Synopsis

Rhosyn's "Birds" turns the short-loop format of Vine into a restless, fragmented music video. A series of fleeting images is arranged across multiple phone screens, creating a shifting visual field in which repetition becomes as important as movement. The imagery suggests the desire to break free from social expectations and the pressures of online culture, while the accumulating loops also evoke the hypnotic, restrictive nature of a digital crowd. Rather than following a conventional narrative, the video builds an impressionistic portrait of freedom, imitation, and media saturation.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was made during Vine's early rise, using the app not merely as a distribution platform but as the camera and the central creative idea.

• Footage was captured simultaneously on four and nine iPhones mounted in a makeshift structure. This multi-camera arrangement helped create the video's layered, grid-like appearance.

• The individual six-second Vine loops were tweeted to a dedicated account using the hashtag "#birds." The production then captured those posts from a desktop computer and incorporated them into the finished video.

• Repetition was deliberately used to suggest the idea of a "cult" and to reflect the compulsive, restrictive side of social media. The visual method turns the platform's looping function into part of the video's meaning.

• The concept was influenced by David Hockney's "Wolds" series, linking the video's fragmented composition to Hockney's use of repeated, shifting views of landscape.

• The production company SON described the central idea as "becoming a bird" - a metaphor for finding independence from media-shaped social ideals.

• "Birds" was commissioned by the Oxford-based Blessing Force collective and appeared in connection with Rhosyn's debut EP, "Elbow of Capture," released in 2013.