Come sempre questa sezione sottolinea l'abilità e il talento dei registi di tutto il mondo di elevare i migliori brani elettronici o hip-hop attraverso la genialità del formato del video breve. Una serie che vede artisti del calibro di Basement Jaxx, Hifana e Massive Attack fianco a fianco con Robert Hales e il suo SMILEY FACES per GNARS BARKLEY, un affascinante viaggio che è parte Zelig e parte Grey Video di Ranger Mouse. Inoltre, +Cruz e Shane Lester ci vanno giù duri con WHAT YOU STANDING FOR per il giapponese dj Uppercut, e un paio di eccitanti nuovi talenti si fanno notare in modo divertente - l'irlandese David O'Reilly con SZAMAR MADAR per le VENETIAN SNARES e la francese Nadia Micault per L'AMOUR MADE IN TAIWAN di SIR ALICE. L'australiano Nicolas Randall chiude la festa con ALL HE NEEDS, una cover sfrontata di All I Need, successo di Mike Mills, degli AIR che è in parte parodia e in parte omaggio.

ALL HE NEEDS
AUSTRALIA | 4:30 | 2005
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/SCREENWRITER: NICOLAS RANDALL
CO-PRODUCER: TOM FITZGERALD
CO-WRITER: STEPHEN JUSTICE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KATIE MILWRIGHT
EDITOR: GRAEME PEREIRA
SOUND DESIGNER: FUEL MELBOURNE
COMPOSER: BRIAN FITZGERALD (COVERING AIR’S “ALL I NEED”)
CAST: TOM FITZGERALD, KURT PHELAN
TOOLS: DVCAM, Panasonic DVX100 A/B, Avid Xpress
While the cover song is a well-established form, the cover video is relatively unknown. Enter Nicolas Randall of Australian collective Family, who created this shot-by-shot homage to – and parody of – “All I Need,” Mike Mills’ seminal 1998 Air video, by transforming the original’s heterosexual tale of a skatepark romance into the heartwarming story about two gay Australian rollerbladers who meet and fall in love.

BIRDS: VITALIC
FRANCE | 2:58 | 2006
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: PLEIX
EDITOR: NEIL SMITH/THE WHITE HOUSE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM GREEN
SPECIAL EFFECTS: MAC GUFF LINE
RECORD LABEL: PIAS
Seeking to turn an everyday subject into something unfamiliar, Pleix chose dogs for this short film set to Vitalic’s giddy acid-electro (what, you were expecting birds?). The French collective used high-speed digital cameras to capture a broad array of lovable canines, from papillons and poodles to basset hounds and bull terriers, leaping in super slo-mo to create a unique cinematic experience, best described as puppy porn.

FALSE FLAGS: MASSIVE ATTACK
UK | 2:45 | 2006
DIRECTOR: PAUL GORE
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: MARY CALDERWOOD
PRODUCER: CHARLOTTE WOODHEAD
PRODUCTION MANAGER: MARIA NIELSON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBBIE RYAN
PRODUCTION COMPANY: FLYNN PRODUCTIONS
COMMISSIONER: CAROLE BURTON-FAIRBROTHER
RECORD LABEL: VIRGIN
TOOLS: PHANTOM V9 DIGITAL PHOTOSONICS CAMERA
Inspired by the 2005 Paris riots, Paul Gore’s “False Flags” video is a slow-motion portrait of a young French Arab man, caught between anger and fear as he ignites and throws a petrol bomb. Shot at 1000 frames per second, the video captures the intense emotion and detail of the moment, feeling almost like a series of still photographs.

FOLDER: PLASTIC OPERATOR
UK | 3:43 | 2006
DIRECTOR/ANIMATOR: PETE CIRCUITT
ILLUSTRATORS: ELLIE LOGAN, TANIA SMILER
RECORD LABEL: SUNDAY BEST
TOOLS: CINEMA 4D, MOTIONBUILDER, PHOTOSHOP, AFTEREFFECTS, APPLE G5, DIGITAL CAMERA
In this exquisite collage-driven animation, a man falls for a TV weathergirl with a habit of predicting extreme storm systems, and goes outside to experience her forecasts for himself. Soon the weather gets very strange indeed, leading to an odd kind of romance in the clouds.

GIRL AND THE SEA: THE PRESETS
AUSTRALIA | 4:40 | 2006
DIRECTOR/ANIMATOR: LEE LENNOX
PRODUCER: JOCELINE GABRIEL
COMMISSIONER: JO RUDOLPHY
LABEL: MODULAR RECORDS
TOOLS: AFTER EFFECTS, PHOTOSHOP
In this dark, dreamy animated video, the sea beckons a young mermaid out of the forest, but the lone wolf boy who helped raise her and gradually fell in love with her has other ideas.

