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MUSIC VIDEOS www.postmagazine.com 26 POST MAR/APR 2024 CHERRY MEDICINE: DIRECTOR JUSTIN REICH ASSEMBLES A TIGHT TEAM FOR ACE FREHLEY'S LATEST BY MARC LOFTUS Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and former Kiss member Ace Frehley re- cently released the video for "Cherry Medicine," which is featured on his new album, "10,000 Volts." The Cherry Medicine video was directed by Justin Reich (www.justinreich.com), who says the legendary musician didn't mince words with what he saw as his vision for the track. "Fast cars, beautiful women, and rock & roll," Reich recalls. "With a song like 'Cherry Medicine,' that's really all you need." Reich says the production found an Italian-style villa in Staten Island, NY, that was easy to access and had plenty of unique rooms to shoot in. "It was the perfect backdrop to host our little rock & roll party, and Ace loved it," recalls the director. Due to time and budget constraints, the team only had one day to pull off the shoot, so luckily, the weather cooperated, as a major snowstorm would soon follow. "We used the Red Gemini, paired with a set of Canon CN-E zoom lenses as our A-cam on a slider," Reich notes. "For all of the handheld shots, we used a Sony FX9, shooting in super35 mode, with a Canon 24-105 with a Metabones Speed Booster to give us that extra stop." The video is presented in an extremely-wide aspect ratio, which was able to showcasing the house, the room where Ace and the girls partied, and stacks of Marshall amps that serve as a backdrop for the band. "Naturally, the 2.39:1 aspect ratio seemed like the most sensible choice," Reich explains. "It frames those types of shots so well." In addition to directing, Reich handled the edit, VFX and color grade. He used a combination of Adobe Premiere and Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve Studio. He also points to Video Village's Filmbox plug-in for its film emulations capabilities. "It makes the post process so much easier and faster, and to be honest, I love having that level of control," he says of the additional responsibilities. Reich (IG: @justinreich) also calls attention to his crew. "I have a long history working with gaffer Matthew B. Moore and camera operator Tony M. Collins," he explains. "Because of these guys and the short- hand we have developed over the years, it allows me to accomplish so much in a short amount of time." H.P. EMPOWERS ARTISTS FOR MILKY CHANCE'S SYNCHRONIZE Five designers, equipped with Z by HP workstations, collaborated on a new music video for the alt-pop German rock duo Milky Chance. The Synchronize project tapped Z by HP global ambassadors Orlando Arocena, Bradley G. Munkowitz (aka Gmunk), Nidia Dias, Jody MacDonald and Rik Oostenbroek to create a digital visualizer for the track, which was produced by guitarist/ singer Clemens Rehbein and bassist/percussionist Phillipp Dausch — a.k.a. Milky Chance. The project was part of HP's "CoCreated: The Story of a Mixed-Media Music Video Collaboration" program, which challenged the artists to push their skill- sets, experimenting with emerging AI, realtime and simulation tools to pro- duce a music video with multiple voices and a singular vision. The video takes viewers on a ride through a digital landscape that comes together in time with the track's rhythm. Lush landscapes, captured in India by MacDonald, were paired with realtime sequences from Dias, Munkowitz's colorful rotating cloud simulations, Oostenbroek's vibrant floating orbs and a vector art poster from Arocena. The imagery was created using 3D simulations and custom assets, and built using realtime 3D and AI-powered tools. The artists' tools included JangaFX's EmberGen, Stability AI's Stable Diffusion, Autodesk's Maya, Maxon's Cinema 4D, SideFX Houdini, Adobe Creative Cloud, Epic Games' Unreal Engine and Topaz Labs' VideoAI. "We've collaborated with visual artists before, but never so many all at once," notes Milky Chance's Rehbein. "We wanted to let the ambassadors do their thing, so we tried to stay out of their way as much as possible, and trusted them to make something great once they shared the initial treatment. Synchronize has been a fan favorite since it came out, so we think our fans will be very excited to see a new visual interpretation of this song. It was very cool to see how the different artists interpreted the song and how it all came together at the end. We think it looks very cool and we hope that you all like it as much as we do." "Our global ambassador program partners with leading artists and directors to push the boundaries of their craft," explains Jim Nottingham, SVP & division president, advanced compute solutions, HP. "Teaming up with Milky Chance to collaborate on a music video that came together from different corners of the globe presented the perfect opportunity to push the envelope. It's projects like these, and the advancement of artist tools in the areas of AI, simulation and realtime graphics, that inspire our team to push boundaries and deliver more powerful and innovative technology solutions."