SHOT: The Raveonettes - Molly Schiot + Cass Bird, dir.

DP Shane Sigler (center) and co-directors Molly Schiot (2nd from right) and Cass Bird (far right, lower) on-location in NYC with a couple of the characters (and a fish) from their Raveonettes video...

• artist: The Raveonettes
• song: "I Want To Be Adored"
• label: Vice
• director(s): Molly Schiot & Cass Bird
• rep: Robin Frank Management + Molly Logan @ Fred& Associates
• producer: Brody Baker

"I Want To Be Adored" is a Stone Roses song, with this cover/video being part of the Dr Martens anniversary promotion...

WATCH IT: Raveonettes "Heart Of Stone" (Chris Do, dir.)

What if Tim Burton directed an animated flick based on the artwork of Mark Ryden? It might look something like this Raveonettes video directed by Blind founder Chris Do. (PS: That comparison is a compliment.) --> watch "Heart Of Stone"

The Raveonettes "Heart Of Stone" (Vice/The Orchard)
Chros Do, director | Dana Vaden, producer | Blind, production co 

WATCH IT: Chromeo "Mama's Boy"

Simple, rotoscope line-drawing animation is the defining element of this new Chromeo video. Since the song is itself is pretty kitschy — cowbells, vocoders, oedipal lyrics,oh my — director/animator Stephane Manel keeps the tone loose, such as in the scene when he animates a low-hanging boom mic and some behind-the-scenes footage. There's an '80s music video vibe throughout, albeit not as specific as the Dire Straits homage that Chromeo cooked up with director Nima Nourizadeh for "Bonafied Lovin." --> watch "Mama's Boy" in Quicktime or via MTV.com

Chromeo "Mama's Boy" (Vice)
Stephane Manel, director, DP, editor, animator | Olivier Bassuet & Sascha Nixon, producer |Partizan, production co. | David Devaux and Richard 'Reach' Mvogo, animation assistance

NEW RELEASE: Chromeo "Bonafied Lovin"

"I want my MTV!" were the words artists once shouted when they wanted their videos aired on MTV. Nowadays you've got to take a more diverse approach if you want to get on the air. R&B synth-pop heroes Chromeo have already set up a pretty tight gameplan. First: get featured in MTV's Artist of the Week campaign, which puts you in all of the channel's on-air promos for one week. Second: Hire director Nima Nourizadeh to do an homage to Dire Straits classic "Money For Nothing" in all of its blocky, computer-animated glory. Third: Sit back and watch your video get added to MTV's line-up. Damn, you guys make it look easy. (review by Kevin Holy) --> watch "Bonafied Lovin"

Chromeo "Bonafied Lovin" (Vice)
Nima Nourizadeh, director/editor | Sarah Tognazzi, producer | Partizan, production co | Ross McLennan, DP | Nathan Parker, art director | Dirty UK, animation

BOOKED: Bloc Party - Ace Norton, director

artist: Bloc Party
song: "Flux"
label: Wichita (UK)
director(s): Ace Norton
production co: Partizan
commissioner: Jill Kaplan/Skyway Productions

Bloc Party is signed to Vice/Atlantic for the U.S.

BOOKED: Chromeo - Rozan & Schmeltz, directors

artist: Chromeo
song: "Tenderoni"
label: Vice
director(s): Rozan & Schmeltz
production co: Partizan
commissioner: Jill Kaplan/Skyway Productions

NEW RELEASE: Justice "D.A.N.C.E."

This is the second video from the daft French punks of Justice, and it's as remarkable as their Kanye-pwning first [see the drama here]. "D.A.N.C.E." showcases some truly incredible, if currently impossible, T-shirt designs sported by a few blokes as they walk through a trendy European nightclub. Directors Jonas & Francois just about close the lid on the creative T-shirt genre with inspired tracking work that one-ups all previous T-shirt vids. (review by Kevin Holy) --> watch "D.A.N.C.E."

