Tickets are $10 per screening and available for purchase online though the below links, or at the festival box office. Advance purchase is highly recommended.All festival screenings will take place in HD resolution and all films were created using HD technology.
Music Videos at HDFEST Los Angeles
Illuminant High-Def Premiere
Music Video, 5 minutes, 2008
Directed and Produced by Tobias Stretch
DP Tobias Stretch, Music by Efterklang
Illuminant is a stop motion animation film with music created by the Danish band Efterklang, the song is on their new record Parades. The film was created from nearly 4,000 photographs by Tobias Stretch during the Winter of 2007.
It opens with an illuminated angel-like character. The film then cuts to a snow-covered forest where a two-headed man rides along in his all-terrain wheelchair. The two-headed character perseveres through rugged and beautiful panoramic landscapes until he collapses. Next, we are presented with the universal symbol of life, the infant. The infant is attached to the neck of a deer. The deer, being the transporter of the infant, acts as a vessel. The deer soon gives the infant to the collapsed two-headed man, immediately bringing him back to life and continues pushing along towards the portal of life/death, the angel. Once through the angel we see the deer, now glowing, ready to bring in new life and receive the old.
Director Biography
Tobias Stretch was born in Eureka California in the year 1976 and has been an artist ever since.Painting, writing, music, film and more combine to make his art unique and surreal.As a child drawing and painting were a must and as a teen writing entered the picture.In his early twenties when he embarked on a cinematic journey.A feature film, many shorts and music videos later and he is still going strong.His work has been reviewed by pitchforkmedia and other reputable review sites as well as over 50 blogs worldwide.
He is being featured in the next issue of Specailten magazine.
He looks forward to the future of cinema.
Noush "Adeline" High-Def Premiere
Music Video, 4 minutes, 2008
Directed and Produced by Andrea Giacomini
A young woman after breaking up with her boyfriend, spend the entire day wondering around and seeing herself in every part of the city, until she finds a new love.
Moonbabies "War on Sound"
Music Video, HDV
Directed and Produced by Eric Althin+Shannon Henegan
DP Istvan Borbas
New retro music video for "War On Sound" by Swedish band Moonbabies (Carina Johansson & Ola Frick)
Ten Minute Turns - "Long Night Drone " High-Def Premiere
Music Video, 3 minutes, DVC Pro HD, 2007
Directed and Produced by Neil Forman
In this Sci-fi music video, a group of fashion-model scientists design and build androids to be the perfect rock band. The 'building of the perfect rock star' is chronicled from plastic parts to boxed shipments. The androids learn to sing and are programmed to move and play instruments. The perfect rock band is called 'Ten Minute Turns'. They play the song 'Long Night Drone'.
Socadia "Always Near"
Music Video, Sanyo HD1
Directed and Produced by Andrea Giacomini
Music video for Socadia. The video concept revolves around a long distance relationship between two lost souls. Even if they are far apart, they are still able to create a link connecting the two worlds they inhabit through the environment that surrounds them.
LO-FI SUGAR - "The Night Divine" High-Def Premiere , Director in Attendance
Music Video, 3 minutes, HDV
In a dream, a young woman looks back on her past and the choices that she's made. In doing so, she reexamines the ideas and ideals that comprise who she is as a person today.
Co-Directed by Jeremy Jed Hammel (AFI's DANCE TO THE OFFBEAT,) and Lady Ransom, (AMBER PACIFIC,) with Cinematography by Michael Rizzi (ANGELS AND AIRWAVES,) 'The Night Divine' is Lo-Fi Sugar's first music video off her debut EP, 'The Divine Edit.'
LO-FI SUGAR is an up and coming music artist on the LA music and art scene. She has recently toured and recorded with world-renowned techno DJ, Paul Van Dyke.
Director Biography
Jeremy Jed Hammel has produced projects for The American Film Institute, NBC’s national network show, “Later,” and for the Sanevierian Film Festival Best Film winner, “Fishes,” starring Mike “Boogie” Malin, (winner of “Survivor All-Stars” and Co-Owner of the restaurant “Dolce” with Ashton Kutcher.)
Brent Amaker & The Rodeo "Sissy New Age Cowboy"
Music Video, 3 minutes, HDV
Directed by Kris Kristensen
Produced by Elayne Wiley and Jessica Mockett
Country Western song set on a 2001 style space station, wrapped in a hip-hop style video. The band plays dual parts as themselves, and their sissy new age counterparts. Much like rappers calling out the fake rappers in hip-hop, this is about the Rodeo calling out the fake country western singers.
