Director Michael Maxxis on Billy Talent "Surprise Surprise"

Aces High lives on in this new Billy Talent video...

Michael Maxxis, director: "Almost every shot in the video has CG in it. We had simple sets built against blue screen, then Screaming Death Monkey created everything in post. The band members sat in real airplane cockpits, but the actual planes you see in the video were modelled in post. Each band member's aerial combat sequence was written out, boarded, and rehearsed before the shoot. On the shoot day, each guy simulated his entire flight, one at a time.  As always, schedule was tight, so all the CG was done in eight weeks. I literally handed over a bunch of footage of people miming over blue to the post team and got this epic combat video back. The editor and VFX artists really deserve the credit for this one."

--> watch "Surprise Surprise"

BillY Talent "Surprise Surprise"
Michael Maxxis, director | Rory Halsall, producer | Rosemary Films, production co | Adam Marsden, DP | Dave De Carlo, editor | Screaming Death Monkey, vfx

WATCH IT: OneRepublic "Feel Again" (Tim Nackashi, dir.)

Follow the glowing, bouncing balls in this latest OneRepublic video. Filmed amongst some Redwoods outside Oakland, director Tim Nackashi and his team use programmable LED orbs to create an electrical parade. --> watch "Feel Again"

OneRepublic "Feel Again" (Mosley/Interscope)
Tim Nackashi, director | Fuliane Petikyan, producer | Black Dog, production co | Chris Clavadetscher @ Black Dog, Jamie Rabineau @ LARK CREATIVE, reps | Morgan Susser, DP | Logan Hefflefinger, editor | Sean Coleman @ Company 3, colorist | Coleen Haynes, exec. producer | Kathy Angstadt, commissioner

WATCH IT: Death Grips "True Vulture" (Galen Pehrson, dir.) - NSFW -

Fair Warning: None of this is safe for anything. Certianly not work, or your sanity.

Artist Galen Pehrson cute, yet creepy animated style — think Jeckle And Heckle meets Fritz The Cat while on a molotov cocktail of drugs — proves to be a nice match for Death Grips in this video supporting LA's contemporary art museum MOCA. --> watch "True Vulture"

Death Grips "True Vulture"
Galen Pehrson, director/animator | Sara Cline, producer | The Masses, production co 

Director Chris Marrs Piliero on The Wanted "I Found You"

Chris Marrs Piliero, director: "My initial impulse was to go in a direction that would stand apart from their previous videos and all other boy band videos as a whole. I wanted to put the boys in a narrative where they were genuinely badass throughout. I pitched them as being an Ocean's 11 type gang of dudes that are the cool anti-heros of our story. They asked me to embrace that and have them not really be good guys at all. I was more than happy to oblige." --> watch "I Found You"

The Wanted "I Found You" (This Is Global/Universal)
Chris Marrs Piliero, director | Leanne Stott, producer | Rokkit, production co. | Labuda Management, rep | Ben Todd, DP |Mary Calderwood, exec. producer | Marisa Garner, commissioner 

WATCH IT: Die Antwoord "Fatty Boom Boom" (Ninja, Terence Neale, Saki Fokken Berg, dir.)

I can't even pretend to grasp the larger socio-politico underpinnings of Die Antwoord and this video. But I know compelling, batshit crazy art when I see it, and "Fatty Boom Boom" is a word of mad genius. From the introductory update of Diamond Dave's busride, to a brutal depiction of Lady Gaga, a bizarre visit to a dentist/gynecologist and some performance segments that are as captivating and out-there as some of Hype Williams' greatest work, this is guaranteed to stick in your craw like a prawn in an orifice. --> watch "Fatty Boom Boom"

Die Antwoord "Fatty Boom Boom" (ZEF/Downtown)
Ninja, Terence Neale and Saki Fokken Berg, directors | Julia Schnurr, producer | ZEF FILMZ in association with Egg Films, Battalion and VICE, production co | Alexis Zabe, DP | Saki Fokken Berg @ Left Post Production, editor 

WATCH IT: Bon Iver "Beth/Rest" (Dan Huiting & Justin Vernon, dir.)

