Director's Representation

Doomsday

Ellis Bahl's video for Applying Myself by Only You - aka Rachel Fannan, former bandmember of psych rockers Sleepy Sun - is a low-key contrast to his other new video, the high concept triumph for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/2012/11/20/walk-off-the-earth-red-hands-by-ellis-bahl/" target="_blank">Walk Off The Earth's Red Hands</a>. This is cinematic, in a domestic setting - a bit simpler in structure than his MVA-winning effort for Alt-J's Breezeblocks, but with a rather ingenious hook nonetheless.
Rachel got in touch with Ellis after seeing the Breezeblocks video, sending him Applying Myself and asking him if he was interested in making the video. After listening to this Ronstadt-esque slab of country-rock, he was delighted to get involved in this low-budget project. 
And so, late at night, after what looks like more than a few drinks at the homestead (decked out with jukebox and piano), Rachel sings along to her own song - on the karaoke machine...

Ellis Bahl

Sarah Lawson

Danielle Hinde

Jackson Hunt

Luke Hanlein

Ali Rubinfeld

Susie Gados

Trevor Durtschi

Jared

Only You 'Applying Myself' by Ellis Bahl

Only-You-'Applying-Myself'-by-Ellis-Bahl

Ellis Bahl's much celebrated, UK MVA winning, backwards murder video for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/2012/04/19/%E2%88%86-alt-j-breezeblocks-by-ellis-bahl/" target="_blank">Alt-J's 'Breezeblocks'</a> was a bit of a brain twister, but with this promo for Walk of the Earth he's artfully constructed a backwards, forwards, slow-motion, single-take wonderful nightmare of a performance video. The band perform the song, in the wrong order (sometimes the wrong direction) and Ellis's editing - no cuts, just fast-forward and reverse - bring the whole song together in the right order.
When watching the video, you'll struggle to comprehend how on earth he did it, but then watch the making of/unedited version and you'll struggle to understand how on earth he could plan the idea in the first place! It's more incredible promo filmmaking from one of the rising stars of music video.
Here's the unedited version: http://www.youtube.com/watchannotation_id=annotation_294253&amp;feature=iv&amp;src_vid=1bt-FHaFVH8&amp;v=-OtOnZeQ9IM
Ellis Bahl words on the video: "Initially I wanted to make a narrative video where you take a one shot and scrub along the timeline to tell the story out of order. I wanted it to look like when you drag the mouse back and forth in the viewer in Final Cut. When the WOTE brief came along I realized I could do the same thing with a performance video. I decided to walk the camera back in a straight line because I thought maybe it would give more temporal/spacial context to the scrubbing. It's hard to tell what's going on as it is, but I think the forward/backwards movement helps a bit. 
"My favorite part in the video is when they are building that drum set all out of order. I really wish I had come up with more things like that to have them do. It was difficult to figure out beforehand what was going to be interesting to watch out of order. In my opinion, building the drum set is the only truly interesting thing, everything else to me is just fluff. In fact, I find the un-edited version to be a more interesting and compelling video, because it's just crazy to see this band doing such a difficult thing for a single 4 minute take. I've now decided that I'm going to view them as a package. Neither is whole without the other. I've got them both on my website, because I think each enhances the worth of the other. 
"The scariest thing for me was that I had to make the messed up track a week before the shoot, so I had to lock down the order of shooting way in advance of knowing so many other things (like what/how big the location was, what the effects were going to be, and what the choreography was gonna be). So I sort of just winged something that I hoped would work, I mean I graphed the whole thing out on a BIG piece of paper, and then figured the rest out based on that."

Courtney Davies and Jason Colon

Bryan Younce

Max Orgell

Tristin Scott

Nick Lee

Mike Dempsey

Liam Bell

Avihai Yaffe

Hiro Murai, David Altobelli, Kevin Hayden

Walk Off The Earth 'Red Hands' by Ellis Bahl

Walk-Off-The-Earth-'Red-Hands'-by-Ellis-Bahl

Supported by The Creators Project, the video employs the capabilities of extremely precise helicam technology developed by SnapRoll Media. "The bounce is something that really differentiates this from any helicam video I've seen before," explains David. "Making that a reality was a challenge; there's a reason a camera hasn't been bounced via mini helicopter before." A Creators Project behind the scenes film demonstrating exactly how they achieved the spectacular shots over Philadelphia is coming soon. 

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dZX6Q-Bj_xg

David Wilson

Colonel Blimp

Tamsin Glasson

Brian Turner

Elise Majorossy

Snap Roll Media team

Lindsy Ray

Stewart Gerard

Leila Sarraf

James Bamford

Saul Levitz

Passion Pit 'Take A Walk' by David Wilson

Passion-Pit-'Take-A-Walk'-by-David-Wilson

Ameican Idol finalist Adam Lambert gets trapped in an experimental facility in Dori Oskowitz' spaceage promo for his new single Never Close Our Eyes. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/u3dkVk3F57c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/>

Dori Oskowitz

Prettybird

Candice Ouaknine

Larkin Seiple

Eric Archer

Mindy Lebrock

Bill Yukich @ Sunset Edit

Beau Lyon

Adam Lambert 'Never Close Our Eyes' by Dori Oskowitz

Wizard-Sleeve’s-Get-Down-Tonight-by-Thomas-Goldser

Adam-Lambert-'Never-Close-Our-Eyes'-by-Dori-Oskowitz

Matt Amato's poetic promo for Brooklyn-based trio We Are Augustines captures a road trip across the border towns of Southwest America - neatly harnessing the widescreen feel of the band's new single Jaurez.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VkCyhhyWekc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/>

The Masses

Jack Richardson

We Are Augustines 'Jaurez' by Matt Amato

We-Are-Augustines-'Jaurez'-by-Matt-Amato

She looks sweet, and the setting is gorgeous but Norah Jones' shows a very dark heart in the video for Happy Pills, directed by Isaiah Seret, and beautifully photographed by DP Bradford Young. 
Set in a Mad Men-era suburbia, Norah proves the old 'hell hath no fury...' adage - and the ending is a bit Psycho...

