Year End Recap...

Video Static has brought you over 1,400 postings about music videos in 2005.  So, although we'll be on a short hiatus for the holiday season, there's plenty here you may have missed when originally posted.

Video Spotlights - Look in the left sidebar for Video Commentaries with:

• Cat Solen on Bright Eyes "At The Bottom of Everything"
• Geoff Oki on The High Speed Scene "The Iroc-Z Song"
• Adria Petty on The Ditty Bops "Wishful Thinking"
• Christopher Mills on The Suicide Machines "The Road Leads Where It's Led"

Podcasts - Find these at our Podcast page:

• Director Mark Pellington on Foo Fighters "Best Of You"
• Director Michael Palmieri on Foo Fighters "DOA"
• The Sun and the Music Video DVD Album
• Design/Directing Team Shilo on the Audio Bullys "I'm In Love"

Cover Stories - Besides our brand spanking new story on The Shins "Saint Simon," which can be found by scrolling down just a wee bit, please be sure to check out:

• Devendra Banhart "A Ribbon" by  director Lauri Faggioni
• Several Questions with Motion Theory about Beck's "Girl"

Video Static will be back with regular updates before your New Year's Day hangover fades. Whether you helped spread the word, contributed information, took part in an interview/commentary, advertised or just came by to read what's up:  THANKS!

Happy Holidays. See you soon.

COVER STORY: The Shins "Saint Simon"

Every year, over 500 million monarch butterflies in the Eastern U.S. and Canada head south for the winter. Only half survive the nearly 3,000 mile journey, but those that do spend the next five months in the mountains of Central Mexico. Filmmaker Dennis Fitzgerald had wanted to shoot a music video featuring the black and orange butterflies in their temporary Mexican home ever since he read about their migration in National Geographic, but he wasn't about to squander such a magical sight on anything less than the perfect song. Ten years later, he was still waiting for it when he heard The Shins' "Saint Simon." Fitzgerald immediately knew it was a match. "Both capture the experience of somebody showing you something beautiful for the first time," he says, "and that can be anything ... the first time somebody loves you, or the first time you see something in nature that forever changes you."

The video, produced by Your Mom Films, was shot last February at El Rosario de las Mariposas, a privately-owned reserve in Michoacan, Mexico. It features the Portland-based band wandering in wonder as butterflies fill the air like confetti from a surreal and endless party. Monarchs carpet the ground and cover the same Oyamel fir trees their ancestors have been returning to each fall for over 40,000 years.

Although the vast majority of bands only pretend to play in their videos, The Shins pretended extra quietly in order to be sensitive to their environment. "We didn't want to disturb them," singer James Mercer says. "It's kind of like being at the Grand Canyon or something — I mean, who throws a cup into the Grand Canyon?" Perhaps the thrill of leaning over the Grand Canyon comes close to being surrounded by many hundreds of thousands of butterflies. It was even a little, well, unnerving for keyboardist Marty Crandall, who kept saying, "What if these fuckers turned on us?"

Amazingly, the band and production team were granted access to parts of the privately owned park that no one besides scientists and researchers had ever been allowed. When Fitzgerald' s Mexican production company went on their scouting trip they had a long conversation with the park' s boss. This conversation revealed the fact that El Jefe' s brother was incarcerated in Mexico City and offered an easy solution. "Our Mexican producer bailed this guys brother out of jail, so he owed us a favor," says Fitzgerald.

Supervised by scientists, they were allowed to bring cranes and equipment into extremely pristine areas. "We were very, very careful and very respectful," says Mercer, whose sensitive demeanor might well encourage one to entrust him with a firstborn child. Mercer and Fitzgerald hope the gorgeous video will allow people to hear "Saint Simon" differently, as the song was released nearly two years ago. "On top of that, I want to show them a really beautiful place," says Fitzgerald. "It's definitely something you should see before you die."
--  Erin Ergenbright

author Erin Ergenbright is the co-author of The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook, and her work has appeared in The Believer Magazine, Tin House, Colorado Review, The Oregonian, Portland Monthly and elsewhere. She is a co-director of the Loggernaut Reading Series and teaches writing workshops in Portland public schools.

SHOT: Coretta Scott - Shane Jay Hayes, director

Spokane, WA rock act Coretta Scott took part in their first "real" video shoot this past weekend in Seattle.

artist: Coretta Scott
song: "The Stairs Hit Hard"
label: Rise
director(s): Shane Jay Hayes
production co: Essential Media Group

ALERT: No Adds at FUSE, MTV, VH1 for Week of 12/24/05

There are no new reported adds at Fuse, MTV and VH1 for this week. Regular programming for all three networks will return after New Year's Day.

BET ALERT: Adds for the Week of 12/24/05

BET Adds:
Dem Franchize Boyz "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It" (So So Def/Virgin)
Marques Houston "Sex With You (Lovin You)" (T.U.G.)

