ross ching + death cab for cutie: little bribes.

First and foremost I’m a writer, so I always love it when the power of simple text gets used visually. But I’m also a design geek, so when that text is lovingly mutated and brought alive in gorgeous ways, the whole thing is win win. 

Recent San Diego State film grad Ross Ching took two weeks to create this fan vid for Death Cab For Cutie’s “Little Bribes.” 

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All good things travel around from somewhere, and Ching’s vid seems inspired by (or came from the same place of inspiration as) a vid from one of my fave directors on the planet, Australian Kris Moyes. He created this genius bit of stop motion kick ass for Softlightes’ “Heart Made Of Sound.”

In case you missed it, a few years ago Moyes dreamed up one of my fave videos of all time, again for Softlightes, but for “The Microwave Song.” It’s one of the best things ever, and if you think I wasn’t being serious before about respecting the ways artists can be inspired by others, I have a feeling Moyes’ “The Microwave Song” vid was at least a little bit imagined thanks to this clip.

 

 

michel gondry + dick annegarn: soleil du soir.

Michel Gondry is a bit of a freaky genius and I worship him. Although I don’t love this video as much as his other stuff, it’s still worth a look and some pretty rad time lapse work. Gondry never does anything “bad”, it’s all just shades of awesome. I’m sure if you’re French the song itself might not be so horrendously annoying. It sounds a lot like a French Randy Newman to me, and headache-inducingly so, but props to singer/songwriter Dick Annegarn for getting Gondry to direct a video for him.

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Via Ventilate

olivier “twist” gondry.

One of my favourite famous directors (I’m an even bigger fan of those that toil in a little more obscurity) is Michel Gondry. He directed what is easily one of the best music videos of all time – the unbelievable “Jóga” by Björk. If you haven’t seen it your life is incomplete, and I suggest watching it immediately.

Today, I discovered that Michel’s brother, Olivier “Twist” Gondry, is an equally-impressive, if not as well known, film and video visionary. I found a short film of his on one of my fave sites, Fresh Creation. In “Behind”, he compresses a 7-day road trip from LA to NYC into this 4-minute (very) short film:

I also like this spot he did last year for Nike Latin America, “Live. Run.” The Gondrys definitely don’t shy away from playing with the notion of time and space in their work, and the concept of the starting off at both the beginning and end of the day and then watching (the latter timeline moving in reverse, the earlier timeline moving forward) life eventually collide at one moment in the very middle is pure awesome. If done well, this kind of chronological comparison is such a fantastic device – for proof, check out Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” or Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last 5 Years”. Plus, let’s be honest, it doesn’t hurt that there’s a cute, sweaty latin guy jogging around, either…

(Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Portland. Production: Paranoid US)

I was most excited to realize that he also directed one of my favourite campaigns of last year – the visually crazy Hewlett Packard spots featuring Paulo Coehlo, Vera Wang, and (stereotypical sibling rivlary pun ignored here…) Michel Gondry.

(Agency: Goodby Silverstein. Production: Partizan)