Foundation Content’s in-house Directing Team the Focus Creeps (Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown), are the winners of the “Best Music Video” Award from the NME 2013 Awards, which were held Feb. 27th in London. The Focus Creeps won as Best Directors for their music video entitled “R U Mine?” by the Arctic Monkeys. The video won against heavy competition that included music videos from David Bowie, Grimes, Haim, M.I.A., and Tame Impala. Click here to view “R U Mine?”
Said Foundation Content Chief Creative Director/Co-Founder Samantha Hart, “The Focus Creeps have truly found a niche in the music video world. Without question, they are playing a real role in helping to define an era through their natural insight into emerging trends in music and fashion.”
Add the Focus Creeps, “This was a huge honor for us to win ‘Best Music Video’ against other musical icons. We’ve discovered that England seems to have a bit more appreciation for current music than here in the U.S. It’s a thrill to be recognized at this level for our contributions to helping recognize emerging musical artists.”
During this past year, the Focus Creeps had also been nominated as “Best New Directors” for 2012 by the UK’s Music Video Awards. The duo have directed a number of high profile music videos, both in the UK and in the U.S., working in tandem with Foundation Content producers Stacy Paris and Evan Cohen.
In addition to the “R U Mine?” video, these other projects have included:
• The entire campaign for Arctic Monkey’s “Suck It and See” album last year. The band performed during the opening ceremonies of this year’s Olympics. To view this video, click here.
• Shooting a music video for the band Garbage, which Focus Creeps’s Aaron Brown co-directed with photographer Matt Irwin. The theme was based on old surrealist films and photos. View Garbage’s music video here.
• Filming a short poem with John Cale (originally from the Velvet Underground) at his studio, with music he wrote with Danger Mouse. To view the video click here
• Working with a newer band, Django Django. For Django Django, the Focus Creeps experimented with old tube cameras from the 1984 Olympics, trying to get the cameras to malfunction, and creating some strange color trails in the process. The Focus Creeps later realized that the 1984 Olympics logo also had color trails, wondering if that, too, was based on the original video footage. Click here to watch the video.
• For the band Spector, the Focus Creeps filmed a stereotypical British band on a stereotypical U.S. Tour, until at the end of the video it’s revealed that they’re actually transporting contraband for the Mexican cartel. The viewer eventually sees that crew members for the music video interrupt the shoot, revealing the fact that nothing illegal is happening—the action is actually on a music video set. Click here to see the video
• A music video promoting The Beach Boys. “We think the Beach Boys are the most influential band in the U.S., like the Beatles were originally in the UK. They have stuck together over the decades and therefore they have influenced every decade of rock and roll. We wanted to demonstrate that point (which we realized while trying to shoot, was kind of abstract) within our visuals. The point being that every decade that influences style and fashion today, the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc., are personified in the video. This was our way of paying homage to this legendary band.” Click here to view music video.
About THE NME AWARDS
The NME Awards is an annual music
