IN DEPTH: Rocco DeLuca "Colorful"

Director Frank Borin is a smart man. He knows exactly where your attention is drawn when a naked woman is on-screen and that is where he places footage of singer/songwriter Rocco DeLuca. It's a simple, yet effective conceit that — to paraphrase the lyrics — may indeed the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

Frank Borin, director: This was one of the best and most unique experiences I’ve had on a video. Rocco is the first signing to Kiefer Sutherland and Jude Cole’s Ironworks Music label and starred in the recent documentary I Trust You To Kill Me with Kiefer. So, I got to work really close with Kiefer and Jude, which was amazing. Every element was discussed and planned out with them from the look, lighting, coloring all the way down to the shots and wardrobe (or lack of wardrobe).

It was a two day shoot that spanned over two weekends because we had to film all of Rocco’s footage, and then transfer and edit it so we could project it the following weekend with the girl.Even though the video seems very simple, the one element which really threw everyone for a curve was projecting on a sheet of water. It sounds good in theory, but light passes through clear water like a pane of glass. I wanted to avoid doing it in post because I needed the projections to have a very organic feel. Since I originally came up with the idea to project on water after seeing Disneyland’s Fantasmic show when I was a kid, we decided to tech scout at the happiest place on earth. Fantasmic was able to project on water by shooting the water out 40 feet in the air as a fine high-pressurized mist. We didn’t have that luxury since this would destroy the soundstage.

We lucked out by finding these engineers who devised a method to project images on water by determining the distance between droplets and the size those droplets would have to be to achieve this. So we were able to rent their rig from them, which worked perfectly and gave us some truly memorable images.

--> watch "Colorful"

Rocco DeLuca And The Burden "Colorful" (Ironworks)
Frank Borin, director/editor | Ari Weiner, producer | Maz Makhani, DP

NEWS: Music Choice VOD Hits NYC

The Music Choice VOD network launched on NYC's Time Warner Digital Cable today. Programming is spread across two channels: Channel 1027 offers On-Demand music videos from various rock genres, pop and country; Channel 1028 has a focus on hip-hop, r&b and Latin music.

Music Choice is carried nationwide by Time Warner, Comcast and Cox.

NEWS: MVPA Directors Cuts On Tuesday

The 9th annual MVPA Directors Cuts Film Festival, to be held Tuesday, December 5 at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre. In addition to screenings of previously unseen or unedited videos from an impressive list of directors — including Encyclopedia Pictura, Liam Lynch, W.I.Z., Evan Bernard, and Ben Mor — the event will feature an opening and closing receptions, in addition to a Q&A session with attending directors.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or through Fandango: $25 for members; $35 for non-members.

SHOT: Jordan Pruitt - Declan Whitebloom, director

Merge director Declan Whitebloom and new pop star Jordan Pruitt (with a hair stylist and umbrella holder) on the set of "Jump To The Rhythm."  -- click photo to enlarge

artist: Jordan Pruitt
song: "Jump To The Rhythm"
label: Hollywood
director(s): Declan Whitebloom
production co: Merge @ Crossroads

SHOT: The English Dept. - Matt Ornstein, director

artist: The English Department
song: "You Don't Know Anything About Me"
label: Star Mole   
director(s): Matt Ornstein
production co: Sound & Vision

NEWS: Jen Herrera Joins Draw Pictures

Jen Herrera is leaving Robin Frank Management — and the United States — to join Draw Pictures in London as the company's head of music video. Directors repped by Draw Pictures include Uwe Flade, Ulf, Caswell Coggins, Lee Lennox and Rupert Jones. Herrera officially starts the new gig tomorrow, December 1.

NEWS: Decemberists Dead To Colbert

Speaking of bears and other threats to America, last night's episode of The Colbert Report found the beloved, yet clearly insidious rock band The Decemberists getting called out by revered pundit Stephen Colbert for stealing his "Green Screen Challenge" concept for their own recently announced mtvU-sponsored contest. Watch the public flogging here.

Now, you can not only replace the green screen from The Decemberist's "Oh Valencia" video in hopes of fame and an iMac, but you can also insert footage of Colbert showing off his lightsaber skills into the Decemberists video and receive an even better prize: The respect of Stephen Colbert. Extra credit, presumably, if you use Colbert's swordsmanship to chop off singer Colin Meloy's head.

Here are the links:

• Colbert green screen footage and submission info
• Decemberists green screen footage and submission info

Stay tuned for news on this escalating bit of Viacom cross-promtoional synergy war

PHOTO: Grizzly Bear "Knife"

Although the production cycle for Grizzly Bear's video for "Knife" has been long and arduous — we first reported on it back in August — the Encyclopedia Pictura directing team has released some nice evidence — first leaked to Stereogum  —  that the wait will not be in vain. The Grizzly Bear "Knife" Production Update blog features enough production stills, behind-the-scenes photos, conceptual drawings and collages (see below) that reveals this as one of the most ambitious clips of the year (or next year, perhaps).

NEW RELEASE: These Arms Are Snakes "Horse Girl"

The evil geniuses over at Artificial Army use this twisted video for These Arms Are Snakes to imagine that My Little Pony ain't so little and ain't so innocent no more. The pink "Horse Girl" is lured into a life of sin and debasement in the shadowy netherworld of Hollywood. Easy money gained from "pony rides with happy endings" leads her to a pill spewing anus (or orange?) that eventually turns her into a demonic creature. 

Artificial Army: When the song "Horse Girl" came along it just made sense to go back to an idea that we had a long time ago, "My Little Pony of The Apocalypse."  The idea of documenting the life of a drug addicted pony living the fast life in Hollywood was just a perfect fit.

(photo credits from left: Joe Rubalcaba of Artificial Army, DP Robert Webb, Simon Chan of Artificial Army and These Arms Are Snakes bassist Brian Cook)

--> watch "Horse Girl"

These Arms Are Snakes "Horse Girl" (Jade Tree)
Artificial Army, directors/editors | Refused TV, production co | Robert Webb, DP  

NEW RELEASE: Y-O-U "Break"

The paper cut-out video is definitely reaching a point of oversaturation — see here or here — but unsigned director Tyler James keeps things interesting in this self-produced clip for the unsigned alt band Y-O-U. The production involved printing and then cutting out about 3,200 separate images of the band members, not to mention what was needed for the additional elements, like the clever cardboard color bars that start things off. --> watch "Break"

Y-O-U "Break"
Tyler James, director