Rap City Adds:
Sean Paul "Temperature" (VP/Atlantic)

CMT ALERT: Adds for the Week of 12/19/05

CMT Adds:
Gretchen Wilson "I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today" (Epic Nashville)
Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon "Jackson" (Wind-Up)

IMF ALERT: Adds for the Week of 12/19/05

International Music Feed Adds:
Bob Marley & The Wailers "Slogans"
Buckethead feat. Serj Tankian "We Are One "
Daddy Yankee "Rompe"
Don Omar & Tego Calderon "Bandolero"
Every Time I Die "KIll The Music"
Los Abandoned "Electridad"
Remy Ma "Conceited (There's Something About Remy)"
Scary Kids Scaring Kids "The Only Medicine"

BOOKED: Fort Minor - Philip Andelman, director

Fort Minor mastermind Mike Shinoda will introduce labelmate Holly Brook in the video for "Where'd You Go," which features Brook singing the chorus hook.

artist: Fort Minor
song: "Where'd You Go"
label: Machine Shop/Warner Bros.
director(s): Philip Andelman
production co: Partizan

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE: Major Lightner and Hawthrone Heights

Director Major Lightner (center) with Hawthorne Heights members Micah Carli and JT Woodruff on the set of "Saying Sorry" in Chicago.

BOOKED: T-Pain - Scott Franklin, director

Having already directed a video for the clean version, Scott Franklin is directing a totally new clip for the dirty version of  "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)." The video will be set  in a suburban neighborhood where T-Pain learns a secret about the sexy woman who just moved in next door.

artist: T-Pain
song: "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)"
label: Jive/ZLG
director(s): Scott Franklin
production co: Fred Films
rep: Labuda Management

BOOKED: People In Planes - Joaquin Phoenix, director

Actor Joaquin Phoenix will be directing a video today for Wind-Up band People In Planes on-location in Orange County, CA ...

artist: People In Planes
song: "If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode)"
label: Wind-Up
director(s): Joaquin Phoenix
production co: Anonymous Content

NEWS: Death Cab For Cutie Music Video Plans

Death Cab For Cutie's latest CD Plans gets complex with the release of a series of videos under the name Directions. This anthology will collect 12 short films/music videos by 12 different filmmakers inspired by  the 11 songs from Plans, plus one bonus cut. Songs that already have videos —  "Soul Meets Body" and the next single, "Crooked Teeth" — will be represented by new videos by different directors.

The line-up for Directions is as follows:

1. "Marching Bands Of Manhattan" - P.R. Brown, director
2. "Soul Meets Body" - Cat Solen, director
3. "Summer Skin" -  Lightborne, director
4. "Different Names For The Same Thing" - Autumn de Wilde, director
5. "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" - Monkmus, director
6. "Your Heart Is An Empty Room" - Jeffrey Brown, director; Eliza Kinkz, animator
7. "Someday You Will Be Loved" - Ace Norton, director
8. "Crooked Teeth" - Rob Schrab, diretcor
9. "What Sarah Said" - Laurent Briet, director
10. "Brothers On A Hotel Bed" - Chris Grismer, director
11. "Stable Song" - Aaron Stewart-Ahn, director
12. "Talking Like Turnstiles" (bonus track) - Lance Bangs, director

Most of the names on the list will be familiar to music video fans and Video Static readers, but there are a few newcomers. Autumn de Wilde is a photographer who has often worked with DCFC (and has directed videos for Spoon and the late Elliott Smith), Rob Schrab is the creator of the legendarily never aired Jack Black TV show pilot Heat Vision and Jack and Jeffrey Brown is a graphic novelist.

“Each interpretation is phenomenal and our hats go off to everyone involved. It’s our hope that this project serves as a model to both labels and bands as a way to grant the directors the type and amount of freedom we’ve enjoyed in the creation of the music itself.” - Ben Gibbard, Death Cab For Cutie

The videos are slated to be unveiled one by one on one on the band's website deathcabforcutie.com in early January. Directions is the brainchild of otaku-house, a production company run by DCFC bassist Nick Harmer and director Aaron Stewart-Ahn.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE: Dale Resteghini and Trivium

Raging Nation Films director Dale Resteghini (2nd from right) on the set of "Dying In Your Arms" with Roadrunner metal band Trivium.

This take-off on The Phantom Of The Opera was shot at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ

SHOT: We Are Scientists - Akiva Schaffer, director

We Are Scientists lead singer/great white boxing hope Keith Murray fails to follow through on a promise to win his next fight for an ailing child.  Poor kid. The video for "It's A Hit" was directed by Saturday Night Live writer/band collaborator Akiva Schaffer — who directed the genius "Lazy Sunday" rap video from this past weekend's episode of SNL.

artist: We Are Scientists
song: "It's A Hit"
label: Virgin
director(s): Akiva Schaffer
production co: Seaworthy

NEW RELEASE: Rosie Thomas "Pretty Dress"

Rosie Thomas "Pretty Dress" Sub Pop
Molly & Mariah, directors
@radical.media, production co
Description: Singer/songwriter Rosie Thomas performs in a cozy room while an intercut storyline stars a cast of stop-motion animated plush characters. The homemade feel of the clip will appeal to fans of director Adria Petty's "Sweet Troubled Soul" clip for Stellastarr, or the work of Michel Gondry collaborator Lauri Faggioni.