IN DEPTH: Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders "Louise"

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins may stay behind the kit for his side project Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders, but it's his musical vision and vocals that drive this tale about the mysterious "Louise." Video director Alma Har'el handles the visuals, delivering a story about the unreliability of memories. Old Super 8 films are used and recreated with Hawkins and "Louise" — played by his real life wife — to show the jumble inside his head. And, in a very smart idea, Har'el utilized Hawkin's impeccable timekeeping by having him control the edit of some background projections through MIDI triggers on his drums.

Alma Har'el, director: I have a little collection of Super 8 home movies from the '60s through the '80s. I bought most of them on eBay or directly from families at garage sales. I wanted to build a "Louise" character out of all those filmed memories. About 200 hours later I managed to find four blond girls that I could edit into one "Louise." I wanted it to look like she was growing in front of our eyes and that Taylor has memories of her since she was a baby. Those memories were all mixed up in his head, so I planned to recreate some of those old movies, but with Taylor in them. Luckily, Alan E. Muraoka — who did the art direction on Little Miss Sunshine — agreed to take the job of creating sets on our tiny budget that corresponded with our Super 8 clips of birthday parties and Christmas mornings.

When we got to post, I decided that all the digital effects you can use to age film makes it look fake. I bought a black box for home telecine and used my Super 8 projector to make some homemade scratches and burns. Then Jay Majer and I would composite them into the footage. We were going crazy over it for hours, choosing every hair, scratch and burn until it looked good. I knew nobody would notice, but we had to do it

For the performance, I wanted the background screens to keep changing with video projections that were operated through midi triggers on the drums. That way, the home videos on the screens were cut to the rhythm of the drumming. I did that with the help of Surya Buchwald who's a live video performer. I don't think you can see much of it in the video, but I'm planning on doing a whole video like that when I get a chance.

--> watch "Louise"

Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders "Louise" (Thrive)
Alma Har'el, director/editor | Ari Weiner, producer |
Partizan, production co | Bliss, DP

ADDITIONAL READING: Motion Theory and Modest Mouse

The Modest Mouse video "Dashboard" has finally been released and it's exactly the kind of inspired lunacy you'd have hoped to get from the combo of main mouse Isaac Brock and creative team Motion Theory. To tide you over until our forthcoming In Depth, allow me to shamelessly steer you over to a VFXworld.com feature story  I wrote about the video. It's got plenty of insider details, comments from video co-director Mathew Cullen, some work-in-progress stills and far too many fish puns.

--> read Dashboard: Charting the High Seas With Motion Theory and Modest Mouse and/or watch the video "Dashboard"

NEWS: 3-D Music Videos?

An article in today's New York Times sheds light on one potential future for music videos: 3-D. Writer Jeff Leeds reports that Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine has struck a deal with filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator) to produce both short and long form content with the Fusion 3-D equipment. The lone work mentioned in the article is a 3-D version of Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" that was shot concurrently with the regular version.

Visit the NYTimes for the full story... Further details at the official press release: Music Leader Interscope Records and James Cameron Partner for Cutting Edge 3-D Production of Music Videos, Concert Films and More

NEW RELEASE: Norah Jones "Sinking Soon"

For some reason Norah Jones conjures up instant backlash in certain sectors: She's too bland. Too mellow. Too Starbucks. Yes, her music is definitely mellow, but "Sinking Soon" is way more adventurous than what you'd come to expect from a milquetoast multi-platinum artist. First off, the track sounds like a Weimar cabaret waltz — not too dissimilar from what you might find on a Tom Waits album  — and the video is like a bizarro update of the Herbie Hancock's classic clip "Rockit." If you wanna call her meek, you can — she is dressed like a mouse at one point, after all —but at least acknowledge that there are much easier ways for Ms. Jones to guarantee her success than releasing banjo tunes and weird little videos. --> watch "Sinking Soon" in Quicktime or at YouTube

Norah Jones "Sinking Soon" (Blue Note)
Ace Norton, director | Charles Spano, producer | Partizan, production co | Shawn Kim, DP | Andrew Shulkind, DP for stop motion/narrative | David Michaelson, editor | Ingenuity Engine, effects

NEW RELEASE: Reach "Coming For You"

If you consider music videos to be the intersection of art and commerce, well this video might represent a head-on collision between the two. The impressive, effects-driven clip stems from a contest held by car company Scion. The winner — a Kansas City MC named Reach — received a promotional contract and a music video. The lone requirement here was making sure the car was included, a requirement which director Asif Mian dispenses with quickly and cleverly by placing the first segment of the clip within the confines of an extra roomy and futuristic Scion. The rest of the video follows the exploit of Reach — depicted here as half man, half machine — on a sci-fi adventure that's like a homebrew version of The Matrix (the movie, not the Toyota vehicle). --> watch "Coming For You"

Reach "Coming For You" (Scion Music)
Asif Mian, director | Rob Schroeder & Georg Kallert, producer | Evaq & Inform Ventures, production cos | Antonio Scarlata, DP | Stuart Adriance, editor

NEWS: Buckcherry Video Fan Contest

If you missed out on your chance to be a "Crazy Bitch," Buckcherry is giving you one more shot at fame. Fortune? Not so much. Fans are being called upon to create their videos for new single "everything" and upload the homemade clips to a special YouTube  group by March 9. The band will choose their favorite clip and feature it on their homepage and MySpace page for at least a month. The winner and a guest will also receive roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, tickets and VIP access to a Buckcherry concert in London on March 20.

The entry form and additional details can be found here.

BOOKED: Cheetah Girls - Shane Drake, director

artist: Cheetah Girls
song: "So This Is Love"
label: Walt Disney
director(s): Shane Drake
production co: Red Van Pictures
rep: Labuda Managment

BOOKED: Anberlin - Christopher Sims, director

artist: Anberlin
song: "Godspeed"   
label: Tooth & Nail
director(s): Christopher Sims
production co: Timecode Entertainment

BOOKED: The Chariot - Christopher Sims, director

artist: The Chariot
song: "They Faced Each Other"
label: Solid State
director(s): Christopher Sims
production co: Timecode Entertainment

NEW RELEASE: Neil Young "Old Man" (live)

Nothing fancy going on here visually — in fact, it's pretty grainy — but who cares. It's Neil Young in 1971, at a Canadian homecoming gig, performing "Old Man" live for one of the first times ever. What else do you need? This 1971 gem comes from the CD/DVD set Live At Massey Hall — the second release from the music legend's Archives Performance Series. Other then unreleased tunes performed at the show include "The Needle & The Damage Done" and "Heart Of Gold." And keep this in mind: All of this is just a prelude to the forthcoming 8-CD/2-DVD Archives Volume I set, documenting both the musician's official and previously unreleased work from 1963 – 1972. --> watch "Old Man"

Neil Young "Old Man" (Reprise/Warner Bros.)