Spike Jonze directing, FKA Twigs dancing, Ryan Heffington choreography and new Anderson .Paak music — what else needs to be said? A glorious video for Apple’s HomePod speaker.

“Word: Collected Poetry” is a collection of powerful spoken word poems beautifully brought to life, adapted from the work of four poets living in New York City. Directors Jamil McGinnis and Pat Heywood were inspired by a poem called “Things I Carry Into the World” by Cynthia Manick, and wanted their film to feel as if someone had wandered into a bookstore and began reading through a book of poems.

“Adapting poetry to film was a lot closer to putting together a thematic puzzle than it is building any kind of narrative. All sorts of space for us as filmmakers opened up to explore their language. Juxtaposing images, observing, asking questions rather than giving answers. We wanted a film that was challenging and abstract, but at the same time, presented moments of meditation.

We wanted to dive into the same themes and ideas that their poetry does, so collaborating closely with the poets and having their creative perspectives was vital. We didn’t want to assume anything about their experiences, but rather create a visual space to explore them further. We raised these questions about the school-to-prison pipeline, the problematic side of creative expression, and queerness, amongst others because they did. They gave us that space.”

The film’s production was entirely crowdfunded through Kickstarter, raising over $15,000 through nearly 200 donations in 30 days.
 

Behind the scenes shooting Word: Collected Poetry

Behind the scenes shooting Word: Collected Poetry

Behind the scenes shooting Word: Collected Poetry

Behind the scenes shooting Word: Collected Poetry

Behind the scenes shooting Word: Collected Poetry

FEATURING:
“Untitled” by Makayla Posley (0:09)
“band-aids & other temporary healings” by Trace DePass (4:01)
“From the Inside” by Nkosi Nkululeko (7:23)
“Rule #1” by Esther Aloba (11:09)

CREDITS:
Directors: Jamil McGinnis & Pat Heywood
Producer: Claire McGirr
Director of Photography: Frances Chen
Editor: Chris Mitchell
Starring: Esther Aloba, Trace DePass, Nkosi Nkululeko, Makayla Posely
Story: Esther Aloba, Trace DePass, Pat Heywood, Jamil McGinnis, Nkosi Nkululeko, Makayla Posely
Casting: Safiya Martinez Connell, Adam Falkner, Shannon Matesky
Assistant Directors: Jessica Miller, Tiffanie Young
First AC: Armaan Virani
Steadicam: Patrick Morgan, Denny Kortze
DIT: Chandler Tucker, Manny Munoz
Grip & Electric: Adrian Anaya
Production Assistants: Kearah Armonie, Will Chambers, Jacob Pirogovsky, Darcie Reisler, Jay Robinson
Storyboards: Tiffanie Young
Sound Mixing: Jesse Peterson
Title Design: Max Friedman

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
 (rockpaperscissors.com)
Editor: Chris Mitchell
Assistant Editors: Tiana Mesta, Anne-Laure D’Hooge
Producer: Lisa Barnable
Executive Producer: Eve Kornblum

MPC
 (moving-picture.com)
Producer, VFX: Catherine M. Fischer
VFX Supervisor: John Shafto
Executive Producer, Color: Dani Zeitlin
Producer, Color: Jenna Gabriel
Colorist: Adrian Seery
Color Assistants: Daniel Silverman, Seth Weinman

HUMAN (humanworldwide.com)
Score: Sloan Alexander, Trace DePass, Jon Hubbell, Rob Suchecki
Sound Design: Sloan Alexander
Executive Producer: James Dean Wells

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Urban Word NYC
urbanwordnyc.org

A man tries to kill himself three times over in this striking video for PRO8L3M’s track “Flary” by Warsaw-based director Piotrek Matejkowski.

