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Last night, Kanye West released the song “New Slaves” by projecting the music video onto the side of 66 buildings across the world. One of the projection locations, on the side of the Museum of Design & Arts near Columbus Circle in New York, was close enough for us to go check out, so we drank a bunch of caffeine, put on our coolest shoes, and headed down to the museum.

What would a rapper and a comedian do if you gave them $5,000 and told them to make a music video? If you think the answer would be to get pizza with Childish Gambino, dress up like a chicken, and buy some shiny suits, you would be exactly right because that is just what Chance The Rapper and comedian Hannibal Buress did in the video for "NaNa" when the YouTube comedy network Jash gave them $5,000 and told them to make a music video. Despite the simplicity of the concept, the video is a lot of fun and does a great job showcasing Chance’s personality, which isn’t always easy to do on a $5,000 budget. Chance, whose new mixtape Acid Rap is one of our favorite tapes of the year, also brought along Austin Vesely to co-direct the video with Hannibal, as well as to shoot and edit the footage. We talked to Austin and Hannibal about video, about working with Jash, and about how spending $5,000 in a day isn’t as easy as you’d think.

First off, we should start by saying great job this week everybody. You all worked really hard on whatever you do, and should be proud of the effort you put in. Music videos also did a great job this week, providing us with celebrity directors, twist endings, guest appearances, and unexpected punch lines to distract us from the work that we all do such a good job at. Is your favorite video of the week also one of the most popular? If not, you should have watched it more and worked less.

Inspiration as a filmmaker can come from all different places. For DP David Kruta, he was able to succeed in his current career by drawing influence from his previous careers, including his time spent as a graphic designer and as a dish washer. Since his days washing dishes, David has gone on to work as a DP in the film world, the commercial world, and in the music video world with directors like Michael Lawrence, Grant Singer and Eli Stonberg. David also recently lensed the upcoming music video for “Ghost Hits” by Shake the Baron, directed by Alex Amoling. We talked to David about working as a DP, being influenced by his previous jobs, and lugging camera gear on the subway.

At the beginning of this month, we traveled out to LA to attend the Los Angeles Music Video Festival. Co-directed by Sami Kriegstein and Colleen Curlin, LAMVF is one of the few things that allow us to take a break from our jobs as websitemen and venture out into the crazy world outside out offices. The festival ran for 4 nights, and in addition to screening lots of awesome music videos, featured some really interesting panels, as well as the “Life’s a Pitch” contest where four directors pitched a music video idea to the Five Knives' song "The Rising" in front of a live audience - and the band’s favorite idea got a $7,500 budget and 48 hours to make the video (plus a $2,500 prize). We were lucky enough to help Sami and Colleen judge the festival this year, so we were particularly excited to finally get to see everything up on the big screen. The fest was held at The Downtown Independent, which once again proved to be the perfect venue for music video watchin’ and IPA drinkin’.

The way it has previously worked at IMVDb is users submit content, we moderate it, and then it goes up on the site. However, IMVDb users aren't all just anonymous people. Since launched our page management feature in late 2012, we've had more than 800 pages claimed on IMVDb. So today, we're really excited to announce that we are putting that data to good work and starting to give verified users more control over their own videos.

The Uncluded, the genre-crossing duo comprised of Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson, has been on a music video tear recently, already releasing four videos off of their debut album Hokey Fright, which was released last week. Likely our favorite video from the album so far, “Delicate Cycle” directed by Ben Fee and Pete Lee, features The Uncluded along side a cast of over 80 different cast members – both people and animals. We talked to Ben and Pete about collaborating with The Uncluded, shooting with a cafeteria full of kids, and practical washing machine effects.

Last week while in LA for the Los Angeles Music Video Festival, we had the opportunity to drop by the set of “Cindy & Me” by Caged Animals, directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and shot by Niko Weisnet. We were only there for part of the day, but we can report that this video does include kissing and live baboons, two things that we here at IMVDb are very uncomfortable with. 

If you're visiting IMVDb, there's a good chance that you're visting it on a phone. A lot of our traffic comes via mobile, and although you could technically access the site through your phone, it wasn't always easy. That's why we're very excited to announce that starting today, when you access imvdb.com on your phone, we've got a whole new mobile experience for you!

For their last music video, “Wasted My Time” by I/O, director duo BRTHR spent three days running around Long Island, packing in multiple locations with multiple setups all within a short period of time. For their latest video, “Bounce” by Iggy Azalea, they also packed in a lot of locations, but this time they were in Mumbai, India shooting with an elephant that legally isn’t supposed to be there. We talked to BRTHR about shooting in India, working with a large budget, and collaborating with a Bollywood crew.