Director of Photography

Jamie Durand

Celebrity Deathmatch meets Groundhog Day in Chris Ullens' terrific and cheerfully gory video for UK teen pop singer Gayle's team-up with singer-songwriter Blackbear - featuring the pair as toys in toytown suburbia, with homicidal tendencies.In this stop-motion epic of nextdoor neighbour hostility, Gayle takes the form of a figure the size of a toy soldier, leaving her house (after guzzling down a real-size frankfurter) to wage war on Blackbear, who lives next door. As he is mowing the lawn to make a rude sign, she feeds him and his friends to the mower. And that just starts the begins the increasingly extravagant&nbsp;ways in which they dispatch each other on a daily basis.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Ullens is the king of stop-motion animation who has given us some wonderful videos for the likes of Fergie, Rex Orange County and Lee Ann Womack, all from his&nbsp;tabletop studio. This one falls into the category of toy-related gore that he pioneered with Two Fingers' Vengeance Rhythm, a real stomach-churning splatterfest&nbsp;involving a psychopathic teddybear.&nbsp;This is rather more playful - as the animation was created with a series of non-moving&nbsp;plastic figurines. Ullens also only had a four-week turnaround to create his dark comedy - and he still manages to engineer something of a Happy Ever After...&nbsp;

Brin Frost

Chris Ullens

Jade Bogue

Friends Electric

Trevor Joseph Newton

Matthew James Day

Atlantic Records

Gayle ft Blackbear 'fmk' by Chris Ullens

Gayle-(with-Blackbear)-'Fmk'-by-Chris-Ullens

Animation maestro Chris Ullens reunites with Rex Orange County, with their first collaboration since Loving Is Easy back in 2017, to create a sweetly romantic tale for Amazing.In contrast to <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2017/11/09/rex-orange-county-ft-benny-sings-loving-easy-chris-ullens/50382" target="_blank">Loving Is Easy</a>, where he employed stop motion to animate Rex's bedroom performance with Benny Sings, Ullens opted to use hand puppets to handcraft his story about Mr Hand - a milkman of an alpine town, who milks Cow each morning before going on his delivery round.But his happy regular routine is disturbed when he meets&nbsp;a young lady (hand), falling head-over-thumbs in love..."It's really cool that [Rex] came back to us for a second one!" says Chris Ullens. "He said it was the sister song to the first one we did a video for, and that he wanted us to be back on it for that. But the schedule was mad -&nbsp;so instead of stop-motion we suggested puppeteering and he loved the idea. The schedule was still mad though, as we took four and a half weeks to deliver. But really pleased with the result!"

United Kingdom

Jack McGinity

Alt-Pop

Rex Orange County 'Amazing' by Chris Ullens

Rex-Orange-County-'Amazing'-by-Chris-Ullens

Somewhere in an enigmatic and dystopian future, an evil Queen is entertained by her very own brutal talent show, in Chris Ullen's spectacular stop-motion animated promo for Grammy-winning metal artist Poppy.&nbsp;Using slick puppetry and sci-fi inspired interiors, Ullens creates a nightmare vision which alludes to the darker side of the music industry.&nbsp;Treated like throwaway clones, each of the&nbsp;puppet female rock-stars are constructed on a factory production line, before being thrust on stage to please the figurehead - and then being thrown from their platforms to whatever waits beneath.[imgtoken data:1]Poppy has long held the attention of industry pros and fans alike, and this visual metamorphosis is the latest in a series of exciting and explosive transformations.&nbsp;Every aspect of the creative is exemplary - from a talented team that Chris Ullens credits below, as well as revealing the relentless demands of building robots on factory conveyor in stop motion animation, doing all of the work himself.&nbsp;But as a result, the&nbsp;video's concept will linger long after the three and a half minute runtime.[imgtoken data:2]

Ben Austin

Lewis Crossfield

Time Based Arts

Adeena Grubb

Alternative

Poppy 'Her' by Chris Ullens

Poppy-'Her'-by-Chris-Ullens

This wonderful video by Chris Ullens for country star Lee Ann Womack brings the&nbsp;story of a crumbling relationship to life in a way that&#39;s both familiar and new: stop motion animation meets live action to quite brilliant effect.It&#39;s a couple - Lee Ann and her narcissistic boyfriend - on a road trip through iconic California, a series of motels and car journeys&nbsp;as he seeks fame and she provides selfless support. The brilliant conceit is that this believable world is created through a combination of puppets, miniature models and real locations, rear-projected and edited with a level of craft that blurs the lines between live action and animation.Ullens has so much experience as a stop motion animator, and a storyteller and its really demonstrated here. It&#39;s one of the best things he&#39;s ever made.&nbsp;

United States

The Joy Of Sets

CHEAT

Aaron Lampert

Ato Records

Country

Lee Ann Womack 'Hollywood' by Chris Ullens

Lee-Ann-Womack-'Hollywood'-by-Chris-Ullens

Miniature Rex and Benny chill and perform together in stop-motion from their dreamy living room that comes to life to the sound of their tune Loving Is Easy, in Chris Ullens&#39;s latest animation.

