FM4 - Spectatorship - Chris Hopewell: Experimental and Expanded Film/Video

Chris Hopewell is an English music video director. He has directed videos for Radiohead ("There There"), Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Scissor Sisters, Louis XIV, The Knife, and several other bands.

Over the last seven years Chris has directed over 60 promos and has worked with all the major international labels including Sony, Island, Warners both in the UK and the USA. He has worked with some of the biggest bands of the past decade including The Killers, Scissor Sisters, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp and the Zutons and most recently Brody Dalle’s Spinnerette and Blur’s Graham Coxon.

His work has been described as “highly original story telling with a darkly atmospheric folksy leaning”.

In 2003 he won MTV’s big shiny moon man award for best art direction in Radiohead’s “There, There” a video which he also directed. It also picked up Video of the Year at the NME awards that same year.

Chris rambles – “I love the medium of the music video – there’s no better place to put forward your crazy, beautiful, f*cked-up ideas than to a soundtrack of music you love – it’s two totally disparate worlds that are made for each other and when it works there’s nothing to beat it”.

His most recent work is directing the video for The Offspring's "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" (from the album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace). He is currently working as co-director with Crispin Mills on the film A Fantastic Fear of Everything starring Simon Pegg.