DJ:LA Director in Attendance
Music Video, 4 minutes, DVC PRO HD
Directed by Jerry Chan
Produced by Mitchel Dumlao, DP Ray Huang
DJ:LA is a short film that remixes the frenzied sights and sounds of the Los Angeles landscape to uncover the rhythm and melody of the city. It takes inspiration from turntablism – the record manipulation techniques of a DJ – and attempts to translate it to film. Funded by the James Irvine Foundation and Visual Communications as a part of the 2007 Armed with a Camera Fellowship.
Director Biography
Born in San Francisco, Jerry Chan holds a degree in computer science from Princeton University and an MFA in film production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. While at USC, he was awarded the Harold Lloyd Production Scholarship as well as the John Frankenheimer Directing Scholarship for his outstanding work as a filmmaker. Jerry was also recognized by the Caucus for Television Writers, Producers, and Directors Foundation for his Master's Thesis film "Fast Money" and awarded a finishing grant to complete the project. He is a partner at Ringleader Productions, a commercial, music video, and feature film production company.
In My Head- High-Def Premiere, Director in Attendance!
Music Video, 4 minutes, 2008, HDV
Directed and Produced by Annie Lukowski
John Harrison and Rob Connolly
Cinematographer/DP
A young beautiful vocalist (Marina V) must awaken from her sleep and make her way through the forbidding world to her stage. This journey is wracked with self-doubt and fear. On the road she is crushed by the populace pushing her down. With each turn she must overcome her physical and mental torment and make it to her show. Victorious she arrives at the stage and kindles her art and her audience.
Director Statement
"In My Head" chronicles the journey of a young artist as she is overcome by desperation, anxiety and fear, and must find her courage and the way to her stage. I feel all art follows some form of this journey, and it is out of this struggle that we find our voice. Working with musician Marina V was a delight, as we both developed our creative voices and found our way to our art all over again. This video bears a darker look and theme than most music videos because we wanted to explore the darker side of creating art. Taking pieces of your soul and weaving them into a work, whether singing them before an audience or painting them on canvas or capturing them on film, is a rewarding but terrifying process. The more you give, the better your art becomes; by the same token, the better your art, the more vulnerable you are to the dangers of the world around you, and to your own doubts and fears. By interweaving Marina’s journey with flashes of her triumph, we tried to show the hope and promise of her success. No matter how hard the artist’s journey, the destination is always worth the trip.
Dgenerate Nation " Skate with Me" High-Def Premiere
Director in Attendance
Music Video, 2 minutes, HD
Directed by Drew Innis
Dgenerate Nation is the Hip Pop project from Los Angeles based producer Dgenetics and emcees Khalil (aka Slim Pup) and Sim Black. This music video for their single 'Skate With Me' follows Dgenetics on a typical day on the grind.
Brief synopsis: The 'school for wayward girls' is an institution from a not-too-distant time when the state (and religious bodies) had more power to interfere in people's lives. Young girls who fell outside society's boundaries of acceptable behaviour were taken in by nuns who got them on the right path through hard labor and prayer. Nowadays, we would call them slots and send them off to Brat CAmp with a Reality TV crew.
SPEkTR Things that go bump in the night High-Def Premiere
Music Video, 3 minutes, HD, Denmark
Directed by Thomas Pors
The eternal wonders of space and time. The faraway dreams and mysteries of other worlds, other life. The stars. The planets. Man has been face to face with them for centuries, yet is barely able to penetrate their unknown secrets. Sometime, someday the barrier will be pierced. Why must we wait? Why not now?
...a musical experience with SPEkTR.
“What SPEkTR are composing, is something that uses elements of rock, surf, electronics, vocal stylings, so that it’s rock music. But not the characteristic rock ‘n’ roll that people associate with film-soundtracks today, it’s actually an older school....but with a futurist ambition”
- David Fricke, Rolling Stone Magazine
You ever think to yourself and say that you need change? Tired of everything being the same? You need to look in the mirror and realize it starts with you. Only you can make that change. 'Change' by THEORY. The struggles of everyday life alongside the struggles of an artist trying to break into the industry. Shot in the Hudson Valley of New York, we follow the lives of three strangers and their loved ones, all looking for changes in their lives. The artist, THEORY, narrates their stories while injecting his own personal experiences and emotions throughout his musical career.
