The video component of Washed Out’s Mister Mellow is the album’s 12 individually made clips, which are collected on the DVD as the visual album. In addition to this, Washed Out enlisted Saturday Night Live’s Kyle Mooney to create a unique special entitled The Mister Mellow Show, where Mooney – as Your Boy Charlie – hosts a fictional TV program with Washed Out’s Ernest Greene is a featured guest. The two of them kick back on bean bags and watch videos together.
Here’s the 12 clips, The Mister Mellow Show, and complete director credits.
The Mister Mellow Show, directed by Ross Harris. Ross, aka Joey, is the creative force behind some of Stones Throw’s best videos since we began collaborating in 2005, and recently shot DJ Harrison’s HazyMoods cover. Get at him.
“Title Card” d. by Eric Coleman. Photographer and director Eric Coleman is another long time collaborator with the label, whose first Stones Throw cover shot was for Madvillainy.
“Burn Out Blues” d. Winston Hacking. A Canadian filmmaker and collage artist represented by Brainfeeder Films, a division of Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder music label, Winston Hacking uses techniques that masquerade as animation in an attempt to deceive the viewer’s eyes. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Vice, Rolling Stone, Adult Swim, and Vimeo Staff Picks.
“Time Off”, “Zonked” d. RuffMercy, a Bristol-based animator and video director whose instantly recognizable animations have been used for several Stones Throw videos, and for others like Danny Brown, Pusha T, and Disclosure.
“Floating By” d. Drew Tyndell. Drew is part of Computer Team, a small creative studio in Portland, Oregon that specialises in 2D hand-drawn and stop motion animation. “When making the video I was mainly responding to the song, and how it’s made up of chopped up/cut up sections that all flow together,” Drew says, “I wanted to go the same route with the animation, designing a mashup of scenes inspired by the lyrics and the feel of the song. The video starts out very methodical, illustrating the theme of routine and the boring-ness of everyday life. Eventually it gets weirder and weirder – bright colors take over and the video goes from routine to daydreaming to escaping the everyday grind.”
“I’ve Been Daydreaming My Entire Life” d. Ernest Greene aka Washed Out. Speaking about his contribution to the visual album, Greene says, “My parents had recently moved out of my childhood home and they were pulling out tons of boxes of old photos. It’s funny how all of that stuff lives on hard drives now – but I really loved how distressed a lot of the photos looked and felt – with lots of dust and folds – and I made sure to keep all of that as I scanned-in each photo. I’ve always been a bit of a loner and have always felt slightly “apart” from everything thats going on around me. That’s sort of what the video and song represent for me – never really fitting in.”
“Hard to Say Goodbye” d. Jonathan Hodgson, an internationally renowned, BAFTA winning animation director based in London. He combines teaching with animated filmmaking through his own production company Hodgson Film. He was animation director of Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, the first full-length animated documentary broadcast on British TV, and has also created animated documentaries Mostafaei for Amnesty International’s End the Death Penalty campaign, Guantanamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes for Guardian Films, and What Comes After Religion, a short film collaboration with Alain de Botton.
“Down and Out” d. Daniel Brereton and Morph Animation. Daniel Brereton is a director based in London. He has directed videos for artists including Metronomy, Connan Mockasin, Late of the Pier, Django Django, and Kindness, in addition to commercial work for brands.
“Instant Calm” d. Sophia Bennett Holmes. Sophia explains the idea behind her video: “In this animation, I was exploring the feeling of dancing, but for no audience, dancing for yourself. The character goes in and out of the literal world, her clay body moving in animated “slow motion.”
“Get Lost” d. Harvey Benschoter, Oof Collective member best known for short-form experimental animation. First introduced to psychedelic culture through the likes of Dead Milkmen, Butthole Surfers and Frank Zappa, his work often explores the unintentional psychedelia of mainstream culture. His visual contribution to “Get Lost” resembles the style of Turkey, his critically-acclaimed short that earned him a Vimeo Staff Pick upon its release in 2014. Past artist collaborations include his video for Lightning Bolt’s “Vile House,” which won the 2007 Chicago Underground Film Festival in the category Best Music Video.
“Easy Does It” d. Parallel Teeth, the alias of Robert Wallace; Director, animator and graphic artist. Originally from New Zealand, he now works and lives in East London. His playful style spans poppy live action, hypnotic 2D animation, puppetry, and colourful illustration, and he has worked across a range of media, including music videos, commercials, festival identities, album artwork, installation projections, 360 videos, wall murals and prints. He was also selected by the the Art Directors Club for the Young Gun award and won the Music Video category in the Motionographer Motion Awards.
“Million Miles Away” d. Jason Miller. Jason leads the multiple Emmy-nominated Shrine Production team, working with artists such as Diplo and Riff Raff and brands like Nike and Audi on commercials, documentaries, music videos, and live-concert pieces. Miller has known Greene since 2010, when the Washed Out project was in its infancy. “It’s been great as a fan and a friend to witness the project grow and morph into so many different iterations. We wanted the video for “Million Miles Away” to play off of 90s skate videos and to be gritty, tripped out, and lightly feature Ernest as well. We shot in downtown LA — such a loaded location and one of those places that’s hard to wrap your head around all of the good and bad wrapped up into five square miles.”