My name is Adam Egypt Mortimer. I direct music videos, shorts and commercials. Sometimes they are horrifically violent nightmares, sometimes they are surreal face melters, sometimes they are intimate emotional explorations. I've written some screenplays, some cartoons, and the occasional comic book piece. I live in Echo Park, in Los Angeles.

+ DECEMBER 9th, 2008:
SHOT / BOOKED / BOOKED:
1 - So I went to WARSAW, POLAND to shoot a video for Natalia Lesz. I travelled with Peter and Georg, producers from Lodger Films, and DoP Mathew Rudenberg. We saw amazing locations, and filmed Natalia in an old Vodka factory, at a bombed out tenement building, in an old school eastern european piano lounge, and other incredible places. Color timed by Beau from the Syndicate, the piece was a run and gun piece of post-industrial beauty. I will be posting the finished video soon.
2 - BOOKED a video for the band LUNIK, a Swiss band whose song EVERYBODY KNOWS is on the top of the UK itunes charts. We will be shooting at the Universal Studios lot this weekend 12-12 ans 12-13, which is going to rule. Robert Morris will be on as DoP.
3 - BOOKED a video for STEADLUR, a hard rocking bunch of kids from Atlanta on Roadrunner records. We will be shooting on Monday 12-15 at the DERBY DOLLS Roller Derby arena in Echo Park, with 8 all-star Roller Girls providing skating / slamming / stunting / smashing and general mayhem. To be shot by Todd Bell, my DoP go-to guy for high intensity action and extreme physical chaos.

+ NOVEMBER 4th, 2008: This is the first time in my life I can remember feeling psyched about America as a country. I can't wait to see what's going to happen now...

+ OCTOBER 19, 2008: SCREENING: FULL OF LIGHT. My video for the No-Neck Blues Band is being screened as part of the art show FULL OF LIGHT which is billed as a "gentle nod to Bruce Connor / Enfolding Angel". I'm psyched to be a part of it.
The show opens on November 8th featuring art by Devandra Banhart, Maximila Lukacs, and others. The screening will be on NOVEMBER 20th and features film and video curated by Aran Reo Mann and Jeremy Rendina.
More info at www.fulloflightshow.com

+ OCTOBER 8th, 2008: RELEASED: MEAGHAN SMITH - "IF YOU ASKED ME" VIDEO.
Meaghan Smith's debut album is coming out on Warner Bros. This video new stylistic territory for me, exploring the world of the whimsical and the realm of the puppet. This project began as a very simple performance video but after Meaghan and I spoke for the first time, it rapidly developed into an idea inspired by the old Hollywood musicals we both love, with a dash of muppets. This was my first chance to work with puppeteers, and Sam Hale, lead puppeteer, did a wonderful job. Shot on location at the Little Temple Bar in Silverlake, about 2 blocks north of the Lodger films production office.
Once again I worked with Choreographer Ken Roht who created some really nice moments. This was the first time I collaborated with cinematogropher Mathew Rudenberg and the first time I worked with a RED camera - I'm probably going to stick with the RED for these kind of projects. And I've already got Matt booked for an upcoming video. The video is being sold on itunes as part of a Audio/Video EP called "The Cricket's Quartet". Three other videos were shot by my esteemed colleague ROBOSHOBO. WATCH IF YOU ASKED ME.

+ JUNE 30th, 2008: JAMES JACKSON TOTH: "DOREEN" VIDEO RELEASED. I flew to Tennessee, got in a car with James and his wife Jex, and filmed them just about everywhere we could get to in four days. Ghost town, New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma... it was a fun, rocking, and intimate film experience. I'd never met them before (though James released one of my albums a few years ago) and it was a total hail-mary to think we'd get along. There were almost no problems, other than when we got pulled over by cops in Arkansas and bullets spilled out of the glove compartment. But that's a story for another day. Watch DOREEN

+ June 18, 2008: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and RUFF RYDERS -- consider it Bikini Bottom meets Down Bottom. Just for the hell of it, I've posted this video we made of Spongebob and his crew spitting a few verses of the rap hit from 1999. You can do anything with a little editing, right?
Watch SPONGERAP

+ May 29th, 2008: EXCEPTER: "ANY AND EVERY" VIDEO RELEASED. Watch Quicktime or go to YouTube. Big shout to Peter J. Nieves from Lodger Films for producing and big up to Excepter for a great collaborative process. Additional shouts out to Kenneth Anger, Cecil B. DeMille, and the Children of the Tar Pits.