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon and his co-director Dan Huiting head to fantasy land in this video for this yacht rock jam. --> watch "Beth/Rest"

Bon Iver "Rest/Beth" (Jagjaguwar)
Dan Huiting & Justin Vernon, director | Daniel Cummings, producer | Picture Machine Productions, production co | Andre Durand, DP 

WATCH IT: Boys Noize "Ich R U" (Patrick Jean & Sebastien Loghman, dir.)

Being that almost anything can be created through just a few keyboard strokes, then a Zombie Qwerty scenario where they rise up and become living creatures isn't so far-fetched. --> watch "Ich R U"

Boys Noize "Ich R U"
Patrick Jean & Sebastien Loghman, director

WATCH IT: El-P "Stay Down" (Timothy Saccenti, dir.)

Here's the delicate line of hip-hop: The core audience lives for verses full of dexterous, sharp worldplay, but the masses just want to hear the hook. El-P faces them head-on, playing for a female audience that can't wait to force him and his drumming squirrel (yes) off-stage so Nick Diamond aka TV On The Radio's Jaleel Bunton as an old-fashioned shiny suit pop star can steal the spotlight. Things get violent (poor squirrel), but nowhere near as gnarly as when Peter Rosenberg said he didn't believe in Starships.  --> watch "Stay Down"

El-P "Stay Down"
Timothy Saccenti, director | Brody Baker, producer | Starworks Group, production co | Carlos Veron, DP | Ryan McKenna @ The Mill, editor 

WATCH IT: OFF! "Wrong" f/ Jack Black (Whitey McConnaughy, dir.)

Jalisco learns the hard way that Jack Black brings friends to a standoff in this snippet from the fake movie, Lethal Justice. --> watch "Wrong" 

OFF! "Wrong"
Whitey McConnaughy, director | Ryan Kohler, producer 

Video Convo: Justin Bieber "Beauty And A Beat" (Justin Bieber + Jon Chu, dir,)

Justin Bieber had the Internet all a'tizzy over a stolen laptop and the possibility that some inappropriate photos were about to leak. Well, sorry kids. It was all a ruse to set up this music video that takes the found footage concept to water park.

In that spirit, if someone stole my laptop they'd uncover countless ichat conversations about music videos with Doug Stern, like the one below.

Doug: I feel dizzy

Steve: They're apparently at a Water Park called Ragings Waters in San Dimas, CA

Doug: Like Bill and Ted.

Steve: Not sure if I should be glad or bummed that the leaked Bieber photos were just a marketing scam. Also from a marketing standpoint, the date he shouts out should be something he'll be alive for, so he can get a big licensing score. Unless Bieber is immortal. Which is possible.

Doug: He is Mayan

Steve: Amphibian

Doug: He is Chauncy Bieber

Steve: Actually, there's a moment where he smiles while he's next to Nicki that's just effortless. #littlethings #kidsastar

Doug: Bieber looks natural in some of that stuff where he goes underwater and comes back up. He looks like a smiley, happy and handsome young guy

Steve: He does. He also listens to Phish apparently

Doug: I have trouble believeing he listens to anyone besides himself on a loop

Steve: I wish the video was one take, but that was likely impossible. And I wish it was more of a viral "flash mob" kind of thing, but again, likely impossible.

Doug: i think it is a good move for him to be more 'realistic' and less iconic

Steve: All in all, I like it, especially when you contrast to the big serious videos he's done.

Doug: Are we missing a peeing in the pool joke?

Steve: Hopefully not.

--> watch "Beauty And A Beat"

Justin Bieber f/ Nicki Minaj "Beauty And A Beat" (Island Def Jam)
Justin Bieber & Jon M. Chu, director | Garrett Grant, Andrew Lerios, producer | Nick DeMoura, choreographer 

WATCH IT: Usher "Numb" (Chris Applebaum & Grace Harry, dir.)