Jack Needell

Feed Me Light

Bruce

Will Hooper

Rex Orange County ft Benny Sings 'Loving Is Easy' by Chris Ullens

Rex-Orange-County-'Loving-Is-Easy'-by-Chris-Ullens

Hell hath no fury&hellip; like a Fergie scorned. And in the video for Love Is Blind she takes maximum retribution on her lovers&#39; wayward behaviour - all in candy-coloured stop-motion.Chris Ullens, who once turned <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2012/10/25/two-fingers-vengeance-rhythm-chris-ullens" target="_blank">a cuddly teddy bear into a homicidal maniac</a>, does a great job with his&nbsp;miniature Fergie. She looks like a doll living in a Barbie-like world - but animated into a character&nbsp;who despatches the men in her life with a cold-eyed&nbsp;smile. And we&#39;re with her all the way.&nbsp;

Fergie

Emily Suvanvej

Rebecca Luff

TenThree

Electric Theatre Collective

William Derella

Fergie 'Love Is Blind' by Chris Ullens

Fergie-'Love-Is-Blind'-by-Chris-Ullens

After making a hard-hitting stop-motion satire on environmental catastrophe created by&nbsp;a Trump-like property developer for <a href="http://promonews.tv/videos/2015/11/13/kill-noise-feat-awolnation-r-city-kill-it-4-kids-chris-ullens" target="_blank">Kill The Noise</a>,&nbsp;Chris Ullens now takes aim at another deserving subject for Zeds Dead &ndash; the&nbsp;over-use of phones and social networking &ndash; and&nbsp;hits the mark once again.Again employing stop motion animation&nbsp;to great effect, Ullens has created a simple yet colourful world of recognisable character types. At first the whole neighbourhood seems to be getting along swimmingly (if inanely), but it&#39;s not long before everyone&#39;s phones causes misery to themselves and others around them.&nbsp;It all looks good online though. That&#39;s&nbsp;the main thing, right?!

Chris & Jade

Cherie Sinclair

Emilie Suvanvej

James Wright

Travis Richel

Deadbeats

Zeds Dead ft. Rivers Cuomo & Pusha T 'Too Young' by Chris Ullens

Zeds-Dead-'Too-Young-(feat.-Rivers-Cuomo-And-Pusha-T)'-by-Chris-Ullens

Chris Ullens has directed this giddy,&nbsp;over-the-top satire for&nbsp;Kill The Noise&#39;s track Kill It 4 The Kids,&nbsp;inspired by&nbsp;a certain American businessman who is running for the 2016&nbsp;presidential election.It sees a perfectly pleasant town get&nbsp;trampled over by the arrival of Tronald Dump, a greedy business executive who instantly sets up Big Evil Corp (the video isn&#39;t aiming for subtlety). Then, he turns the townspeople into&nbsp;crazed&nbsp;consumers by plastering ads all over town. But the job&nbsp;isn&#39;t finished until he has&nbsp;sets up a burger chain, of course...&nbsp;

Sets Appeal

Tine Kluth

Suraya Raja

Caroline Clayton

Noise

Kill The Noise feat. Awolnation & R. City 'Kill It 4 The Kids' by Chris Ullens

Earlier this year Chris Ullens transformed his own Super 8mm holiday movie into a video for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/02/10/satin-jackets-feat-esser-shine-you-chris-ullens" target="_blank">Satin Jackets</a>. Now he&#39;s&nbsp;done something similar for new artist Izzy Bizu for her track Adam &amp; Eve,&nbsp;capturing a carefree getaway to the English coast by Izzy and her pals.Chris documents the roadtrip to the sunkissed&nbsp;Isle of Wight, holiday house, dancing,&nbsp;sparklers and bonfires &ndash;&nbsp;all shot on genuine Super 8mm by the director and Jamie Durand &ndash;&nbsp;and as with the Satin Jackets vid, augmented by hand-drawn&nbsp;animations by Ullens himself. And it&#39;s interesting how the classic home movie format dovetails with the spirit of the Instagram age.&nbsp;

Katie Coward

Ten Three

Simon Ainge

Studio RM

Vince Ullens

OB Management

Elizabeth Doonan

Sony Music

Pop, R&B

Soul

Izzy Bizu 'Adam & Eve' by Chris Ullens

Izzy-Bizu--'Adam-&-Eve'-by-Chris-Ullens

London Grammar&#39;s gorgeously atmospheric Hey Now gets an equally gorgeously atmospheric treatment from promo director Chris Ullens.Hugely watchable, a&nbsp;forest comes alive at night courtesy of some tasty animation and VFX, and as the track escalates, string artist&nbsp;Sebastien Preschoux unveils a stunning display of his craft as balls of string and light play amongst the trees...