+ May 5th, 2008: Avant-Electronic Brooklyn band EXCEPTER came thru Los Angeles on their tour last week and we said, Fuck it - let's shoot a video.

Tourist sightseeing becomes ritualized black magic as John Fell and the rest of the group baptize a collection of Power Objects by fire and by water and then deliver them to locations throughout Hollywood. Shooting fast and furious over two days we came up with a lot of surprisingly great footage. I am editing now and this thing should be finished next week. The track is called And And Every from their latest album DEBT DEPT. Check out Excepter on their myspace.

+ April 14th, 2008: My video for NATALIA'S LESZ's second single POWER OF ATTRACTION is finished. This was a massive production, a rad 3 day shoot at the infamous abandoned hospital in Boyle Heights. This video takes place in a run down fascist future wet dream, involving black leather clad ballet school girls, oiled musclemen in gasmasks, death-sucking priests, demonic surgery, and an unusually oppressive office. It was amazing to me to see the response that Natalia's peeps in Poland had to potentially controversial material -- so far it has seemed that this once fascist society is thrilled to see a sexualized / deconstructed / brutal / comic-book styled nightmare based on that reality. LUKAS ETTLIN was DP on this one, and he just knocked it out of the park. So did CHAD MICHAEL WARD who got to really shine as production designer, bringing his twisted post-industrial goth vision; and I was especially honored to have KEN ROHT choreograph the video -- not just the dancing sequence but the whole video shows his stylized movement. This was my first video with a full on dance sequence and working with an experimental visionary like Ken was key to making it work. Of course, Natalia performed flawlessly and completely inhabited the role.
WATCH POWER OF ATTRACTION.

+ Feb 14th, 2008: Happy Saint Valentine. Recent updates:
      SERJ TANKIAN video BEETHOVEN'S CUNT is released and posted.
      + Natalia Lesz video has been released in Poland. We build part of the set out of actual ice, played with 2 live wolves, and had a beautiful styling team. Will be posting soon.
      + Shot EMMY ROSSUM in her home recording live versions of track from her album those are still in post, as is the video we shot for her song FALLING.
      + My SPILL CANVAS video is doing big business, top 10 on MTV, constant rotation on M2 and Fuse. Rock on, power pop.

+ October 18th, 2007: ANNOUNCEMENT: I completed the video for Serj Tankian's track "BETTHOVENS CUNT". Serj, the lead singer of SYSTEM OF A DOWN, is releasing a solo album next week and commissioned videos for every single track. The videos will all be screened across the country on OCTOBER 22nd and in LA at the Vista Theatre on the 23rd. This video is my FAVORITE one I've done. Serj gave me complete freedom and I feel as though I was able to blend my most experimental style with a deep emotional reach. Plus I got to film a real 8 foot alligator who walked down stairs, hung out on a banquet table, and generally interacted with actor Ken Roht. I can't post the vid yet, but there is more info about the screenings buried somewhere on Serj's myspace.. (UPDATE 2008: video is available). Drop me a line if you are going to the LA show.

+ October 18th, 2007: Brought Sioux Falls pop rock band SPILL CANVAS to the hard suburbs of Annaheim to shoot the video for their new single ALL OVER YOU. They were really fun to work with, Nick was a trooper, and then I got to work with the awesome FX people at Kroma who I know and love as the people that did CGI on Britney Spears "Toxic" vid. This video marks my first piece that has a kind of feel good pop sheen (even though the label kept telling me to make it "less dark") and I wound up feeling genuinely connected to Nick and his sense of lost love. The video, like the song, is a postcard from a broken heart. WATCH ALL OVER YOU.

+ September 5th, 2007: Happy birthday to me! In honor of this milestone in my slow creep towards death, I have finished new projects for THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY at Fox Atomic. Goner, written by theatre genius Peter J. Nieves, is a new approach to the nightmares so far. It's a revenge story and it is not pretty. I don't know what's wrong with me. Daniel Anderson of Idiot Pilot did an amazing job of composing a creepy, beautiful score. Check it out.