Usher breaks out of the box (literally) in a glossy, yet emotional video that begins with a career lowpoint and ends in catharsis. The "on display" performance is broked up by a sharp and kinetic edit that rockets through a series of personal and universal experiences that reresent the song's maxim, "What don't kill, only makes you strong." --> watch "Numb"

Usher "Numb" (RCA)
Chris Applebaum & Grace Harry, director | Tara Razavi, producer | Believe Media, production co | This Is Frank, rep | Daniel Pearl, DP | Jacquelyn London @ Sunset Edit, editor | Bert Yukich @ Kroma, FX | Aakomon Jones, choregrapher | Jannie McInnes, exec. producer | Samantha Lecca, commissioner

WATCH IT: Lana Del Rey "Ride" (Anthony Mandler, dir.)

America is open roads, motorcyles and pinball. It's Jack Daniels, guns and flags. It's biker dudes, starlet girls, shots at fame and falls from grace. It's sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. To paraphrase Lana Del Rey, it's fucking crazy. But even if it's disconnected from the actual country we live in, it's the glamorous and dangerous image that conquered the imagination of people areound the world — which I think is one reason Ms. Del Rey has found mass success in Europe, while remaining a cult artist here in the States.

Director Anthony Mandler works off a story by the singer herself, creating a sort of stream-of-conscious homage to everything from Terrence Malick to Oliver Stone to David Lynch, with pit-stops in the big rock video landscape mapped out by Wayne Isham, Andy Morahan and others. That form makes the storyline a bit hazy, but you can follow her journey from stardom to freedom, complete with a daddy issue subplot, murder and more than a touch of madness. It's also a ballsy music video, a 10-minute opus that doesn't give a damn what you think and is happy to get as crazy and over-the-top as it wants in the name of freedom. --> watch "Ride" 

Lana Del Rey "Ride" (Interscope)
Anthony Mandler, director | Lana Del Rey, writer | Heather Heller, producer | Black Hand Cinema, production co | Malik Sayeed, DP | Benji Bamps, production designer

WATCH IT: Youngblood Hawke "We Come Running" (Marc Klasfeld, dir.)

Shooting underwater in the Bahamas sounds like a vacation of a video shoot until you realize there be sharks in them waters.

Hopefully Quint was on-hand? --> watch "We Come Running"

Youngblood Hawke "We Come Running" (Universal Republic)
Marc Klasfeld, director | Judd Allison, producer | Rockhard, production co | Aaron Platt, DP | Bill Yukich, editor | Nicole Acacio, exec. producer | Kate Miller, commissioner 

Director Jesse Yules on Warm Myth "Working"

It's all in the folds for this beautiful video piece by director Jesse Yules for Warm Myth.

Jesse Yules, director: "For Warm Myth I wanted to continue playing with some of the peekaboo shots I used in my previous video for Of Montreal | Spiteful Intervention. I like the idea of an alternate video lurking under the video we’re watching. I began thinking of ways that an image could morph or fold out of the way to reveal a new image. I visited some simple origami blogs looking for ideas. After a while I started to think the origami folds could be used not just as transitions, but to animate a paintings. The same trick is used to make the head of state on a paper bill appear to be smiling... Don Hertzfedt's classic Rejected also comes to mind although Rejected takes the idea much further.

As with the Of Montreal video, I did a series of paintings I thought fit the vibe of the song, then experimented with folding the paintings in various ways. From there, I decided to play off the geometry of the folds created, which led me to experiment with kaleidoscope images. I knew that the kaleidoscope effect had been done to death (it’s an After Effects filter) so I thought it might be interesting to try and do the effect practically. 

Bellow is a rough set up from the shoot. I shot the folded paintings near a window in my house, to take advantage of the natural light."

--> watch "Working"