Director: Piotrek Matejkowski
Script: Gabriel Wołoszyn
Co-script: Piotrek Matejkowski
Cinematographer: Kajetan Plis
Production House: Truskavka
Executive producer: Bartosz Gil
Executive producer: Bartosz Bretes
Production manager: Ewa Adamus
Production coordinator: Marilyn Szczudło

Actor: Julian Świeżewski
Actor: Zofia Wichłacz
Bartender: Maciej Zdrojewski
Man 1: Kuba Andrychowicz
Woman 1: Anna Bruślik
Man 2: Czesiek Beckham
Woman 2: Stasia Witkowska

1AD:Ola Chmielewska
Camera operator: Patryk Kin
Focus puller: Piotr Pitu Kwiatkowski
Camera assistant: Warren
Offline editor: Kuba Tomaszewicz / Talent Bank
On-set editing: Bartosz Bretes
Colour Grading: Piotr Sasim / Platige Image
Online: Mariusz Seliga / Platige Image
Postproduction Manager: Katarzyna Banasiuk / Platige Image
SFX: Głośno
Set Designer: Kuba Kiewicz / Odniechcenia
Set Designer Assistant: Czesiek Beckham / Odniechcenia
Costume Designer: Weronika Wojtach, Kamila Zabłocka
Make-up & Hai: Laura Karaś
SFX Make-up: Olga Węgłowska
Stuntman: Marcin Świerczyński, Joanna Gajewska Świerczyńska, Bartosz Kamiński
Gaffer: Dariusz Barwiejuk
Light: Arek Borowski
Light: Jurek Grzywacz
Key Grip: Buła
Generator: Gostek Film
Still Photographer: Alicja Kozak
Typography: Thomas L

This video was submitted by Piotr Matejkowski and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Nice animated video for Rone’s track “Origami” by Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka, Dimitri Stankowicz, Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet and Thomas Pons of directing collective Klub Simon.

Earlier this year we premiered Erin S Murray’s fantastic short “Hydra.” Born in Lagrange, Georgia where she trained to be a ballerina, the now Los Angeles-based filmmaker, choreographer and movement artist has worked for various artists and brands including John Legend, Rhye and Lululemon. We caught up with her to talk about her relationship with dance and the collaborative nature of her creative process. Watch “Hydra” above if you haven’t already and check out our full interview with Erin below!

Jeff Hamada: Can you talk about an early experience with dance that was significant for you?

Erin S Murray: An experience I’m really grateful for is my falling out with the ballet world. I was in 5th grade when I decided I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer, and I was lucky to have parents who supported me spending all day in a dance studio with other strangely serious children. The lifestyle taught me discipline and how to see beyond physical and mental boundaries, but I did not have the ideal body for a ballerina. Especially once puberty hit, I was told over and over my body was wrong. I was “too short, too womanly, too muscular, too bulky”. The criticism motivated me to work harder on my dancing, but it also took a huge toll on my mental health. There’s a martyr mentality in ballet culture that makes eating disorders rampant for young students. I was exhausted with ignoring my own interest and trying to change myself just to fit someone else’s idea of perfection, so when I was 18, I left the ballet world. This is really when I reconnected with my own creativity almost like entering a second childhood. I began experimenting with different genres of dance and movement that feels more authentic and human.

Jeff Hamada: How would you describe your style as a choreographer? What are some of the characteristics of your movements?

Erin S Murray: I like working across multiple genres of dance, but in my personal work, I love finding moments in my choreography that feel human and even un-choreographed. If I’m choreographing to a song, the movement has to feel like a genuine, human reaction to the music like it’s coming from the dancer spontaneously. I think a lot about gestures and unconscious rituals. I’m less interested in impressing you with high legs and flashy technique and more interested in compelling musicality and authentic characters. At the same time, I come from the ballet world, so there’s a time and a place for the technique too.

Jeff Hamada: Do you ever find it hard to choreograph pieces now without getting distracted thinking about how you might direct them? I imagine it’d be easy to get ahead of yourself.

Erin S Murray: I actually enjoy entering other people’s creative worlds. The process has helped me see through limits I’ve subconsciously imposed on myself, like solving a riddle. I’ve also had very collaborative relationships with directors, so I’m often involved pretty early on in the brainstorming process. The director comes with an idea; I come back with my interpretation and lots of questions. What if the dance did this or that? It’s a back and forth until we land on movement that excites us.

Jeff Hamada: What was the most challenging part of bringing your film “Hydra” to life?

Erin S Murray: “Hydra” was a very low budget project. In hindsight, I was overconfident with how much we could comfortably achieve in a one-day shoot. We got our last shot just as the sun dipped behind a hill making it impossible to continue. We used every shot-listed moment in the final cut of the film, and we only got one take of many moments, including the final moment in the film where the Woman escapes the Lineup. The whole team was completely invested all day long, and this project wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t have so many talented collaborators working alongside me.

