Strictly Personal

A lot graphic and animation artists have tried their hands on music videos in the last thirty years but H5 has definitely been one of the most prolific companies to do so. That's why they're at number 26 in my Top 30 of the best music video directors ever:

 

30. Jonas Åkerlund

29. Walter Stern

28. Pleix

27: Steve Barron

26: H5

 

H5 was established in 1995 by two French graphic designers: Ludovic Houplain and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet. Hervé de Crécy (yes, Etienne de Crécy's brother) joined them in 1999 - the year in which they made their first groundbreaking music video: Alex Gopher's The Child (see below). The company continued to make playful animated videos for amongst others Playgroup (2001) before breaking into the mainstream with Röyksopp's brilliant Remind Me (2002; see below) - winning a string of awards, including an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video. The company also started dabbing in live action with Massive Attack's Special Cases (2003) and Audio Bullys' The Things (2003) but animation clearly remained their forte. Since 2009, they've even got an Oscar to prove it - their ingenious animated short film Logorama struck gold at the Academy Awards.

 

ALEX GOPHER - THE CHILD

 

RÖYKSOPP - REMIND ME

 

GOLDFRAPP - TWIST