Annual Showcase to Sing the Praises of Music Videos

Every year, Emerson College students and alumni come together with the Greater Boston community to celebrate the combination of auditory and visual art in music videos at the Silversonic Music Video Showcase.

The fifth annual showcase will take place this Thursday, November 10, in the Bright Family Screening Room. Sixteen music videos created by current Emerson students and alumni will be screened, and a karaoke after-party with pizza and cupcakes will follow, along with discussions with the musicians and filmmakers featured.

This year, the showcase will spotlight Emerson alumnus Ben Phillippo ’08, showing three of his music videos. Currently the director of WGBH’s news and talk show Greater Boston, Phillippo was recently nominated for three New England Emmy Awards and won one this summer.

His work has garnered overwhelmingly positive attention from Vimeo, Boston Magazine, and Magnet Magazine. Most recently, his video for Gem Club’s “Speech of Foxes,” which will be screened on Thursday, was shortlisted at the Cannes Lions Festival.

Phillippo could not immediately be reached for comment.

The showcase is presented by the Bright Lights Film Series, which is curated by Anna Feder, director of programming in the Visual and Media Arts (VMA) Department at Emerson. Feder says although music videos are made to be viewed on a television, computer, or phone screen, the videos being presented Thursday “lend themselves to be seen on the silver screen.”

“Students are so used to seeing short films, feature films on the big screen, but this gives them the opportunity to see this work is as important as other work,” she said. “Seeing music videos as a significant art form and showing the work of current students alongside the work of alumni…allows for current students to see their work in the context of professionals, and people who have the same education they’re getting.”

Grayson Kohs ’17 directed the official music video for Tighticus Finch’s song “When I’m Gone,” which will be screened Thursday. This is the second time Kohs’ work will be featured at the annual showcase, and he said he’s looking forward to seeing his peers’ work that may not be exhibited in the classroom.

“It's really awesome because it gives students the opportunity to showcase some of the best, but least-exhibited, work made here,” he said. “It's always a very special moment seeing your shots on a big screen and feeling the energy in the room as the audience reacts to your art. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made.”

Feder posted in the Facebook event for the showcase that audience members will be eligible to win DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Studio and a copy of Fusion 8 Studio, which she describes as “two great tools for creating music videos.” Each program is worth $995, and they were secured by Daniel Bérubé ’89 of the Boston Creative Pro User Group.

Vitor Van Der Put ’18 is planning to attend the showcase Thursday evening. As a VMA major, he said he hopes to learn more about music videos as a method of storytelling, and is particularly excited for Amos Stillwell’s (’16) video for Jack Romanov’s “Even the Homeless Have WiFi (and Blue Dreams).”

“I really like music videos as a medium,” he said. “I worked on one this semester and I'm hoping to hopefully do more, and I'm curious to see what the Emerson community can cook up in terms of music videos.”

Thursday’s event is scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm. Admission is free and open to the public.