinating, strobe lighting was combined with the rotation of the platform, however the effect caused the band to suffer from vertigo after a number of takes. Manson later claimed that the video helped establish her group; "He really defined for us who we were visually. Stéphane was able to look at the band and listen to the music and figure out what was the perfect visual partner for the band. People think we're a very stylish band, and it's all to do with him". She added, "I'm really proud of "Queer", I think it's one of our best videos."
The "Queer" video premiered on North American networks on August 14, 1995; where it was given heavy support by MTV, who certified it a Buzz Clip. MTV requested an edit to obscure the shot of Manson blinding the video's protagonist before playlisting it. The music video for "Queer" was nominated in the Breakthrough Video category at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, losing to Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight". The silver dress Manson wore in the video was later donated to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada for indefinite display.
The "Queer" video was first commercially released, accompanied with out-take footage from the shoot, on 1996's Garbage Video VHS and Video-CD. A remastered version was included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD Absolute Garbage and made available as a digital download via online music services the same year.
Read more about this topic: Queer (song)
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