Jeff Hamada: Is the choreography in the final cut pretty close to what you rehearsed? Did you make any major changes while you were shooting?

Erin S Murray: None of the choreography was changed, but a lot of the movement was at least partially created during the shoot. I prepared a series of motifs for the dancers that were adapted and rearranged throughout the day. A lot of the more chaotic dance moments near the end of the film were purposefully unrehearsed and created on the spot. I gave the dancers prompts in between shots or even during filming. I said things like “you’re a fish on land gasping for oxygen” or “you’re handcuffed and insects are crawling on your back”. We definitely looked like an odd group to the hikers passing by.

Jeff Hamada: Did you ever consider a version of this film without any music?

Erin S Murray: Early on, I imagined the film might use only diegetic sounds, but even if I’d gone that route, the sound design would have morphed into something most people would call music. I knew I wanted a strong, relentless rhythm present in the moments when the lineup is at it’s most aggressive. I’ve been following Hanetration whose music is in the film for years, so I was happy to have a project where we could merge our work.

Jeff Hamada: When you make something like “Deep Breathing” without any dancing in it, does it change the way you approach it?

Erin S Murray: Dancing or no dancing, my approach has been the same so far. A part of me would rather call “Hydra” a silent film rather than a dance film, since dance isn’t the native language of all of the characters. I used dance in the film to portray one character that I call the Machine Lineup. I think dance is an interesting way to explore themes surrounding indoctrination because movement is a very subconscious way of communicating. A lot of oppressive systems aren’t necessarily initiated and perpetuated overtly with words rather they’re communicated subconsciously, often without being noticed.

Jeff Hamada: What has filmmaking taught you about yourself?

Erin S Murray: Every project I realize there’s so much more I want to learn!

Jeff Hamada: How about something you want to accomplish this year?

Erin S Murray: I want to complete more more personal projects, choreograph a live performance, and direct a music video or two. I know that’s more than one 😉

Jeff Hamada: What about one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?

Erin S Murray: I dream about creating a feature length project. Also, I would love to choreograph for a ballet company one day! It would be interesting to re-enter that world with my new perspective.

Erin S Murray’s Website

Erin S Murray on Instagram

Erin S Murray on Vimeo

The residents of Cat City confront an unknown terror in this elaborate animated video for Too Mad’s track “Mind Invaders”. Directed by Tricktrabanten aka Kilian Vilim, Etienne Mory and Frederic Siegel of creative collective Team Tumult.

Los Angeles-based director Nathan Johnson’s video for the track “All Directions” by Son Lux (previously featured here).

Another stunner from The Blaze, whose previous video “The Territory” was our 2017 pick for best music video of the year!

A fantastic stop-motion by Bristol-based animator and director Heather Colbert for Mark Nevin’s track “Dolly Said No To Elvis.” Based on the true story of Dolly Parton refusing to sell “I Will Always Love You” to Colonel Tom Parker when he wanted to take 50% of the royalties if Elvis recorded it, the video took Colbert 2 months to complete and was made on her grandmother’s dining table.

A wonderful look at the work and outlook of French artist Jean-Paul Bourdier by California-based filmmaker John Picklap. Playing with the notion of a work of art describing and reflecting another work of art, “Between the Sand” captures a series of moments that not only speak to Bourdier’s process but his quest to transcend traditional narratives and reveal something more about the nature of who we are.

A stunning documentary short by New York City-based director Jake Oleson. Shot in the Cape Flats of Cape Town, South Africa over the course of three days, “The Flats” explores what life is like for the residents that live there.

Director: Jake Oleson
Director of Photography: Matthew Ballard
Producer: Wilhelm Furst
Production Manager: Godfrey Matsika
Editor: Jake Oleson
Sound Design: Bobb Barito
Colorist: Josh Bohosky
Post: The Mill
Music: Andy Stott, Toys, Jonny greenwood

This video was submitted by Jake Oleson and selected by our team. Consider participating here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A beautiful portrait by Brooklyn-based director Bradley Tangonan. “Pōhaku” follows Oahu native Tom Pōhaku Stone as he shares the personal journey that led him to revive the ancient Hawaiian tradition of hand-shaping surfboards from wood.