Isaiah Seret

Isaac Haggy

Dave Hussey

Mike Maguire

Jim Jones

Chris Wiesehahn

Eli Metcalf

Kemal Harris

Mandy Lyons

Norah Jones 'Happy Pills' by Isaiah Seret

Norah-Jones-'Happy-Pills'-by-Isaiah-Seret

After the controversial Jonestown Massacre-themed <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/2011/07/19/cults-go-outside-by-isaiah-seret/" target="_blank">Go Outside</a>, Cults return to Isaiah Seret to direct the video for Know What I Mean. And it's another story touched with searing violence.
This is more of a straight cinematic drama, about a boy and a girl (Cults' Madeleine Follin and Brian Oblivion), the girl's fearsome father, and a nearby deserted carnival. More on this beautifully-mounted 'dark romance' at <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2012/02/08/146462475/the-dark-romance-of-cults-you-know-what-i-mean" target="_blank">NPR.org</a>

Jason Baum

Luke Lynch

Cults 'Know What I Mean' by Isaiah Seret

Its been out a while but here&#39;s Daniels&#39; very zany video for Foster The People&#39;s Don&#39;t Stop - featuring Gabourey Sidibe (the star of Precious) as a very dangerous learner driver. But it&#39;s the story that really spins out of control.And fancy some more Daniels visual magic and zigzag storytelling Messrs Kwan and Scheinart&#39;s stunning short film Pockets premiered on Dazed TV&#39;s Random Acts on C4 this week. Little short of genius, and it&#39;s <a href="http://randomacts.channel4.com/#view/160" target="_blank">here</a>...

DANIELS

Action Factory

Jason Kisvarday

Gina Taner @ DRS

Candice Quaknine

Gabourey Sidibe

Foster The People 'Don’t Stop' by Daniels

Foster-The-People-'Don’t-Stop'-by-Daniels

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=FxnFJG6CW20 Currently featured in Pepsi's Music Icons commercial, Dori Oskowitz goes on a jolly around New York City with Outasight - aka singer Richard Andrew - for the party promo to Tonight Is The Night.

Ross Levine

Starr Whitesides

Kyle Brown

Outasight 'Tonight Is The Night' by Dori Oskowitz

Outasight-'Tonight-Is-The-Night'-by-Dori-Oskowitz

Ace Norton

Partizan Darkroom

Michael Rizzi

Chelsea Oliver

Isaac Hagy

Jeff Pantaleo

Foster The People 'Call It What You Want' by Ace Norton

Foster-The-People-'Call-It-What-You-Want'-by-Ace-Norton

Philadelphian 5-piece Man Man get together with Lex Halaby for this cute suburban tale of 'kids from hell' to aid their single Piranhas Club...

Lex Hala

Mark Staubach

Hank Friedmann

Marshall Plante

Man Man 'Piranhas Club' by Lex Halaby

Man-Man-'Piranhas-Club'-by-Lex-Halaby

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=P4E77XBzQgc&amp;ob=av2n Directing duo Skinny (aka David Hache and Marc-Edouard Leon) head for the dancefloor for Jessica Sutta's club anthem Show Me - lit and photographed by Larkin Seiple.

Skinny

Anne Johnson

Justin Krook

Mike Sarkissian

Jessica Sutta 'Show Me' by Skinny

Jessica-Sutta-'Show-Me'-by-Skinny

Lenny Kravitz does an Eddie Murphy - taking on multiple roles - in the entertaining 70s game show comedy from Paul Hunter for new single Stand.
Lenny plays cheesy-yet-devious game show host Bart Billingsworth, Jagger-pouting singer Desmond Ritchie and do-gooding drummer Bubba Washington with ham and relish.

Paul Hunter

Mark Snelgrove

Rami Hachache

Rick Ernst

Lenny Kravitz 'Stand' by Paul Hunter

Lenny-Kravitz-'Stand'-by-Paul-Hunter

A remarkable, ingenious, but also chilling and even morally questionable video for Cults' Go Outside, which puts the band within a sequence of true events - involving one of the most notorious cults of all - that led to one terrible tragedy. Heartbreaking stuff. 


Isaiah Seret's statement on the making of the video for Cults' Go Outside
"To tell the story of Cults' hauntingly beautiful track, "Go Outside", I was inspired to bring the band inside the world of Jim Jones' famous religious cult, Peoples Temple, and the eventual tragedy in Jonestown. Fortunately, when exploring the feasibility of this video I became acquainted with Fielding M. McGehee III, an expert on Peoples Temple history and the primary researcher for the Jonestown Archive. It is thanks to him and his encouragement that I was able to take on this project and through his support gained access to over two and half hours of home videos showing Peoples Temple in Jonestown. For this music video we didn't want to put a spin on the footage or the peoples lives--instead we wanted to re-tell and humanize their story. In order to achieve this we used a combination of stock footage, visual effects and other tricks to embed the band into the historical footage. This was achieved through my collaboration with my visual effects supervisor Bill Gillman and my cinematographer Matthew Lloyd. Lastly, I am moved to say when we completed the video we were able to preview it for some of the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre, who expressed their appreciation of our focus on the lives of the People's Temple members as opposed to exploiting the graphic images of the final tragedy."

Doomsday

Director's Representation

Videos featuring Doomsday

2012 (8)

2011 (6)

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