JONATHAN BUNCE Images Festival, Wavelength

JONATHAN BUNCE Who are you? I’m Jonathan Bunce, but my friends call me Jonny Dovercourt.

What do you do? Career Highlights? I’m an arts presenter, writer and musician. Started out as a musician, played in lots of bands, from A Tuesday Weld to Republic of Safety, currently one half of Hybrid Moments. Then worked as a writer & editor at Eye Weekly long before it became The Grid. Started the Wavelength music series and zine in ‘99/2000, later worked for The Music Gallery as publicist, eventually becoming artistic director and main concert programmer (2006-11). Currently on staff at the Images Festival, writing for MusicWorks Magazine and acting as Founding Director of Wavelength as we enter our 14th year of programming, presenting two annual festivals and launching our new Artist Incubator program!

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? I think a good video has one solid concept, that conveys either a key idea or emotion related to the song. Most music videos are a random rotation of 3 or 4 shots that could really accompany any audio, and are pretty forgettable as much. Both of Kid Koala’s videos are based around using a single static shot to capture a frenzied, imaginative display of hands-on creativity. That beats high-budget effects, costumes or sets any day. A good video also makes smart use of humour - that’s the case with Koala as well as both Doldrums and Grimes. I laughed out loud when the “Catmobile” showed up to rescue Airick in “She is the Wave”, and did the same pretty much throughout the entirety of “Oblivion.” Evening Hymns’ video contains just plain beautiful, imaginative imagery, while the TeenAnger video is just plain badass.

RAE ANN FERA TIFF Packaged Goods

RAE ANN FERA Who are you? Rae Ann Fera, Curator of TIFF Packaged Goods; writer, Fast Company Co.Create.

What do you do? Career highlights? I am a journalist and content curator. I’ve been covering the craft of short form filmmaking for 12 years, first as editor of Boards Magazine, an international trade publication focused on commercial and music video production, and currently as a writer with Co.Create. I also curate TIFF’s bimonthly screening series Packaged Goods, which highlights excellence in music videos, ads and short films.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? Technique at the service of story. Story doesn’t necessarily have to be a robust narrative - it can set a scene or create a mood - but I want to see piece that tells me about the band/artist, elevates the song and shows some serious filmmaking skills in whatever the chosen style. Too often music videos are flimsy one-trick technique ponies. I want the craft of a video to excite but not overwhelm or distract.

LIISA LADOUCEUR Freelance Journalist

LIISA LADOUCEUR Who are you? My name is Liisa Ladouceur. I live in Toronto where I write about music and unpopular culture and help make documentaries for film and TV.

What do you do? Career highlights? I’m proud to say I’ve been in this writing racket for more than 10 years and have had too many highlights to count, working for everyone from Eye Weekly/The Grid to CBC Radio to The Toronto Sun to MuchMoreMusic. My first book, Encyclopedia Gothica, came out in 2011 and that was about as good as it gets. Anytime I get to interview artists who know why they do what they do and want to talk openly about it is a dream job, but I guess memorable moments include making the City Sonic series of short films on Toronto music history, having Bjork write me a poem from those little magnetic words and having Bret Michaels from Poison serve me soy milk shakes on his tour bus but asking me not to reveal his bar is stocked with healthy drinks and not booze. (Oops.) I also proudly served for many years on the Polaris Music Prize board of directors where I reinforced my belief that art is not a contest but rewarding artists for good work is good work indeed.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? My picks for the Prism video prize were clips that had strong story and an element of surprise. I also feel it’s important to incorporate the artist, and to reflect and reveal something of their personality. There will always be beautiful abstract video art out there, but when I think about the best music videos ever made, 99 per cent of the time the artist is prominent. (That %1 is for “Da Funk.”) Basically, I want to be compelled to watch all the way through. Those that did that, got my vote.

IAN HARNARINE Filmmaker

IAN HARNARINE Who are you? Ian Harnarine

What do you do? Career Highlights? Filmmaker/Sound Mixer/Teacher. Winner of the Best Canadian Short Film at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival for Doubles With Slight Pepper Winner of the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Film 2012 One of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2012

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? I’m interested in how visuals can either confirm or contrast the music. Watching how a director deals with that fascinates me.

TOM SHERMAN Artist

TOM SHERMAN Who are you? Tom Sherman

What do you do? Career Highlights? I’m an artist and writer. I work mostly in video but also in performance and radio. I’ve shown a lot over the years, including solo shows at the National Gallery of Canada, Musee d’art contemporain and Vancouver Art Gallery. I’ve represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and been honoured with the Bell Canada award for video art and a Governor General’s award for visual and media arts. In the early 1980s I founded the Media Arts section of the Canada Council. I’m currently a professor of video art at Syracuse University in New York.

