All images in this post (except for the coffee can) are by Ben Roberds, a director living in Athens. Check out his website here. Also, check out a pilot called Night Bus that he co-directed - it freaked us all out after the Saturday screening.
This past weekend Doug and I took a trip to Athens, Georgia for the 2014 Sprockets Music Video Festival. This is a rare occurrence because almost all IMVDb work is done remotely so Doug and I don't get to hang out much. We gave away a ton of IMVDb t-shirts and had a great time. Here's how it went down.
If you're not familiar with Athens, it's northeast of Atlanta, and is famous for being a music town. REM is probably the most well-known act to come from Athens, and apparently they still live there - in fact "do you know Michael Stipe" is a good ice breaker for meeting people in Athens. Other acts include the B=52s, Of Montreal, and many more. One of my new favorites, Kishi Bashi, lives there. The point is, it has musical cred to spare.
Sprockets was started nine years ago and up until this year was an add-on event to Athfest, a well-establish and popular music festival in downtown Athens. This year was the first that it was on its own weekend, spread over two days with two screenings, and a series of talks (more on that later).
Side note: on this trip I learned that Sprockets is actually named after the 90s SNL skit that I think most of us think of when we hear the word Sprockets.
Besides being moved to one dedicated weekend, one of the big additions this year was two talks about music videos given on the afternoon before the Saturday screening. For the first talk, Sprockets brought in Stephen Pitalo from The Golden Age of Music Video to talk about music videos from the beginning of time until around 1993. The talk was fantastic - Stephen was a blast to hang out with and has tons of great music video stories that have been culled from years of research and interviews for his upcoming book. Make sure to follow Stephen on twitter.
By the way, Sprockets has its own special coffee blend, in case you were wondering. Brought to you by Jittery Joe's.
The second talk way given by me, and I chose the subject of the huge shifts in how music videos are watched from around 1997 to present day. We looked at how MTV lost control of the medium in the early to mid 2000s, and how advances in video technology came around at just the right time to help lift music videos to their current stature. We recorded the audio and we'll be syncing it up with the slides in the next week or so.
Friday night was the Georgia showcase, featuring a slate of music videos that were produced in Georgia. Saturday night was the international showcase, which featured 25 music videos culled down from a few hundred submitted videos. Both screenings took place at the famous 40 Watt Club.
It's a testament to just how many great music videos there are out there that neither Doug nor I had seen many of the videos in the program.
Some were truly bizarre. Check out this video from New Zealand that has one of the freakiest looking puppets I've ever seen (shows up at 3:08):
We also got to see Video Rahim's great video for "Mile High" by Brooklynn:
The Sprockets judges panel chose wisely and the video for "Fear & Delight" by The Correspondents came out on top:
The audience choice was a video that played at both the Georgia and International shows - "Our Insides" by Four Eyes.
Not only was director Matthew MacCarthy in attendance, but so was Four Eyes herself. Careful with this one, I've been singing about all week about the things that are going to eat away my insides.
The winner of the Georgia show was a performance video taking place at a house party venue by the band Burns Like Fire:
The flickskinny tour story for this year was pretty amazing - an epic two part series revolving around Of Montreal and a terrible festival experience. It isn't up online, but once it is we'll add it here.
There you have it! Thanks to Danielle for organizing such a great event, FilmAthens, the Sprockets volunteers, and everyone who came out to see the talks by Stephen and me. It was a great weekend and when it comes around again, join us in Athens!
Adam Fairholm is the co-founder and lead developer of IMVDb. You can find him on twitter at @adamfairholm. |
More Event Coverage:
UKMVAs Call For Entries
Posted by Doug Klinger on July 26, 2016 in Event Coverage
The world needs more people celebrating music videos as an art form. It needs more people championing music video directors, and the rest of their crew all the way down the line. Basically, it needs more people doing what the UK Music Video Awards do. Heading into their 9th year,… Read More
2015 LAMVF Recap
Posted by Caleb Jackson on November 10, 2015 in Event Coverage Contributor Post
Among the music video scene, few institutions stand out from the mainstream VMA world and foster growth at a community level more than the Los Angeles Music Video Festival, which has been a household name in the professional music video industry since 2011. Sami Kriegstein and Colleen Curlin started LAMVF… Read More
MUSIC VIDEO SUMMER CAMP: OMG! Everywhere 2015!
Posted by Caleb Jackson on September 3, 2015 in Event Coverage Contributor Post
If you care about music videos, you are probably still up in a tizzy about Joseph Kahn's Taylor Swift video taking video of the year at the VMAs this weekend, but this is also the time of the year when another music video institution comes around the bend. That is,… Read More
Making Cool Shit: The Music Videos of OK Go at LA Film Festival
Posted by Caleb Jackson on June 15, 2015 in Event Coverage Contributor Post
Photo courtesy of WireImage and Film IndependentLast Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing a showcase of most of OK GOs elaborate and memorable music videos at LA Film Festival. If youre at all familiar with their material, then you understand the the truly epic scale of their work,… Read More
IMVDb Blog
Recent Posts
- Did YouTube Lie to Us? The Shocking Truth Behind the Most Watched Music Videos of 2021
- Jason Baum's Top 5 Music Videos of 2021
- Jason Baum's Top 10 Music Videos of 2020
- Jason Baum’s Top 10 Music Videos from 2010 - 2013
- Jason Baum's Personal Top 10 of the Decade
- Jason Baum's Top 20 Music Videos of the Decade
- Jason Baum's Top 6 Music Videos (and 4 Music Films) of 2019
- Jason Baum's Top 10 Music Videos of 2018
- Jason Baum's Top 10 Music Videos of 2017
- Jason Baum's Top 10 Music Videos of 2016
Archive
- January 2022
- January 2021
- December 2019
- January 2019
- December 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
Categories
- Advice
- Behind the Scenes
- Commentary
- Cool New Music Videos
- Doms Sketch Cast
- Event Coverage
- Fashion
- Hall of Fame
- Interactive Music Videos
- Interviews
- Lists
- Lost & Found
- Most Popular Music Videos
- Music Video Premieres
- Music Video Relapse
- New Releases
- News
- Original Content
- Site News
- Sponsored
- Taped Before A Live Studio Audience
- This Week in Music Videos
- Video Previews
- Videos I <3
Content on the IMVDb blog is ©2012-2024 IMVDb and FilmedInsert, LLC. All Rights Reserved.