While most of our music clips are homemade efforts, we've always had a crazy notion about combining our independent music with the work of independent film makers.
Happily, this mad idea actually works! It results in some great clips too - check out Carnivàle and Xrays & Traffic for some sweet examples.
So if you're a film maker and making a short film with one of our songs as the soundtrack sounds like fun, a challenge, or just the kind of insanity you'd love to be a part of, drop us a line.
Films for a few of our songs
So Green2002 single (3.14min)
This was our very first little 'film' and we use the word loosely ... read more We made So Green before we had a digital video camera, or any video camera for that matter, so we did it all with still photos. A huge batch of over 800 photos from Mike and Gordo's lives and travels around the early 2000's. Each one was individually edited before making it to film format - we still have nightmares about it. [close]
Tripitaka-san2005 album track from 'Time & Place' (3.40min)
Shot in a single afternoon, mostly around our home turf ... read more Using locations in and around Northcote, Melbourne, this clip features comedian, actor and ol' mate Dailan Evans as a somewhat tortured chauffeur on the search for an elusive passenger. We even managed to sneak in shots at Tullamarine and on various forms of transport without once being reported to the authorities. [close]
A Beginner's Guide To Narcolepsy2005 album track from 'Time & Place' (1.46min)
This clip was shot during the tracking of the T&P album in 2003 ... read more We used it for the opening credits of a home movie about that recording session. That movie never went public, so when we found the footage in our archives in 2011 we decided to dust it off and make it 'official'. Notable because a) it was all shot close-up while we were actually recording the song and b) it features a different audio mix to the album version. [close]
Championship Vinyl2005 album track from 'Time & Place' (3.08min)
Footage from our first live gig in 2002 ... read more Nine years after our debut gig we rediscovered the video tape, and it's a real time capsule for us. It included this performance of Champ Vinyl, complete with acoustic guitars, acoustic bass and drums played with brushes, something we did all the time during our first couple of years playing live. It seemed a perfect fit for the offical video to one of our earliest and most popular songs. [close]
Carnivàle2007 album track from 'The 38th Parallel' (4.12min)
The first 'proper' film clip we made, mainly because we didn't do it ... read more Although we do have cameos as the men in black. For reasons we can't quite fathom but for which we are extremely grateful, indie film-makers Red Clementine got on board and donated the massive amount of time and effort a film like this requires. The result speaks for itself, a paranoid storyline, fantastic locations around Melbourne, awesome cinematography and editing... this is one kick arse clip you're never going to see on a video hits show! [close]
Jefferson High2009 single from "Kites" (2.35min)
This clip was shot at our Kites album launch ... read more The launch was at Melbourne's Workers Club in November 2009, but filming in was a last minute impulse. Our mate Gav was at the gig, so we asked him to handle the camera and he rewarded us with some great footage, including some inspired shots through a beer glass (how aussie-aussie-aussie, oi-oi-oi is that?) and more through a mobile phone. [close]
Mizuki2009 album track from 'Kites' (2.46min)
In January 2010 we played a full-on gig at our favourite bayside haunt ... read more Yes, the ever rockin' Baha! Our film-maker mate Steve was there and once again we forced a camera onto an unsuspecting friend at the eleventh hour. He managed to shoot about 15 minutes of cool footage despite the low light and the low resolution camera. But have you ever tried making a 3 minute clip with only 15 minutes of source tape? Nah, didn't think so, you're smarter than that. Still, add in some shots of Mik playing the Chinese zheng (the actual instrument he used for the solo in the song), plus about 50 hours of editing, virtually every video effect in the playbook and "voila"! One manic-Tokyo-neon-desperation-inspired clip. [close]
Pinpoints2009 album track from 'Kites' (3.05min)
At the photo shoot for Kites, Gav brought along a bag of paper kites ... read more He also brought a Lomo camera and we loved the look of the images he took. We'd also spotted a couple of YouTube clips where people had uploaded our songs with a single image and thought, 'hey, we can go one better than that'. So we put the two together and created this slide show for Pinpoints, using some authentic Lomo camera shots, and a few more shot with an iPhone Lomo app. We even added the lyrics for everyone who hates that they're not in the CD book. [close]
Xrays & Traffic2009 album track from 'Kites' (5.04min)
This film came as a total and pleasant surprise ... read more Director Laura organised this project and we knew nothing about it until we saw the final result. A Melburnian tale of life taking an unexpected turn when the coffee runs out - we loved it and voted unanimously to make it an official Kinemovie. A big thanks to Laura and her talented crew! [close]