HELLO, I LOVE YOU: ADAM FREELAND
US | 3:40 | 2006
DIRECTOR: HAPPY
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: BRIAN CARMODY, PARTRICK MILLING-SMITH
PRODUCER: CODY RYDER
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: ALLISON KUNZMAN, LAURA THOEL
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: DAVID WILSON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MAZ MAKHANI
ROBOT DESIGN/ANIMATRONICS: TONY GARDNER
PRODUCTION COMPANY: SMUGGLER
RECORD LABEL: WARNER BROTHERS UK
TOOLS: SUPER 16MM, PANASONIC DVX-100A, ULTRA FISHEYE LENS, AVID, FLAME
Happy’s video for Freeland’s breakbeat Doors remix depicts an innocent little girl who discovers a sinister robot while walking through the woods one day, and convinces her parents to let her keep it. But during a bucolic picnic, the robot turns on them, and subsequently uses its probing mechanical fingers to wreak havoc on the girl’s Waltons-inspired family.

NAMPOO: HIFANA
JAPAN | 4:06 | 2006
DIRECTOR: KAZUFUMI KIMURA
PRODUCER: YOSHIKAZU TAKANO
ANIMATOR: OMNIBUS JAPAN
PRODUCTION: GROUNDRIDDIM
RECORD LABEL: W+K TOKYO LAB
TOOLS: AFTER EFFECTS, FINAL CUT PRO, PHOTOSHOP, ILLUSTRATOR, 3D STUDIO MAX
A puppet goes on a journey sees her floating deep through the seas and flying high in the sky of a strange, psychedelic world.

NEW ME: JAMIE LIDELL
AUSTRIA | 4:26 | 2006
DIRECTOR/DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY/WARDROBE: ALEKSANDRA DOMANOVIC
CHOREOGRAPHY: ALEKSANDRA DOMANOVIC, OLIVER LARIC
DANCER: OLIVER LARIC
RECORD LABEL: WARP
TOOLS: SONY DCR-PC1000E, AFTER EFFECTS
A group of men in white outfits performs a choreographed dance among a set of overlapping street shots that resemble a David Hockney piece.

NO GOOD: PLAN B
UK | 4:00 | 2005
DIRECTOR: DANIEL LEVI
RECORD LABEL: 679 RECORDINGS
If you’ve ever felt like you’re someone that things just happen to, you’ll relate to this twitchy stop-motion video, in which East London rapper Plan B manages to get his rhymes off despite a house full of suddenly animate objects that pull him this way and that.

ON SITE: PSAPP
UK | 4:00 | 2006
DIRECTOR: MODEL ROBOT
ANIMATORS: JASON JAMESON, ROBERT MILNE, SEAN MILES, LOUISE WILDE
RECORD LABEL: LEAF RECORDS
TOOLS: AFTER EFFECTS, PREMIERE PRO, PHOTOSHOP, 3D STUDIO MAX, FLASH
Model Robot based this video on Psapp singer Galia Durant’s illustrations, producing a surreal adventure that features feuding kitties with cannons and swords, and fearless baby spiders which travel in search of a keyboard-playing princess.

RODEO MACHINE: HALFBY
JAPAN | 4:30 | 2006
RODEO MACHINE: HALFBY
This appealingly diagrammatic Japanese animation set to a rousing funk track picks out the patterns and quirky disruptions that characterize modern urban life, offering a continuous aerial view of a peculiar urban parade through a city’s parks and streets that, thanks to its charismatic, rubber-legged leader, keeps attracting more and more marchers – plus the odd horse.

SEOUL DIARY
KOREA | 4:16 | 2004
DIRECTOR: HYUNSUK KIM
PRODUCER: CHO PD
SCREENWRITER: HYUNSUK KIM
CINEMATOGRAPHER: HYUNSUK KIM
EDITOR: HYUNSUK KIM
SOUND DESIGNER: CHO PD
TOOLS: MINIDV, PANASONIC DVX100, PREMIERE
Hyunksuk Kim takes us on a high-speed black-and-white journey through Seoul, telling the story of a young man who wants to leave the city but can’t find a way out.

SMILEY FACES: GNARLS BARKLEY
US | 4:00 | 2006
DIRECTOR: ROBERT HALES
RECORD LABEL: DOWNTOWN/ATLANTIC
“Who is Gnarls Barkley?” A historian played by Dennis Hopper and an A&R man played by Dean Stockwell seek to answer this question in this clever video that’s one part “Grey Video,” one part Zelig. But archival footage that shows the mysterious duo at virtually every key moment in modern musical history, from big band to the birth of hip hop, only adds to the enigma.