Sebastien Preschoux

Cadi Catlow

Ben Magahy

Ciaran Beale

Holborn Studios

Denny Cooper

James Dooley

Jonathan Hicks

Andy Barnard

 Carl Grinter

Ministry of Sound

Electronica

London Grammar 'Hey Now' by Chris Ullens

London Grammar - Hey Now  (Official Video)

For the alt-electronica of Mountie Kimbie&#39;s Home Recording, director Anthony Dickenson unveils this image-morphing beauty, set around a home studio set-up, nailing the surreality of the soundtrack.It starts as a double-exposure effect, combining exterior and interior tracking shots, but then Anthony adds more image-layers in a lovely way. What a clever sausage...

Anthony Dickenson

Pulse Films

Tamara Harel-Cohen

Ore Okonedo

Joceline Gabriel

Mr Moco

Warp

Laura Tunstall

Mount Kimbie 'Home Recording' by Anthony Dickenson

Mount Kimbie - Home Recording (taken from new album 'Cold Spring Fault Less Youth')

Fashion photographer and filmmaker Nick Thompson has made an impressive debut promo for Belfast band Girls Names very cool Hypnotic Regression. Following the success of his fashion film My Lord for Italian Vogue (he&rsquo;s also directed films for Port Magazine, Hunger, and Commes des Garçons) Nick has created a hypnotic, stylish and highly sensual piece around a young woman, in a state of subtle yet sexy psychological turmoil&hellip;Nick says: &ldquo;Tough Love approached me wanting a film that would echo the visual asthetics of My Lord but also to expand on the context of parallel lives and alternative states of consciousness. The idea was to write a story that embellished this but also played with sexuality, gender and illusion.&ldquo;I love using fashion in my work, I think it is an artform in itself which we commonly take for granted. I contacted Jo Shippen, an amazing stylist and brilliant friend, with the insight that I was using figures like Frida and Dali as a source of inspiration in the treatment.&rdquo;

Nick Thompson

Ollie Evans

Drew O'Neill

Bullion Productions

Simona Boulding

Jo Shippen

Claire Belling

Dom Herd

Josh Adams

Doug Cox

Alaistair Graham

Broadley STudio

Tough Love Records

Girls Names ‘Hypnotic Regression’ by Nick Thompson

Girls Names - 'Hypnotic Regression' (Official Video)

A juicy video for Ninja artist Slugabed's Sex by Chris Ullens - featuring Slugabed's Turbo Juicer 4000.
The video takes the form of a retro infomercial which demonstrates how the Turbo Juicer turns crushed audio-tapes into the best juice you've ever tasted, via a complicated yet delightful (stop-frame animated) process...
"Martin and Gregg (Slugabed) approached me with £1900, a great track and a very open mind," explains Chris. "With the cool track they had, very upbeat and built with loops, I saw the possibility to go crazy with the animation and do something I've been wanting to make for a while, so my treatment was over the top ambitious. We all loved it and that led me into shooting for seven weeks, including Saturdays, many Sundays and a lot of nights on my own. It was epic, but I'm definitely happy now!"

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=o2Ddzd1L2tE&amp;list=FLEXRv_qihRwjsV91ftx23-A&amp;index=1&amp;feature=plcp

Martin Dobson

Slugabed 'Sex' by Chris Ullens

Slugabed-'Sex'-by-Chris-Ullens

There's a suitable blend of comedy and Shining-style creepiness, including several unsavoury characters, as Pro, Tim and Joe set about satirising of the fame game - nicely photographed by Luke Palmer and art directed by Anna Rhodes.

Tim &amp; Joe

Colonel Blimp

Tamsin Glasson

Arri Media

Anna Rhodes

Bex Crofton Atkins

FAB Sound

Cut+Run

The Mill

James Hackett

Sam Jones

Luke Morrison

Professor Green 'At Your Inconvenience' by Tim & Joe

JMD's promo for Booka Shade's trippy dance tune Bad Love is an excellent excursion into light and shade, lensed by Jamie Durand. Taken from the German electrohouse duo's new album More - out later this month - the promo is both cinematic and alluring.

Marcus Sharp and Helen MacIntyre

David Dixon

Ella Smith

John Moule

Booka Shade’s Bad Love by JMD

The first of new material from former Beta Band singer Steve Mason is the melodic Lost And Found - recalling his old band's anthem Dry The Rain - and gets the outdoor treatment by directing collective JMD. 
Filmed in spectacular Snowdonia - and beautifully photographed by Jamie Durand - the promo features a man scrambling on challenging slopes in search of a girl - and captures the desolate, compelling spirit of the lyric spot on.

Jamie Durand

Director of Photography

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