Edmonton director Michael Maxxis has been nominated for the 2011 Juno Awards for his directing work with Canadian rockers Billy Talent’s “Saint Veronika.” Maxxis won the 2010 MuchMusic Video Director of the Year Award for the same video in June.nnMichael Maxxis has made a quick rise among the ranks of music video directors, bursting onto the scene in 2006 with several videos for Edmonton’s Murder City Sparrows. Recent credits include videos for Hot Hot Heat, The Heavy, Alexisonfire, and Bedouin Soundclash. nnMaxxis has been nominated for three MuchMusic Video Awards, and won five Alberta Film Awards, including two for Best Director. His original, raw style coupled with his ability to shoot on film and achieve visual effects in camera rather than relying on heavy post production work makes him a much sought after music video and commercial director. nnIn creating the “Saint Veronika” video, Maxxis strived to come up with a distinctive concept. “I really wanted to make the best video of my career with this one, so I placed tremendous pressure on myself. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a song so many times. I was working on ideas for about a week and had 4 or 5 treatments written, but I wasn’t completely happy with any of them. Out of frustration, I just played the song as loud as I could and buried my head in a pillow. After the song repeated several times at an extremely high volume, I think I started to go a bit crazy, and all of a sudden my brain started to spiral, eventually landing in a bizarre world of living rag dolls. The image of them was all I needed! I popped up, turned off the song, and wrote a story around these dolls,” said Maxxis.nnThe 40th annual Juno Awards take place on Sunday, March 27 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.nn
Click to play Billy Talent, ‘saint veronika’ video from Michael Maxxis.
nnFor more information about Michael Maxxis, visit his website www.michaelmaxxis.com