Justice "D.A.N.C.E." (Ed Banger/Vice)
Jonas & Francois, director | El Nino/Soixante Quinze, production co

NEW RELEASE: Charlotte Gainsbourg "The Songs That We Sing"

The progeny of famous musicians are always in a tricky position. Expectations can be ridiculously high and everything is compared to mom and/or dad. As such, it's no surprise that it's taken Charlotte Gainsbourg — daughter of the legendary Serge Gainsbourg and his muse/chanteuse Jane Birkin — approximately twenty years to follow up her last proper album, released back when she was only 13. The lyrical and visual content of her new effort "The Songs We Sing" is certainly less creepy than her best known recording "Lemon Incest," which was a dance-pop father/daughter duet with papa Serge that had a video perfectly engineered to shock or offend nearly anybody. This time the music is an approximation of her dad's famous cut "Bonnie And Clyde" and the video showcases Charlotte in a studio with collaborators and known Gainsbourg acolytes Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin of Air (not included here is Jarvis Cocker, who penned the lyrics). In the end, however, this video does a fine job proving what it has to: Charlotte inherited the musical sensibilities of her dad and, thankfully, the looks of her mom. --> watch "The Songs That We Sing"

ps: Gainsbourgphiles are encouraged to get their Ye Ye's out with DJ Melody Nelson's radio show La Decadanse on East Village Radio every Tuesday morning 8 – 10 EST. Listen by visiting EastVillageRadio.com and clicking the "tune in" button.

Charlotte Gainsbourg "The Songs That We Sing" (Vice)
Nathalie Canguilhelm, director | Soizan7e Quin5e (France), production co

 

IN DEPTH: Bloc Party "I Still Remember"

There's a practical side to shooting on a green screen and then compositing backgrounds and other elements during post — less money, less travel, etc — but the creative team of Dan Shapiro and Alex Topaller over at Aggressive didn't have practicality in mind when they set about on the Bloc Party video, "I Still Remember." Not only did they have to travel to England to work with the band, they had to shoot an enormous amount of footage using just two vintage train seats to create the rows upon rows of people on a train you see in this video. And, most importantly, the green screen/composite technique here isn't done to replicate reality or a traditional music video; It's used to create shots that are either impossible or extraordinarily time-consuming and expensive to pull off on a practical set or location.

Video Static is pleased to present this In Depth in conjunction with leading Bloc Party fansite blocparty.net. Visit blocparty.net for additional comments from Aggressive and pictures from the set.

Aggressive: "Since this is meant to look like a one-shot video, we needed to find some manageable 'building blocks' to shoot and then composite together. We figured the activity in a train car can be broken down to what goes on in its seats, we got two vintage maroon-leather train seats and bolted them to a green stage. This pair of seats became the little stage on which [singer] Kele's memories plays out.

We shot one pair of seats at a time, keeping the camera locked stationary and getting as much image in frame as possible. All camera moves were done in composite later. Once we had this toolbox collection of train seats and passengers, we built the actual structural rows of the train cars, 'editing' the scenes by bringing in a new pair of seats as our camera pulls through the train.

The sticky thing about this isn't the difficulty of any individual shot, but the sheer quantity of footage needed to produce a train car full of different people, who all need to appear on screen simultaneously. We had the set running like an assembly line: extras and band waiting in the wings, hop on, sit down, ride the train, hop off; we had everyone available jumping on the set. You can even spot us in a couple of shots, riding the train through the daily grind." (photo of a monitor showing Bloc Party's Kele Okereke and Aggressive's Dan Shapiro on opposite sides of the "train")

--> watch "I Still Remember" Quicktime // Windows Media // YouTube

Bloc Party "I Still Remember" (Vice/Atlantic)
Aggressive, directors | JP Fox, producer | Refused TV, production co

NEW RELEASE: The Streets "Prangin' Out"

Even casual followers of UK rapper The Streets aka Mike Skinner know better than to put anything beneath him. Drugs, sex, laziness? Yep, all previously covered. "Prangin' Out" takes things to another level by setting Skinner up in a Shining situation where he realizes that he may be a psychopathic killer. The uncertainty stems from the phrase pranging out, which is apparently slang for having drug induced paranoia. Cool. -- watch "Prangin' Out" in Quicktime or at YouTube 

The Streets "Prangin' Out" (Vice/Atlantic)
Dawn Shadforth, director | Sally Llewellyn, producer | Black Dog , production co
Tat Radcliffe, DP | Richard Orrick/Work Post, editor