My interest in music video goes back to the mid-1970s when I was making music videos for TVOntario. I made a couple of hundred music videos for Nightmusic, a talk show hosted by Reiner Schwartz. We used these music videos as segues from guest to guest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAkzSsD9usQ Later I worked with musicians like Jean Piche and Bernhard Loibner and coined the term VidSonics to describe video music works where the video generated the music rather than the more conventional visualization of music. I teach a course today called VidSonics at Syracuse University to involve students in the critical analysis of sound/moving image aesthetics using the Web as source material.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? I loved the opportunity to catch up on what’s going on in the Canadian music video scene by being on the Prism Prize jury. A good music video still depends on a great piece of music but the video component has to be inventive. The video has to move with the music but it should also push the music into a space it can’t reach on its own. A music video has to have magic transitions that give the viewer/listener repeated pleasure through a certain level of poetic expression. A great music video has to hold up and increase in power through multiple plays. It is not enough to impress people once—it should stand up well in heavy rotation, just like a great piece of music. That’s the challenge, to not kill or wrap up the meaning of a song with the explicit literalness of what video can deliver. The music video form is very challenging. When a director hits a video chord in resonance with a great piece of music, there is little in contemporary culture that can compare with the powerful pleasure of a beautiful music video.

PETER RICHARDS PeteHatesMusic

PETER RICHARDS Who are you? Harvard educated. Illuminati member. Blacksmith. These are all things that I am not. I am Peter Richards and I’m the co-founder and writer for the Canadian music blog, PeteHatesMusic. You can find me on Twitter @PeteHatesMusic

What do you do? Career Highlights? I post videos and songs that I love on PeteHatesMusic. I also post interviews, concert reviews, and geeky tech things that interest music nerds. I often dabble with alcohol as I write.

Career highlights include any gig that gives me free beer, covering (and surviving) the marathon events that are the Camden Crawl in London (think 2 day NXNE), the 12 day Ottawa Bluesfest, and Optimus Alive in Portugal, plus interviews with bands that have won or been nominated for Juno Awards, Mercury Prizes, and Australian Independent Record Awards. I’ve also won Best Music Blog at The Canadian Blog Awards and been shortlisted for Best Pop Culture & Entertainment Blog in the Ninjamatics Canadian Weblog Awards.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks?

Any video that I want to show my friends for some reason is a good video, as my friends are judgmental meanies. Videos that are engaging and keep me in either suspense or hysterics are key qualities.

What stood out about the videos I picked was the amount of money they were willing to give me for my vote! That, and they were creative, captivating, and had me wondering what was coming next. I’m a terrible guesser, so I was always pleasantly surprised.

PEDRO PIRES Filmmaker

PEDRO PIRES Who are you? Pedro Pires, director.

What do you do? Career Highlights? His film debut was in 1995 with The Sound of the Carceri, a documentary by filmmaker François Girard, in which he recreated the fictitious prisons of Piranesi around the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 3D. This work won him an Emmy® Award for « Outstanding Visual Effects » and a Gemini Award for « Best Visual Effects » in 1998.

In 2008 his company produced the short film Danse Macabre, a multidisciplinary collaboration with Robert Lepage and AnneBruce Falconer, where he acted simultaneously as scriptwriter, director, photographer and editor. This film has won 43 international prizes, notably a Jutra and a Genie Award in 2010.

Pedro Pires designed the images for TOTEM, a new Cirque du Soleil show directed by Robert Lepage.

He is currently working on the feature film Triptyque, a partial adaptation of the play Lipsynch by Robert Lepage, with whom he is sharing the direction.

Moreover, this year he made his first foray in the opera world by designing the images for Siegfried, a segment of Wagner’s Ring produced by the New York Metropolitan Opera.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? Clear concept, originality, craftsmanship

(Photo credit: Julie Perreault)

JUD HAYNES Graphic Artist, Promoter

JUD HAYNES Who are you? Jud Haynes; or judhaynes.com if you’re a computer.

