Synopsis

Built from rapidly changing still photographs, "Down" follows Liz Phair through the streets of Los Angeles' Chinatown. She appears among storefronts, signs, lanterns, passing pedestrians, and bursts of colorful imagery as the urban surroundings shift around her. The photographs create a handmade stop-motion effect, giving the video a restless, dreamlike quality. Literal fireworks and more symbolic flashes of emotion punctuate the walk, turning an ordinary neighborhood tour into a visual portrait of movement, dislocation, and personal upheaval.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Down" was recorded around 2000 or 2001 but remained unreleased as an official album track.

• The entire video was created from still photographs rather than conventional moving footage. The images were later animated together to produce its quasi-stop-motion appearance.

• The production was shot entirely in Los Angeles' Chinatown, using the neighborhood's streets, signs, shops, and architecture as the visual setting.

• The video was made available online through Phair's website before later resurfacing in video archives.

• Capitol Records included "Down" on the promotional VHS compilation "This Is the Modern World," alongside videos by Coldplay, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd.

• The video was selected for the music-video program at the 2002 SXSW Film Festival.

• Clipland describes the piece as a collage of single still images and tags it as a still-photo animated video.