OLD MAN GLOOM - The Lash (official video)

The music video I directed for Old Man Gloom is out now!

Premiered by Decibel Magazine.

I dragged Akina and Austin out to the desert to film, then sculpted a bunch of stuff that I lit on fire. I'll post some behind the scenes photos when I have time.

Thanks to Akina, Austin, my mom, Aaron, Caleb, Nate, Santos, Chris Bruni, Profound Lore Records, Faith, Sige Records

Torche - "Kicking" music video

I directed a new music video for my pals Torche. The song is "Kicking," from their new album Harmonicraft. It premiered today on Stereogum. Here's a quote:

"Director Andrew James Cox manages to hit all the inspirational sports-movie beats while making fun of them at the same time, and that hallucination sequence is a thing to behold." - Stereogum


Torche - "Kicking" (Stereogum Premiere) from stereogum on Vimeo.


Thanks to everyone who helped out, and to Volcom for making it happen.


Also, congratulations to my best friend Jesse Rueter (that's him adjusting his hat in the preview image above) and Caroline Chen on their wedding on Sunday. This has been the best week of my life. I'm working on making it the best year.

Open Network

The video I directed for Helms Alee is in this art show at Cirrus Gallery, opening tonight (like right this moment, as I am typing this. Sorry for the late notice.) Thanks to Aaron Wrinkle for including me.

ONCE EMERGING, NOW EMERGING: OPEN NETWORK  

March 10- May 5, 2012
  
Opening Reception
Sat. March 10th  7-10pm 

     

Hinged to the website oncenowexhibiton.com, the exhibition presents itself with gestures on technology, community, innovation and performance. A comment on networking, the exhibition and website highlight important examples of artists bringing ideas of collaboration and presentation to the forefront of contemporary art. Artists and groups include: Artists and groups include: Artobjectculture.net (Lucy Chinen and Emilie Gervais), Chris Burden, Andrew Cox, Alan Dunn, Michael Decker, Eternal Telethon, Corey Fogel, Jack Goldstein, Peregrine Honig (Bravo's Work of Art), Mariah Garnett of Human Resources and Geoff Tuck (Notes on Looking), Actual Size artists: Ali Bailey, Scott Benzel, Guy de Cointet, Larry Bell, Doug Edge, Cayetano Ferrer, Katie Herzog, Laura Owens, Ed Ruscha and Barbara T. Smith plus artist submissions from oncenowexhibition.com

Cirrus Gallery

542 S. Alameda St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Tuesday- Saturday 10am- 5pm

(213) 680-3473

cirrus@cirrusgallery.com
www.cirrusgallery.com

HELMS ALEE - "8/16" music video premiere on VEVO

So, the video I directed for HELMS ALEE's "8/16" is finally out. Not only that, but on the front page of VEVO, which means it is getting millions more impressions than I ever would have imagined.

I had a lot of fun making it, especially going up to Seattle and shooting with the band (total DIY friend-fest. We owe a bunch of people hugs and favors.) It was stressful at times, but I was always sure we were working on something awesome. I am extremely proud of how it came out.

Ben told me about the idea for the video when the band was on tour with Boris around the time my video for Torche's "UFO" came out. Which means this was waaay before any of us knew that Beavis and Butthead was going to be back on TV.

So months go by, the band records Weatherhead and we pick up discussion of the video. At one point I proposed shooting them as live action versions of Beavis and Butthead, mostly because I was nervous about animating. We settled on the concept of the video pretty much as it came out, and I suggested trying out Kickstarter to get a decent budget to make the video (when I made the Torche video, what little money we spent came out of my own pocket). I'd do some things differently in hindsight, but mostly it went really well, and we got enough money to do the video.

Shooting the video and editing were smooth, and animating was too, but it is always a pretty slow process. I did all the drawings by hand then scanned, colored, and arranged them digitally. It took longer than I anticipated (as usual). When I gave the band an ETA I doubled how long I thought it would take and ended up being right on the money. It could have been done more quickly, but making videos isn't my full-time job (yet?).

So in the time it took to make the video, Beavis and Butthead returned to MTV, grunge returned to the fashion world, and at Trader Joe's I've started hearing the songs whose videos we re-created. 