What do you do? Career Highlights? Currently I’m full time as a graphic artist. I mainly design albums and tour poster campaigns. I’ve created album artwork for Sarah Harmer, Great Lake Swimmers, Bahamas, Wintersleep, Kathleen Edwards, and Joel Plaskett among others. My poster art has been used by The Wolfe Island Music Festival, Bahamas, Polaris Music Prize and Arts & Crafts. I have played music as a job in the past as well, but the bass only comes out now for fun.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? I’ve been involved in video shoots in the past, as well as been in a bunch… For me a great video is one that is visually interesting and pulls the viewer in, without distracting from the song. Often times I see great videos that are so involved your head gets caught up in the visuals and you aren’t paying attention to the song at all. My picks for this years Prism Prize were all videos that I thought complimented the song very well. There may have been others that had better effects, or film quality, or bigger budgets… but my top picks all seemed to be the best visual matches to their songs. Great job everyone!

VANESSA HEINS Photographer

VANESSA HEINS Who are you? Vanessa Heins, www.vanessaheins.com

What do you do? Portrait photographer based out of Toronto, Canada

Career Highlights? Having my photograph of Carly Rae Jepsen on the cover of Billboard Magazine! Being Nominated for a Juno for photographs within City + Colour s album “Bring Me Your Love”

What makes a good video? Anything from over the top to ultra simplistic while showcasing originality.

What stood out about your picks? All the videos I chose had great concepts behind them and utilized such different aesthetics to showcase them. With each video I was truly sucked in for the duration and found myself pressing the replay button more than once.

KAT DORNIAN CJSW Calgary

KAT DORNIAN Who are you? I am Kat Dornian, Music Director at CJSW Radio in Calgary. I love life and music and video games and blogging and have several neat places where I post what I love like food and anything nerdy.

What do you do? Career highlights? Every day I come to work, get to listen to music and work with awesome people. It’s what I’d be doing anyway so it’s nice to do something I love. Being a small organization I get to take on a lot of different roles and learn a bunch of new skills like how to tech live bands, put on a show, release a CD and so on and so on. I’ve got to interview some pretty cool people as well like Akron/Family and Matmos.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? First and foremost I am drawn to videos that tell stories in some way. I think these just make for more engaging videos as the story starts to unfold and you want to know what will happen to the characters. I’m also a big fan of anything different or avant-garde. Experimenting with new concepts is key and music videos provide the perfect means for doing something totally wacky that you wouldn’t dare to do for a full length movie. Some excellent fashion never hurts anything.

CAM LINDSAY Exclaim!, MUCH

CAM LINDSAY Who are you? Cam Lindsay

What do you do? I am the researcher for MuchMusic, and assist in programming The Wedge & RapCity. I also write for Exclaim!, and have contributed to Noisey, FFWD Weekly, The Grid and Metro.

Career Highlights? There have been lots, but being flown to Norway to cover Øyafestivalen and see My Bloody Valentine was pretty special.

What makes a good video? Something unique, humorous and can keep my wander attention span for three to five minutes. Not an easy job.

What stood out about your picks? The Yacht Club video is just hilarious. I wish it was extended into a film. Grimes has a distinct style that really goes far beyond the music. I love everything she does. Young Rival just went for something bizarre yet visually stunning. The music is actually secondary, but you’re too busy watching dude’s face that it doesn’t even matter. And Rich Aucoin somehow managed to summarize Brian Wilson’s tragic life in the span of only four minutes. That alone deserves some kind of award.

DAVID HAYMAN Supersonic Creative

DAVID HAYMAN Who are you? David Hayman (Supersonic Creative Inc)

What do you do? Career Highlights? Music Supervisor. Coc-Cola, Telus, Dove Evolution, Rookie Blue. Saving Hope. Shaun White Skateboarding and countless film soundtracks.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video elevates my enjoyment of a song without projecting too much specific narrative to my own projection of the song. There were so many amazing videos and even more amazing songs. I was blown away by the talent but forgot to nominate my favourite video WHITE DOVES by Young Empires. That should have been on the list.

SHAIN SHAPIRO Sound Dimplomacy

SHAIN SHAPIRO Who are you? I am Shain. I run a small consultancy in London, UK called Sound Diplomacy. One of my clients is the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), whom I represent in UK and EU, among others.

What do you do? Career Highlights? I don’t quite know what I do. I try to help bands, labels and professionals to get their head around exporting to the UK and EU. I also am finishing my PhD and a keen researcher / nerd and work on evaluating funding structures. Hmm… I’ve been lucky to work with a lot of inspiring people. They know who they are.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? Engagement, surprise, bafflement. All the videos told a story that I voted for. One complimentary to the band but simultaneously unique to themselves.

KARA BLAKE Filmmaker

KARA BLAKE Who are you? Kara Blake, audiovisual adventurer

What do you do? Career Highlights? I make short films, music videos and art installations in hopes that they will be screened in exotic destinations that I will be invited to.

