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.

CHRISTINE MCAVOY VancouverIsAwesome

CHRISTINE MCAVOY Who are you? Christine McAvoy. Tall, curly hair, camera…I’m easy to spot.

What do you do? Career Highlights? For my job, I’m a freelance photographer in Vancouver, BC (http://mcavoy.ca), by night/day/weekend I am VancouverIsAwesome.com’s Indie Music Editor, and the rest of the time I’m a huge Canadian music fan/nerd. Highlights? Well, CBC Radio 3 named me their Fan Of The Year in the 2012 Bucky Awards, that was pretty awesome. I just do what I can for the amazing, talented and creative people of this wonderful country, many of which I’m lucky to call my friends.

What makes a good video? What stood out about your picks? Well, creativity…plain and simple. Show me something I haven’t seen before. And make sure that the story your telling actually has something to do with the song itself, either conceptually or literally. I don’t just want to watch another video of a band performing the song, I can see that at the concert. If you’re going to make a video, put some effort into it!

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!

January

The votes have started coming in from our jurors, with all eyes set on February 14th, when we'll announce the list of the Top Ten Canadian music videos of 2012. Keep your eye out for upcoming juror introductions and great contests and be sure to Like us on Facebook and follow our Twitter for all the latest in Prism goings-on. The big winner will be announced on March 24th, 2013. Who will it be?

Janvier

Les membres du jury ont commencé à nous transmettre leurs votes en gardant le
14 février à l’esprit, date à laquelle nous dévoilerons les dix meilleurs vidéoclips sélectionnés pour le prix Prisme 2012. Revenez nous voir régulièrement pour en savoir plus sur les membres du jury et leurs choix ainsi que pour participer à d’intéressants concours. N’oubliez pas de cliquer « J’aime » sur notre page Facebook et de vous abonner à notre fil Twitter pour être au courant de tout ce qui se passe dans le cadre du prix Prisme. Le grand gagnant sera annoncé le 24 mars 2013.

Qui sera l'heureux lauréat?

December

Things have really started to roll at Prism headquarters lately. We are thrilled to announce our incredible jury, a diverse group of music writers, filmmakers, artists, broadcasters and bloggers. We are already pleased by the jury's enthusiasm for their favourite videos of the year.

Whittling it down to five choices each is going to be a challenging task for the jurors. These days it seems like a great new video is being released every week! We've been passing them around in anticipation of the jury's official nominations in January and we can't wait to announce the top 10 on Valentine's Day, 2013.

We have locked down a venue for the big party in March and more details will be coming to you shortly. And remember to keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter pages too, because we're posting some of our favourite Canadian videos of all time in the lead-up to the big reveal.

Décembre

Ça bouge dans les bureaux de Prisme! Nous sommes heureux d’annoncer que nous avons constitué un formidable jury composé d’un groupe varié d’auteurs-compositeurs, de réalisateurs, d’artistes, de diffuseurs et de blogueurs. Et l’enthousiasme que montrent ces jurés devant leurs vidéoclips préférés nous enchante!

Chaque membre devra en arriver à un choix de cinq œuvres, ce qui promet d’être tout un défi, d’autant plus qu’on a l’impression que, chaque semaine, un nouveau vidéoclip génial est lancé. Nous les faisons circuler en vue de la sélection officielle du jury en janvier et nous avons très hâte de dévoiler les dix finalistes le jour de la Saint-Valentin 2013.

Nous avons décidé de l’endroit où aura lieu la grande fête en mars et nous vous ferons connaître tous les détails prochainement. N’oubliez pas de nous suivre sur Facebook et Twitter, parce que nous continuerons de mettre en ligne régulièrement quelques-uns de nos vidéoclips canadiens préférés de tous les temps, et ce, jusqu’à l’annonce du lauréat.

Thrush Hermit - The Day We Hit The Coast

Timbre Timbre - Black Water