PROFILE: Christopher Sims, director

director: Christopher Sims
title/job: director
company: DNA

first video: It was for my friends' band Eighteen Visions. We wanted to do a play off of the female love story in David Lynch's Mullholland Drive. It pretty much just ended up being a chaotic music video of two girls making out with each other. It was kind of awkward for the girls because, of course, all the guys in Eighteen Visions wanted to be present while they were making out.

I shot it on HD, which I hate, but at the time it was a fairly new and cheap way to make something look half credible. The video cost $6,750. I picked up all the gear myself. I remember pulling up to J.L. Fisher with a friends borrowed pickup truck to get a Model 10 dolly and track and some PA started asking me what job I was working on and who's directing it. I told him that I was going to direct it and he looked at me like I was crazy.

I still actually really love the edit of that video.

--> watch Eighteen Visions "You Broke Like Glass"

strangest video: It's weird because my stranger videos usually involve the supernatural. I'm not one to believe in that or think about it too much, but there is no other explanation really.

I shot the Saosin "Voices" video on Universal's infamous Stage 28, which was used for the old Phantom Of The Opera. We were informed by Universal that they had numerous accounts of odd things happening there. I was eager to get a location and wanted to lock something down, so I didn't think twice about the so called "haunting." On the day of the shoot we set up a series of lights behind our main stage. I wanted the lighting director at the board to manually hit all these cues to certain beats in the song and I was getting furious because the lights were flashing at the wrong rhythm and even at moments that I didn't want any lights. I remember running over to him after a few takes and asking what's wrong and he told me that the lights were going off by themselves. I then remembered Universal's note about Stage 28. A lot of the unwanted light cues actually made the cut so when you watch that video you can see the hand of the supernatural.

--> watch Saosin "Voices"

Another supernatural encounter happened on the set of Eighteen Vision's "Tonightless" video. I don't know why I didn't think it was going to be a big deal to shoot in a cemetery and then a mausoleum back to back, but I didn't. We shot the concept part of the video with this couple in a Pasadena cemetery during daylight hours while the crew worked all day setting up lights in the mausoleum for the performance. We barely finished in the cemetery before the sun went down and we made our way to the mausoleum. The power there kept getting tripped and sending us into darkness. Our gaffer and grip department kept making trips to our 1200 amp tow plant generator to figure out what was tripping things up. I guess our generator finally went completely down so we had another one trucked in. Within 10 minutes of getting our second truck, it went down as well. So now we're on our third 1200 amp tow plant generator, which is insane, and I'm losing my mind because we haven't even shot one frame of the performance. We ended up getting a portion of the lights to work so we just had to shoot it to the best of our electrical ability. It was a long night, to say the least. I remember arriving on set at 4:30am and getting back in my car to go home the following day at 4:15am in the morning. I guess it was the price we had to pay for waking the dead with our lights and sounds.

--> watch Eighteen Visions "Tonightless"

what's next: I'm finishing some "Studio Sessions" special project for the Jimmy Eat World guys at the moment. I shot a few Audi spec ads over the summer that I would love to finish, but we are having trouble finding talented sound designers and voice over characters to work for free. I'll finish them soon though I'm sure and have them up on my site simsdirector.com. I have another Hawk Nelson video scheduled for the third week of January and there's a number of other jobs I've written on...  just waiting for the word.

SHOT: Far-Less - Jesse Burton, director

Two videos done back-to-back for emo rockers Far-Less by director Jesse Burton, who previously directed the giant spider in the supermarket video for Paulson.

artist: Far-Less
song: "A Toast To Bad Taste" / "It's Not Me, It's You"
label: Tooth & Nail
director(s): Jesse Burton

SHOT: All Time Low - Travis Kopach, director

Director Travis Kopach sure does love the animal kingdom. His Thursday "Ladies & Gentleman" video starred a gynormous cockroach. This video for All Time Low looks to star a chimpanzee, wearing a diaper, wrapped around a stripper pole. Count me in, indeed.

artist: All Time Low
song: "Dear Maria, Count Me In"
label: Hopeless
director(s): Travis Kopach
production co: Dignity & Shame/Refused TV

NEW RELEASE: Cobra Starship "The City Is At War"

White suits and white powder never go out of style, especially when it comes to rock and rap acts that need to quickly establish some dangerous cred. Although there's little difference in terms of the "coolness" between bad guys and good guys in the world of high stakes drug dealing — let's call it the dichotomy of Tony Montana and Crockett/Tubbs —  singer Gabe Saporta and his Cobra Straship crew manage to subvert all that and seem way above all that hokum. You see, that's not coke he's cutting. It's cake flour (note: Ok, it's actually all purpose flour, but give me a little poetic license here). And, they're not literally cooking down some rock to sell to the hipsters; They're baking pies to throw in their faces. Now, if you'll allow me to carry the drug metaphor two steps too far: 1) This song is insanely catchy and probably as addictive as the ol' Glad Stuff t itself (note:  No, I've never heard someone refer to cocaine as Glad Stuff either, but I found it on a list of coke nicknames and it seemed a more plausible term than Aunt Nora or Weasel Dust ). 2) As you could guess, there's also a sanitized version of this video. I suggest you go with this original, "uncut" one. (Get it? Uncut? Hello?) --> watch "The City Is At War" director's (un)cut Quicktime or via YouTube

Cobra Starship "The City Is At War" (Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen)
Whitey McConnaughy, director/editor | Gina Bevilaqua, producer | Refused TV, production co | Jon Fordham, DP | Greencard Pictures , production service co

BOOKED: Serj Tankian - Tony Petrossian & Ara Soudjian, directors

artist: Serj Tankian
song: "Sky Is Over"
label: Serjical Strike/Warner Bros.
director(s): Tony Petrossian & Ara Soudjian
production co: Rockhard Films
rep: Robin Frank Management

BOOKED: The Bravery - Goodtimes/Sam Endicott, directors

Bravery singer Sam Endicott co-directing with the Goodtimes creative crew...

artist: The Bravery
song: "Believe"
label: Island Def Jam
director(s): Goodtimes and Sam Endicott
production co: Draw Pictures

NEW RELEASE: Group Sounds "Temporarily In Love"

If Michel Gondry directed a porn, I would expect it to be something like this absurd and more than a little lurid video by director Randy Scott Slavin of Videe This. Group Sounds dodge fingers, a tongue and penis as they valiantly perform from a giant vagina that's in the midst of coitus. Stay tuned for the money shot, if you dare.  --> watch "Temporarily In Love" in Quicktime or Flash (not safe for work, kids)

Group Sounds 
"Temporarily In Love"
Randy Scott Slavin, director | Videe This!, producer | Mikko Timonen, DP

SHOT: Charlotte Sometimes - Claire Carre, director

Not quite a cover of the classic Cypress Hill hit...

artist: Charlotte Sometimes
song: "How I Could Just Kill A Man"
label: Geffen
director(s): Claire Carre
production co: Partizan

SHOT: Erykah Badu - Chris Robinson, director

artist: Erykah Badu
song: "Honey"
label: Universal Motown
director(s): Chris Robinson
production co: Robot
rep: Robin Frank Management