James Frost (born 29 June 1973 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is an English

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

, and film director.

Career

James Frost began his career in 1997 as part of the British directing duo James & Alex mith The pair produced work together starting at the Artists Company, and later at Ridley Scott Associates (RSA Films). The pair would direct the music video for the

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

song

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

, which would be nominated for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that ar ...

at the

2001 MTV Video Music Awards The 2001 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 6, 2001, honoring the best music videos from June 10, 2000, to June 8, 2001. The show was hosted by Jamie Foxx at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Highlights of the show inclu ...

. The pair stopped working together in 2001 with

Turin Brakes Turin Brakes are an English band, comprising original duo of Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian, and long-term collaborators Rob Allum and Eddie Myer. They had a UK top 5 hit in 2003 with their song " Painkiller (Summer Rain)". Since starting ...

"72" being the last video they created together. In 2002, Frost directed then up-and-coming singer

Norah Jones Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...

in the California desert for the song "

Come Away With Me ''Come Away with Me'' is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Sh ...

"; Frost and Jones collaborated on two more videos from each of her subsequent releases, being "Sunrise" and "Until The End". In 2004, Frost started Blip Boutique. Successful collaborations have since been created under the Blip Boutique banner including work with the White Stripes,

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

OK Go OK Go is an American Rock music, rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar, bass, backing vocalist, v ...

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

and

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (; born 12 June 1979), known professionally as Robyn (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. Her 1995 debut album ''Robyn Is Here'' produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 single ...

and a video for

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

using data visualization in collaboration with data visualizer and artist Aaron Koblin along with Frost's creative partner at Blip Boutique Mary Fagot. Blip Boutique has since moved more into the world of interactive digital media and

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

applications. His 2008 "

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a struc ...

" video for

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

, with technological assistance by Aaron Koblin, premiered on

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

. No actual camera footage is used in the video; instead, it used

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

technology similar to that used in

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

. The video was made with assistance from students of the

G-Star School of the Arts The School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) is the tenth-largest public school district in the United States, and the fifth largest school district in Florida. The district encompasses all of Palm Beach County. For the beginning of the 20 ...

, and was nominated at the 51st

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

for Best Short Form Music Video in 2009. In March 2010, Frost wrote “The return of Polaroid,” a piece celebrating the rebirth of Polaroid film through Polanoid. The piece was featured as part of the 30/30 series that marked the 30th Anniversary of Creative Review Magazine. In 2010, James Frost collaborated with the rock band

and engineering collective Syyn Labs to create a giant

Rube Goldberg Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), better known as Rube Goldberg (), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated ...

machine for a music video for the song "This Too Shall Pass". The video took five months to design and build and two days to shoot. It was shot on 11-12 February 2010 in a warehouse in the

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

; the final version is one continuous take. It was released via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 1 March 2010, and by January 2023 had been seen 71 million times. The video was awarded the AICP award and is part of the permanent collection at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(MoMA) in New York City. In 2012, Frost was commissioned to make a music video for

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known as DMB) is an American rock band from Charlottesville, Virginia. The band's lineup consists of Dave Matthews (lead vocals, guitar), Stefan Lessard (bass), Carter Beauford (drums), Tim Reynolds (lead guitar), R ...

for the song ''Mercy'' from the album

Away from the World ''Away from the World'' is the eighth studio album by the American rock band Dave Matthews Band. It was released on September 11, 2012 through RCA Records. The album was primarily recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle, Seattle, Washington from Janu ...

. For the video, Frost used the

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

method by enlisting the help of Dave Matthews fans via the band's website. To carry out the concept, a series of actions were requested, each with detailed visual instructions in the album artwork style that users could download to help them film the required elements themselves. In 2015, James Frost collaborated with

Brittany Howard Brittany Amber Howard (born October 2, 1988) is an American musician from Athens, Alabama. She rose to prominence in the early 2010s as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter of Alabama Shakes. Her work with Alabama Shakes ...

Alabama Shakes Alabama Shakes are an American rock band formed in Athens, Alabama, in 2009. The band currently consists of lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, and bassist Zac Cockrell. The band began its career touring and perfor ...

to create a concept for a music video for the song

Sound & Color ''Sound & Color'' is the second studio album by American band Alabama Shakes, released on April 17, 2015, by ATO Records. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the U.S., giving the band their first chart-topper; globally, ...

. The video was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2016 NAACP Awards. In 2019, Frost was approached by the Australian dance act

Rüfüs Du Sol Rüfüs Du Sol (stylised in all caps) is an Australian alternative dance group from Sydney, that consists of Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George and James Hunt. The band was known simply as Rüfüs (stylised in all caps) from their inception until Ja ...

to collaborate on a visual piece that would be played at the HP Dome at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. The film was screened to an estimated 100,000 people for the two consecutive weekends on 12 and 19 April . In 2019, Frost also embarked on his first narrative project, a short film entitled Almond Wood. The film was co-written by James Frost and Patricia Rodriguez. It stars Kate Amundsen and Will Brandt. Principal photography took place in June 2019, with additional photography completed in October. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, post-production was halted in February 2020. The film was completed in the summer of 2021. It won several awards, including awards for Best Actress and Best Short Film at the Roma Short Film Festival as well as Best Thriller at the Paris Film Awards. In 2020, Frost again teamed up with Rüfüs Du Sol to create a music video for their song Alive. Frost used

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

to create landscapes allowing the team complete control of the virtual camera in post-production. The project, which took 8 weeks to complete, received positive reception.

Awards and nominations

, nominated for a VMA Award for Best New Artist. *

, nominated for a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

for Best Short Form Video, 2009 *Radiohead's "House Of Cards", Winner

D&AD Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organisation that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London. ...

Yellow Pencil for Outstanding Achievement in Music Video, *

's " This Too Shall Pass", winner at

UK Music Video Awards The UK Music Video Awards is an annual celebration of creativity, technical excellence and innovation in music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotiona ...

, 2010

References

*http://www.kcet.org/socal/voices/blur-sharpen/james-frosts-landscapes.html *https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jul/14/news.culture *http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2008/july/radiohead-house-of-cards-video *https://web.archive.org/web/20100327063417/http://www.promonews.tv/2010/03/22/bug-18-james-frost-talks-to-adam-buxton-about-the-making-of-the-video-for-ok-go%E2%80%99s-this-too-shall-pass/

External links

Friends & Family
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, James English music video directors British advertising directors 1973 births Artists from London Living people