A career highlight was being nominated alongside my idol Peter Mettler for Best Short Documentary at the Genie Awards in 2009 (and then winning!) for my film The Delian Mode about electronic music pioneer Delia Derbys hire.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video is one where the audio and visuals combine to produce a sum greater than its parts. My picks not only did this effectively and uniquely but with pizzazz!

DAVE ULLRICH Zunior

DAVE ULLRICH Who are you? Dave Ullrich, founder of Zunior.com - the little digital music store that is the source for the best independent digital music in Canada. Also I was one half of The Inbreds, a mid-90’s rock duo that started in Kingston, Ontario.

What do you do? Career Highlights? I run the Zunior.com online store along with a small team from across the country. We sell digital albums in MP3 and lossless FLAC format for your audio enjoyment! We’ve been at it since 2004 and we have greatly appreciated the support from all sides of this country (and around the world). A few music career highlights playing with The Inbreds would be playing in Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, rocording in London at Pete Townshend’s studio and getting some legitimate props from Dave Grohl!

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video to me starts with a very simple concept that is executed with clean/original shots and usually a dash of luck!

ANGIE DRISCOLL HotDocs, TUFF, Aspen Shortsfest

ANGIE DRISCOLL Who are you? I am a rabid short film lover, music video enthusiast, champion of Canadian cinema and defender of underdogs!

What do you do? Career Highlights? I have the best job in the world! I am a film programmer for Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Toronto Urban Film Festival. I have worked for TIFF, Sundance and the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival (RIP) selecting films and consider meeting Keanu Reeves (my hero!) and then making an ass of myself a definite career highlight.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A great music video is one that sticks in your head, and becomes part of your memory… forever. There’s nothing better than losing yourself in a series of innovative, novel, and mad images set to music. A video that makes me think and dream beyond the beat is what I’m after. I was not let down by this year’s batch of videos, so much creativity and variety! My stand-outs are successful videos that enhance the music, but are also awesome short films, they mix mood and narrative, comedy and messy abstraction effortlessly.

JAMIE TENNANT CFMU 93.3FM, Hamilton

JAMIE TENNANT Who are you? Jamie Tennant.

What do you do? Career Highlights? My full-time gig is Program Director at 93.3 CFMU FM in Hamilton, with sidelines as a freelance writer and cable TV host. I started my career as a publicist in Toronto and spent some time in Japan tending bar. Career highlights? They’re all highlights but being nominated for a National Magazine Award was pretty neat. Being a Grand Juror at the 2013 Polaris Prize gala was a definite highlight, too.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video isn’t about production value anymore; no matter how slick a performance video, for example, you’ve still seen it a hundred times. Something memorable, a clever idea (that’s not TOO gimmicky), something funny, something unexpected…I was looking for that, as well as a level of quality.

BRENDA LEE Earbuds & Ticketstubs

BRENDA LEE Who are you? Brenda Lee

What do you do? Career highlights? I’m the curator and main contributor to Canadian music website Earbuds & Ticket Stubs, which was launched back in 2009. In my spare time, I’m completing a PhD in clinical psychology. Neither could be called a career at this point.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video complements the mood and subject of the music. A great video is like a mosquito bite— you feel the brunt of it after the initial contact.

BRUCE LEPERRE CKDM Dauphin

BRUCE LEPERRE Who are you? I am Bruce Leperre

What do you do? Career highlights? I am the Director of Programming and Music at 730 CKDM in Dauphin, Manitoba. I also host a weekly alt country/roots show on CKDM. I write CD reviews and the odd entertainment piece/review for the Winnipeg Free Press. I wrote a monthly column for Ottawa based Country Music News since the early 90s until the paper’s sad demise in 2012. I book shows at the Watson Art Centre in Dauphin and do what I can to assist independent artists of all genres with their music careers. I do the mobile deejay thing too and I sit on many a jury including the Prism Prize. Career highlights include winning the Manitoba Country Music Association’s Radio Personality of the Year the last 2 times they had an award show and in 2005 I won both the Canadian Country Music Association’s Music Director of the Year (Secondary Market) and On Air Personality of the Year (Secondary Market) awards after years and years of nominations.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? A good video is one that is able to grab my attention. After watching early MTV and early Much Music (when they played music videos) one thinks they’ve seen it all but there seems to be more and more creativity as artists and directors are stepping up to the challenge of “standing out”. In my picks I was impressed with things like unique animation, storylines (some looked like mini movies), how the visual and the music worked together as opposed to being at odds and there was one that was even interactive!