SZAMAR MADAR: VENETIAN SNARES
UK | 3:00 | 2006
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/ANIMATOR/EDITOR: DAVID O’REILLY
PRODUCTION COMPANY: COLONEL BLIMP
RECORD LABEL: PLANET MU
Precocious Irish director and Shynola protegee David O’Reilly beautifully accompanies the Venetian Snares ferocious avant-garde orchestral/drill and bass hybrid, using animated chiaroscuro abstractions marked by violent weather systems perfectly synchronized to the song’s skittering breakbeats.

TAKE ME BACK TO YOUR HOUSE: BASEMENT JAXX
UK | 4:40 | 2006
DIRECTOR: DOUGAL WILSON
PRODUCER: MATTHEW FONE
POST-PRODUCER: JULIE EVANC, MPC
VFX SUPERVISOR: PETE RYPSTRA
PRODUCTION COMPANY: COLONEL BLIMP
RECORD LABEL: XL RECORDINGS
In this song-and-dance fantasy that could be described as Rodgers & Hammerstein go to Siberia, a country-and-western chanteuse is marooned out in the snowy wilderness in a remote cabin packed to the gills with bearded, dancing, banjo-plucking Cossacks and a host of other tomfoolery. Sometimes a girl just wants to go home – or to your house.

THE VELVET CELL: GRAVENHURST
UK | 3:10 | 2005
DIRECTOR/ANIMATOR: THOMAS HICKS
RECORD LABEL: WARP
TOOLS: PREMIERE, CARRERA
Director Thomas Hicks has worked with Gravenhurst since winning a contest to direct one of their videos two years ago. In “The Velvet Cell,” he uses blueprint-like animation to create a strange self-contained world with its own chaotic but transparent infrastructure in which people rush around frantically, oblivious to the fact that their lives are on display.

TRY TELLING THAT TO MY BABY: THE HEAVY BLINKERS
CANADA | 4:00 | 2005
DIRECTOR/ANIMATOR/PHOTOGRAPH/EDITOR: FLUORESCENT HILL
RECORD LABEL: ENDEARING RECORDS
TOOLS: PHOTOSHOP, AFTER EFFECTS, TOON BOOM STUDIO, PREMIERE
Remember being a kid and wishing that Candyland was real? Montreal’s Fluorescent Hill brings that wish to life with this colorful, tooth-rottingly sweet animation in which a cupcake with a cherry on top traverses a child’s paradise of lollipops and peppermint sticks, providing a visual corrolary to the Heavy Blinkers’ lush, tasty indie-pop.

U GONNA WANT ME: TIGA
US | 3:00 | 2005
DIRECTOR: OLIVIER GONDRY
PRODUCER: VALERIE ROMER
PRODUCTION MANAGER: JAMES GRAVES
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ADRIAN SCARTASCINI
RECORD LABEL: PIAS
TOOLS: SONY PD150 MINDV, GONDRY’S OWN SOFTWARE
Montreal DJ Tiga, and his cohorts, brother Thomas Von Party and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, make innovative use of glow sticks inside a circular rig of 30 cameras in this video created using director Olivier “Twist” Gondry’s own proprietary effects software.

WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS: JUSTICE VS. SIMIAN
FRANCE | 3:00 | 2006
DIRECTORS: ROZAN & SCHMELTZ
PRODUCERS: GRACE BODIE, CHARLOTTE MARMION
ART DIRECTOR: JEAN-MICHEL BERTIN
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIAL SCHMELTZ, LAURENT TANGY
COMMISSIONER: JANE NEWTON
PRODUCTION COMPANY: PARTIZAN
RECORD LABEL: VIRGIN UK
TOOLS: 16MM, FINAL CUT PRO, FLAME
Have you ever awakened from a long night of drinking to discover that your friends have pulled a prank on you? French directing team Rozan & Schmeltz explores the shame and hilarity of “nesting,” the frat boy tradition of piling things on top of someone who has passed out.

WHAT YOU STANDIN' FOR: DJ UPPERCUT
JAPAN | 3:46 | 2006
DIRECTOR: +CRUZ AND SHANE LESTER
LABEL: W+K TOKYO LAB
This animated political incitement, rendered exclusively in brown earth tones, delivers its propagandistic message via animated images of DJ Uppercut and rapper Roscoe P. Goldchain, intercut with the the song’s key slogans.