Excellent timing.

video link: http://youtu.be/GmcX97Y3vE4

"8/16" comes from Helms Alee's second full length album Weatherhead.  Produced by Matt Bayles in the winter of 2011, and released the following July, Weatherhead finds the band expanding on what AVClub calls 'impossibly catchy heaviness'.  Tours with Torche, Big Business, Boris and Minus the Bear have helped the band, and now Weatherhead, put grunge right back on the map.  

The girls and boy of Helms Alee will be on tour this March with fellow Northwest resident, Thrones:

03/03 Bellingham, WA @ Jinx Art Space w/ Sloths, Tearamanapart

03/31 Seattle, WA @ Comet Tavern w/ Thrones

04/01 Vancouver, BC @ Iron Roads Studio w/ Thrones

04/03 Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown w/ Thrones

04/05 Arcata, CA @ Alibi w/ Thrones

04/06 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern w/ Thrones


Buy HELMS ALEE stuff in the Hydra Head Shop

Helms Alee "8/16" music video - Kickstarter

I am directing a music video for Helms Alee. I have been working on pre-production and animation for a few weeks, and we just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the budget.

There are rewards for pretty much any size donation, so please consider helping me realize my dream of making a music video without paying for everything out of my own pocket.

Watch this slightly embarrassing video, then please donate.

Torche - "U.F.O." Info, Production Photos, Credits

Torche - "U.F.O." from Andrew James Cox on Vimeo.

 The idea behind the video was to do an updated version of kaiju giant monster / robot movies. I watched Godzilla: Tokyo SOS  on Netflix streaming a year or so ago and was kind of enamored with the kitschy effects. I didn't have that much experience with Adobe After Effects, so going into the project knowing I wanted it to look sloppy made things less daunting.

I started the video on my own, without any solicitation, for an entirely different song by an entirely different band (Daughters' "The Theatre Goer"). But it was taking too long and that band broke up before the record dropped, so I switched it to the Torche song.

I did pretty much everything I could myself, with help from family and friends. I drew all the designs and storyboards while listening to the song on loop. There were originally five monster designs, one of which was a giant space squid that would appear while the first four were fighting, and take them all on. I had to simplify for my own sanity, though, and ended up with just the robot and the pudge monster. I made the robot out of old boxes and packing tape from the Hydra Head shipping room, and learned to sew to make the monster costume.

I bought a bunch of green fabric in the fashion district for the green screen. All of the monster and robot green screen stuff was shot in my parents' driveway and backyard in Pasadena, CA on a Sony HDR-HC7 camcorder. The last shot of the video is my brother and mom holding the green screen, and is pretty much how all of the footage looked originally. The backgrounds are photos I took of downtown Los Angeles, and the fleeing crowd (of my friends and family) I shot in the warehouse district in front of my wife's old art studio (which is also where they filmed the Soloist, almost every crime drama on TV, and M.I.A.'s "Born Free" music video).

After shooting everything on weekends over a few months, I sat at my computer for hours upon hours doing the effects on my days off . An eight hour day usually yielded 15 seconds of finished footage. From conception to completion the whole thing took about 9 months. Thankfully the band liked it and I didn't have to find another song to cut it to.

If we had done everything by the book as a real production, the budget would have exceeded ten grand easily, but I think I ended up spending about $140, including the wrap bbq.



Torche - "U.F.O."
from their record Songs For Singles (Hydra Head, 2010)

Directed by Andrew James Cox - www.andrewjamescox.com
Produced by Akina Cox - www.akinacox.com
Effects Consultant - Wesley Belak Berger - www.wesbb.com

Cast / Crew
Casey Cox
Robin Cox
Amaris Cox
Austin Cox
Henry "Hank" Linek
Hanson Linek
Brian Linek
Audrey Gertz
Laura Marchetti
Ares Meyer
James O'Mara
Jesse Rueter
Niko Solario
Mark Thompson
Atlantis "Attie" Thompson
Morrow Willis
Lyandre Woods

Filmed in Pasadena, CA, and Los Angeles, CA

Video Hiatus

So, there's a reason I have been neglecting the internet lately (except for Netflix). It's almost done, I hope.