AT LAST! ARSIS’ VIDEO FOR “WE ARE THE NIGHTMARE” WITH AWESOME ANIMATION!
So a couple of weeks back I posted the new Arsis video, “We Are the Nightmare,” without animation. I’m not even gonna link to it, ’cause even though I thought that video was awesome, this new, definitive version, complete with animation by director David Brodsky, is even awesomer.
Seriously: I have been listening to almost nothing but Arsis for about a week. This band rules. This album rules. This video fuckin’ rules.
ARSIS – We Are The Nightmare (Version Two)
After the jump, read what director David Brodsky had to say on Arsis’ MySpace blog about working with the band and the story behind the video!
“Working with James from Arsis is a little like working with a guy that looks just like me. well, it’s a LOT like that, actually. Funny thing is, the first time I’d ever heard of Arsis was at a B.B. King’s show in NYC when a bunch of guys started looking at me and pointing. Usually, what’s about to happen is that someone’s going to call me Danzig. Hahaha. Not this time (for the record, I’ve never met Danzig, but I’m told I’m taller). They walked up to me and said: Hey man, you were great in Ronkonkoma. I thought : Did I do a video in Ronkonkoma? Have I ever BEEN to Ronkonkoma? What ultimately happened was that they kept insisting that I was James Malone and I kept insisting that I wasn’t until we all agreed to disagree. They probably thought “James” was a dick. He’s not. He would have said “thanks.”
“The next time this happened, I was actually AT an ARSIS show. They were playing with Goatwhore and God Forbid, again at B.B. King’s, and kids would walk up to me and tell me that I was awesome. Hahahah. Now I like to hear that, but in this case I didn’t do anything. Allie (Woest, my partner and producer and all around amazing woman) and I had been late to the show so we didn’t see them play, but seriously, if people at an ARSIS show confused me with James, this was either a case of some very blind people or a guy I had to meet.
“I’d worked with Noah, the bassist, with his previous band, so he walked me right up to James and made the introductions. Noah is amazingly funny. You should talk to him if you ever get the chance.
“James was sitting at a booth getting his drunk on. I sat right down and said something like “James, I’m Dave Brodsky and everyone thinks we look alike”.
“He said “Cool, cool”.
“Turns out, he says that a lot. It’s kind of a trademark of his.
“We came up with a goof-idea to switch positions for a video. let him play the director/shooter and me to play the singer/guitarplayer. Ultimately, we didn’t do it – this time – because he had something more interesting in mind. An abandoned church in the deep recesses of West Virginia. Apparently he knew about this place and there was no way that Allie, Jason (Bozzi, guitar player extraordinaire, friend, and a guy that loves working with us on shoots) and I were going to miss the chance to shoot in it. So off we went to Beckley, WV for a couple of days.
“Yeah, we had no power, no real lights, not much of a bathroom (a rotting outhouse from 100 years ago is less appealing somehow than a tree around the bend) and literally no way to get the gear to the church but to carry it up a hill, up the rotting stairs, across the rotting floor and to hope, all the while that we’d live to tell the tale. We did.
“Ultimately, the effort was worth it. It was tough finding footing while shooting handheld and even harder to find a place sturdy enough to hold the jib we brought along and with enough room for me to move around for the “sweeping” shots. But fuck it, it was DIY and it was a damn fine time.
“Working with ARSIS was awesome. I’d already gotten to know both James and Noah by the time we got to West Virginia, so it really amounted to working with my friends. Ryan and Darren were welcoming as well, so by the time we got to shooting, we were all pals. I like that. It’s part of the fun of doing this stuff. Getting to know musicians who are talented beyond belief and getting to do even this tiny thing with them on the path of their career. Love it.
“While we were standing in the church – sometime after James was chased by dogs and before he fell through the floor – I said, “Hey man, I’ve got an idea for an animation”. He said “Cool. Cool”. Kidding. But he was onboard with the theory of letting me run with the inspiration.
“It’s simple enough of an idea really and it was definitely inspired by the location. what I was aiming for was a different execution, at least for me. I love toying with animation and in this case, for some reason, I was thinking more along the ‘cartoon’ lines than the CGI/GreenScreen things I’d done a few times. The full story came to me in the shower – maybe that’s why it’s raining in the video – and took me a little too long to get done. Hahaha. That’s why there are two versions.
“I’m glad you’ll all get to see the ANIMATION version and I think the more people hear ARSIS the more people will be instantly hooked. Hope you dig the video!”
-AR
