Case Studies

Saturday, Monday 'Headshake (feat. Julia Spada)'

Radar commissioned director Emile Rafael produces a slick, stylish video for Saturday, Monday.

Client: Despotz

Director: Emile Rafael

Stockholm based label Despotz have snapped up Emile Rafael on Radar to direct the second single promo for Swedish artist.... [Read More] and producer Saturday, Monday.

The razor sharp, and snappy video portraits a group of teenagers and flips the classic party video formula on its head.

"The artist and the label wanted gritty teenagers at a party, and whilst there are many effective promos that feature the same thing, I thought in this video I could take it a bit further and concentrate on the teens themselves and form portraits around them," says Emile.

"I’ve always been fascinated by how much of a story a still portrait can tell about someone. I wanted a video that not only reminiscences about how cool it is to be a teenager at a party, but also that period of growing up and the awkward romance of that age."

The video features some pretty ace skating, and over 40 teenagers were auditioned for the group - all found from the same casting website.

"Charlie and I absolutely loved the track. We thought it called for very distinct and strong photography. For the party we were going for a very stylized moody/gritty look, adding grain in the post to give it more dirt. For the portraits we wanted a natural polished look, in sharp contrast to the party scene."

It's brilliantly shot and looks fabulous and Saturday, Monday's song (featuring Julia Spada) is a top slice of minimal disco soul. Top job all round.

Press includes:

POPJUSTICE "...This video is bursting with warmth and loveliness almost as much as we love the breezily and addictively wrong-sounding, single-song-repeat-friendly single itself..." Aug 21st 2012
RECORD OF THE DAY "...Early support has been garnered from Popjustice and Discobelle, with radio play on East Village Radio (NYC). Further coverage across blogs has been followed by a feature as Weekend Anthem ("...view the chilled Skins-y video...") on the Invisible Children website (known for their Kony 2012 viral campaign earlier this year)..." August 30th 2012
PROMONEWS "...Peppered with creative use of cigarette smoke and shot at a cool easy pace..." August 22nd 2012

November 2012

Cassettes Won't Listen 'Falling Apart'

Top notch lyric video that's making waves with the blog scene

Artist: Cassettes Won't Listen (Jason Drake)

Client: Dope Lotus Records

Director: Mike Amin

One of Radar's first commissioned lyric videos, Mike Amins has certainly made a stir. Since.... [Read More] featuring on Stereogum The 405 said, "as lyric videos go, this is definitely one of the best we've ever seen."

"I've always been a fan of lyric videos, I feel it adds an extra dimension of interactivity to a music video," says Cassettes Won't Listen aka Jason Drake. "By reading the lyrics in real time you're actually internally singing the song and interacting with the music. I saw that Radar was promoting lyric videos and Im a fan of the site so I decided to commission a few directors for my latest EP."

Mike Amin was quick to pitch, feeling that this was a way to join with love of typography with his love of animation and filmmaking. He said, "It was exciting to have a chance to make a music video entirely focused on type, since fonts have the power to evoke certain emotions, and the song is quite an emotional piece."

Mike's video is a fascinating watch, as the words of the song form pictures that narrate the story and add visual texture.

"Since the lyrics of the piece are somber and tackled “adult” problems, using a child-like scene to visualize the words is a strong counterpoint that still connects to the sentiment of the track. Almost like the balloon is a safe, secure dream world that many of us wish we could enter when things in our lives fall apart. When an appropriate font is combined with powerful lyrics it’s like a one-two emotional punch that can be the difference between a listener liking a song and loving a song. "

With lyric videos often clocking up hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube, I think we can expect to see a great many more briefs like this appearing. We're glad it's got off to such a sterling start!

"An artfully done lyric video" - Stereogum

"as lyric videos go, this is definitely one of the best we've seen" - The 405

November 2012

Crookers ft Miike Snow 'Remedy'

American director Paul Kamuf shot this in New York, with a top notch crew working as favours:
“We had a great time filming around the city. It got lots of views, about .... [Read More]a million between the 2 official youtube postings. I was very happy with how it turned out, it was a good little story.”
The video was also immediately selected for the MTV global playlist, making London-based Southern Fried very happy too.

Paul KamufNovember 2012

Bobby Tank 'Afterburn'

Bored of seeing the world in boring normo-vision? Allow Superplex Pictures to rectify that for you...

Superplex Pictures deliver an INCREDIBLE amount of information into your brain sure to melt eyeballs and blow minds wider than Bobby Tank's already ear-blinding stormer of a hit. Zan.... [Read More]e Lowe rated the song as 'wonderful', so it was only right that it got the blinder of a video it deserved, especially when the client's looking for "a video as good as the song!"

Fusing live action performance, visual effects, animation, mental lighting and some scantily-clad persons, 'Bobby Tank' has gone on to premiere on wunderbar lifestyle blog The Fader, who said it was "three minutes of hitting the turbo-boost on Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road, except everyone’s topless.."

What was going through Superplex's communal mind when they pitched the video? If you guessed "F**k yeah! Futuristic/fashion inspired scenes from films that don't exist" then you guessed correctly!

