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Bells
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7 votes)
How does one break into music videos? According to USC masters film student Brooke Hanson, 28, you contact a band you like and ask them if they want to make a music video: "That's what I did," she says. After Hanson found indie musician Laura Jansen's MySpace page through the
website of a venue called Hotel Cafe, she sent Jansen a MySpace message saying, "Hey can I make you a music
video?" Jansen messaged her back, saying, "Yes! yes! yes!" They met for coffee, found an
instant creative connection, and the rest is do-it-yourself video history.
The duo's charming collaboration called "Bells" combines stop-motion animation, live-action, clever theatrical staging and witty lo-fi special effects. Although the video was inspired by a USC class, Hanson says she produced it independently, as she wanted to own the rights and have the
ability to stream the video online. "USC is particularly restrictive of students showing their work
online," she confesses, "and I was just 'over' doing material that I would invest thousands of my
own dollars in only to see it subsumed by the University."
Shot in a warehouse in South Central Los Angeles with built
sets, the film was inspired by Olivier Gondry's Hot, Hot Heat
"Goodnight" video (where the guys are animated and sing
on their T-shirts). "I thought printing out frames and
re-photographing in stop motion would be a good way to make something look cool
on the cheap," she says. "I thought of the postcard because the concept Laura and I were
working with was 'communication,' and it seemed to make sense."
"On the whole," she admits, "the work of both the Gondry brothers has both intimidated and inspired me."
Currently, Hanson is finishing up her thesis film, "Borderless," which she says is about a college student and illegal immigrant, who has resorted to living in the university's 24-hour library.
-Anthony Kaufman
Brooke Hanson
Music Video
4:21
$5,000
singer : Laura Jansen
Brooke Hanson
Chris Hall
Brooke Hanson
Production Design : Hector Ceballos
Wardrobe Stylist : Larissa Williams
Hair : Kendra Strand
Makeup : Amanda Jergins
