Scion Xpress Fest

What happens when ten student filmmakers are given a shot at making their own video for an up-and-coming indy band? Read on.

Hundreds of aspiring directors from film schools across the country entered the 2006 Scion Xpress Fest for a chance to shoot a music video that would then tour the country, rolling roadshow-style. From there, the audiences and celebrity guest judges will award the best submission $20,000. I caught the last leg of the tour as it came through downtown Austin on April 4th. Here are the contenders:

MONSTERS ARE WAITING’s “Nobody” directed by Collin Redden

First up, we get a well-lit female lead singer looking forlorn and then participating in the black and white burial of a dummy. Okay, I’m thinking, mannequin funeral, not the worst idea I’ll see tonight. Plenty of room for viewers to project heavy symbolic weight onto the act, I can get behind this. My mind begins racing to guess how the video will end. Maybe the mannequin comes back to life, turns on his human oppressors, and leads a mannequin revolt against us for enslaving his people behind shop windows for so long. Mannequin zombies! Or, two words: Viking funeral. If ever there were a girl who begged to be filmed with a flaming bow and arrow, it’s this one. What actually happens in the video? We get her and her band mate pallbearers leaving the coffin at the edge of a wood and… walking off. Come on, even Mannequin (1987) was more creative than this. Monsters Are Waiting’s evocative music deserved better.

SOMETHING FOR ROCKETS’ “Look Around” directed by Paul Trillo & Noah Cunningham

A guy wakes up to notice that everyone around him inexplicably has a smiley face box for a head. His Scion-driving neighbor, people on the street, dogs – all have drawn-on smiles. He finally attempts to make his own box so he can fit in, only to discover that it interferes with all his daily activities. He then sadly discards it. An intriguing idea, and the only video to use a Scion in a slightly mischievous way (“the directors were not required to feature the car,” the host informed us).

FITZGERALD’s “How Far North” directed by Andrew Warnecke

This video for Portland’s husband and wife duo was charming, in a public television sort of way. A guy in full Yankee soldier regalia comes to speak to a group of high school kids, who couldn’t care less. The guy patiently gives his speech as the class largely ignores him, but when he leaves, the one attentive kid runs after him to give him a bullet that he dropped. I was left wondering if he was supposed to be a re-enactor hobbyist, or if he might actually be… from the past! Fortunately, the rookie mistake of going crazy with postproduction editing bells and whistles was avoided in this fest for the most part. But that all-purpose grainy film effect is trotted out for much of Andrew Warnecke’s Civil War Man shots. I hate to break it to you, Andrew, but there were no movie cameras in 1865. You needn’t dial up the “old-timey film look.” Otherwise cute, and well suited to the music.

SUMMERBIRDS IN THE CELLAR’s “Trains” directed by Mike Goubeaux

Decent tune accompanied by another curious visual idea that goes nowhere slowly. Ones like this make me wish more music video directors, as absurd as it seems, would spring for a writer. These students are clearly technically proficient, but they seem to have no idea what to do with their bags of camera tricks besides empty them onto the screen and hope they land in a coherent montage. Maybe I’m crazy for complaining about style over substance in this medium, but the “52 Pickup” school of music video-making has long outlived what little novelty it ever had.

THE ARM’s “To Yr Id” directed by Lawrence Johnson

Finally, some rock n’ roll. Easily the best band of the night, The Arm delivers monster dance attacks of Freudian proportions. The director, who’s also from Austin, can’t quite match the music with sufficient visuals, though. He gives us a video game conceit, which, while not the most original idea, has virtually infinite possibilities. Yet all he can think up for the band’s digital doppelgangers to do is try on different clothes in a vintage store, skate, karate chop cinders blocks ala Street Fighter, and then show us the whole thing in reverse. The director’s profile lists him as a self-proclaimed media critic. Well here’s some free criticism, chief: you probably don’t need to recap the story for us at the end of a music video, we just saw it two minutes ago.

PLANE’s “Heart and Soul” directed by Harry ‘Konrad’ Arnold

2-D lead singer caricature is put through various surreal CG situations on his journey for love. He looks really bored the whole time, though it’s probably difficult to sustain enthusiasm when you’ve literally got a heart-shaped hole cut out of your chest and are being puppeteered through a dance of inanities. A waste of ones and zeroes that only flirts with relevance to the band, of which two-dimensions was the one good choice.

THOSE TRANSATLANTICS’ “In Your Neighborhood” directed by Tim Marklevitz

Refreshingly optimistic video of a girl giving cupcakes to random strangers, even the neighborhood hoodlums who sneer at her generosity, kind of like that Dave Matthews video where the guy goes around hugging people on the street, and slightly drained of realism when the hoodlums go from bullies to sadists and trash her and her cupcake wagon for no discernable reason. Also didn’t help their credibility that they looked less threatening than she did. Both video and song were so sweet, I got a cavity. Would have been cooler if, say, the cupcakes were laced with LSD, and the remainder of the video is everyone tripping balls.

PAPER ROUTE’s “Only Words” directed by John Welsh III

On the program bio, I learned that this director was punched in the face at an early age. While sitting through his film, I felt the urge to reacquaint ol’ Johnny with his childhood. Maudlin beyond hyperbole, this one gives us a young couple, who look like rejects from The O.C., swinging, holding hands, sharing birthday cupcakes, blowing out candles, flirting, and generally being so saccharine, they make Tommy Hilfiger TV spots look ‘edgy’ by comparison. I kept waiting it for it to turn out to be a parody, maybe the kids pull out a bottle of Tommy cologne, then start taking swigs from it or something. Huffing the fumes ‘till they pass out, I don’t know. But no such luck. Granted, the accompanying song is pretty sentimental, which isn’t necessarily bad. I just kind of doubt that they had in mind a J. Crew demo reel when they wrote it.

NEW SENSE’s “What If I Get Sick?” directed by Nathan Miller

Another mirage oasis in this talent drought of a festival, this little entry appeared to have been shot entirely in one cheesy campus apartment and looked the least professional of the bunch, which is saying something. A guy goes on a date to some kind of ridiculously staged-looking S&M rave, is thoroughly weirded out, then party hops until he finds one that suits him. Again, not a bad idea, but the execution is confusing and contrived. The guy ends up settling at some kind of square chess party for aspiring yuppies. Frat triumphs over those scary alternative lifestyles yet again.

PALOMAR’s “Albacore” directed by Henry Joost

Cut and paste pixilation weirdness involving a paper tuna trying to make its way to the ocean. During this, the girl next to me whispered in my ear, “This reminds me of the intro to Home Improvement.” A pretty accurate description, for better or worse. As for the band, they had spunk. As Mary Tyler Moore might say, I fucking hate spunk.

Whew. Thank goodness there was an open bar. I don’t know about you guys, but now that I’m convinced of Toyota’s indy cred, I’m going out and buyin’ a Scion.

All the songs mentioned in this article can be heard at the fest website, scionxpressfest.com, in case you’d like to check them out. It’s probably worth a listen, as there might have been some good bands buried under all the optical refuse. The top three videos as voted by attendees will also be viewable there as well. Winning the Scion Xpress Fest is kind of like getting the gold at the Special Olympics, though. You might have a medal… but you’re still retarded.

-Andy Gately