Eddie from Superplex Pictures says: "Our original pitch was something along the lines of "‘Afterburn’ fills us with an overwhelming desire to party, dance with beautiful women, fire a gun, jump into a bath of melted chocolate, rob a bank, roll down a hill naked and on and on and on…. ..the idea is to edit together mad, sexy, sensoramic, climactic scenes from films that don’t exist, offcuts stolen from the cutting room floor and wildly stitched together by morphing in and out...."

"We decided that it was too hard to fully explain in words so we cut together some pixel-morph footage that Adam had been experimenting with, and the closest thing that expressed what we were trying to convey which was "Bombay" by El Guincho. The final video is totally different to El Guincho's aesthetically, but the whole feeling of celebration and freedom that you get when watching that promo is a huge aspect of what we originally we trying to achieve."

Throughout the video, Superplex experimented with Pixel-morphing as the "evolution of datamoshing and twixtor-based effects. There's something very satisfying about it, especially when it's timed to the track."

"Adam and I are massive Kubrick fans, 2001: A Space Odyssey specifically. We had always wanted to make our own version of the psychedelic journey at the end, so when we saw the brief up on Radar and subsequently first heard the track, our reaction was, this is our chance!"

One happy customer, Joe from MofoHifi said he was "incredibly happy with what I believe will be regarded as one of the best videos of 2012!"

We blush when they say that Radar is "an excellent resource" (MofoHifi) and when Superplex say, "We would like to thank Radar for acting as matchmaker between Superplex and Bobby Tank. Its a nice feeling getting your first Radar commission!"

Dirs: Adam Baroukh and Eddie Sternberg
Production Company: Superplex Pictures (www.superplex.tv)
Commissioner: Hal Ritson
DoP: Eben Bolter
Camera Assistant/Gaffer: Anais Lorie
Prod: Superplex
Editor: Adam Baroukh
Grade: Adam Baroukh
Edit Consultant: Linton Davies
Opening Credits: Charlie Toqué @ kiupe
Animation: Charlie Vicetto
Production Designer/ Prop Maker: Aurelie Taillefer
Production Designer Assistant: Zoe Knibbs 
Hair & Make Up Artist: Katie Gil
Hair & Make Up: Victoria Stride
Costume Designer: Hayley Crompton
Costume Assistant: Teresa Lyander 
Creative Consultant: Federica Lazzarini
Production Assistants/Runners: Terry Ashby, Danni Godsi and Alex Baroukh

SUPERPLEX PICTURES (EDDIE STERNBERG AND ADAM BAROUKH)November 2012

Mistabishi 'Printer Jam'

This extraordinary printer animation has generated well over 1.5 million YouTube views combined.
Featured in numerous blogs including the extre.... [Read More]mely influential Laughing Squid, it was selected for festivals in Canada, Moscow, Rome, Paris and taken round the world on the prestigious OneDotZero tour. It also brought Kenny to the attention of Saatchi and Saatchi, who showed the video in their New Director’s Showcase at Cannes.

It took 530 hours of production and continues to generate fan letters worldwide.

"For us it was fantastic to find and work with such a talented director/animator. The video got a huge reaction and we were delighted to see, not only the track get a ton of exposure but also Kenny getting the plaudits he deserves for such a great job. Thank you Radar for hooking us up with such a great partnership!"

Matt Riley
Hospital Records

Kenny FranklandNovember 2012

Alt-J 'Breezeblocks'

Mercury winners Alt-J get a UK Music Video Award winning video through Radar. Now there's a good a combo!

Following an enthusiastic response to their brief, London-based Infectious commissioned New York director Ellis Bahl to make video for their new single ‘Breezeblocks’ and boy.... [Read More], it caused a stir - as one of the best music videos of 2012

“We got an excellent response and the process was very easy to manage.” – Connie Meade, Infectious Music.

Previously working in comedy and MTV, Ellis Bahl delivered a dark, cinematic thriller.

Capturing an eerie and filmic quality, Ellis put a twist on his tale of murder by starting from the end, and then working backwards – quite literally. In true thriller style, there’s a great twist. Although Ellis’s twist is that the twist is at the end, which is also the beginning. Engaging, absorbing and winning the praise of critics the world over. Not bad for just £4,000.

At the centre of his piece is a traumatic battle of the sexes. Ellis creates a hazy atmosphere open to interpretation – especially in his female characters. “I wanted it to be a little vague,” says Bahl, “People tend to date people who look the same, at least in my experience. It seemed to be an even split- there were people who thought they were the same woman, people who thought they were both being held captive, and people who saw it the way I did.”

Being able to find a director from anywhere in the world through Radar opened up new creative options for the video. Ellis certainly found it interesting to work long distance: “a certain rhythm gets created because of the communication lag and it's sort of comforting to wake up every day and see all those emails waiting to be answered.”

The video has been featured online extensively, including spots on the Huffington Post and The Daily Telegraph, won the prestigious 'Best Alternative Video UK' at the UK Music Video Awards 2012! Blimey.

“We commissioned a great video” Connie Meade, Infectious Music
“Thank you for really helping me get my foot in the door of the music video world.” – Ellis Bahl on Radar Music Video.

Ellis BahlNovember 2012