+ August, 2007: Directed a video for Idiot Pilot, a duo from Washington state. The band desperately wanted to play in the Black Lodge from David Lynch's Twin Peaks, so we put together the most kicking facsimile possible. Although at first I had considered a green screen option, I knew that these kids would get so insanely excited to actually be in the room, and I was right. Their performance was ecstatic and a pleasure to film. Big props to Garett Zunt, the art director who made the whole room happen perfectly. Clicky.

+ August 2007: Directed Against Me!'s video for their huge single THRASH UNREAL. I finally got to meet the band and do a killer performance based video. It was very cool to see how much heart they put into their performance even when - or especially when - getting soaked by 100 gallons of red wine. Watch.

+ June 2007: Butch Vig did a remix of the White People For Peace track, and we did a remix of the video, adding something that I had wanted very badly the first time: ORANGE TANKS. Inspired by an amalgamation of constructivism and war propaganda, we added a massive motion graphics component as well as a much requested "instant replay" sequence. Check out White People for Peace (Butch Vig Remix)

+ June 22 2007: You can check out the final version of my "White People For Peace" video for Against Me! on myspace by clicking here

+ May 28th 2007: Shot a music video for the band AGAINST ME! The band totally kicks ass, and the video, for the song "White People For Peace" was a blast. We had a ton of guys from the No Mercy crew come down, dress up like brightly colored vinyl toy soldiers, and do the most amazing hand to hand stunts I've ever shot. Plus a toothless maniac in white body paint, a rotund gentleman in hot pink pinstripes, and three amazing cheerleaders. TOTAL FUCKING MAYHEM. Produced by Lodger Films, who also rocked my Hellboy video back in the day and the Hills Have Eyes promos. Shot by Todd Bell. This one is the band's major label debut -- and also my own major label debut. Give it up for Devin Sarno at Warner Bros records who dug my Black Pope video and brought me on. The video will be completed post production on FRIDAY, June 1st. Check back soon.

+ April 26th 2007: Just signed a contract to work with vinyl toy design geniuses UNKL on another project - this one is a wild satire of children's shows that will permanently scar even the most jaded adult. I have started work on a show bible based on their character designs. More info as it develops..

+ April 16th 2007: THE TREE is finished. Short surrealsit horror comic written by myself, drawn by Arik Moonhawk Roper. Soon to be published in the MEATHAUS anthology. Arik's artwork is blowing me away -- see righthand column for a taste.

+ April 2007: Finished directors cut on G4 BROADBAND HOSPITAL commercial. Final color corrected movie should be here soon. This was a fun, comedic commercial I directed featuring video game characters whose asses had been kicked getting stitched up in a small town doctor's office.

+ March 24th 2007: The nightmares keep on coming. I have just finished post production on MY EXTERMINATOR, the third short in the NIGHTMARE FACTORY series commisioned by Fox Atomic. Continuing the nihilistic journey, this segment finds ROACH SUICIDE in an apocalyptic desert alongside punk rock princess MANDI JORDAN and a whole lot of flesh-gnawing 6 legged friends. In three and half minutes we take things from funny to bleak to completely damned, looking at issues of sexuality, lonliness, nukes, and these kids today along the way. Check out MY EXTERMINATOR.

+ Feb 21th 2007: Short press release article at BLOODY DISGUSTING announcing that Fox Atomic is creating a "restricted" section for gorey, extreme videos. Currently the site features all five of the videos they commissioned.

+ Feb 21st 2007: Here's the final of the three Hills Have Eyes 2 viral shorts. This is a slick medical / mutant gore for Fox Atomic in the form of MUTANT AUTOPSY. same production info as POV KILL, including more FX by Gary Tunnicliffe

+ Feb 21sth 2007: Number two out of three Hills Have Eyes 2 viral shorts. Inspired by the endless footage I've watched on youtube of iraq soldiers filming themselves in combat and out, MINE/ERADICATION is a nightvision handheld marines vs monsters slamfest.

+ January 25th 2007: Several videos of mine are being shown in Club Transmediale, a german film+music festival; the videos all come from the No-Neck Blues Band DVD that I'm working on. From the site:

"The video works of Adam Mortimer a loosely affiliated member of the No-Neck Blues Band are an unambiguously appreciative aesthetic enhancement of this Free-Form-Experimental collective's somewhat inaccessible musical oeuvre. Informed by experimental film of the 1960s, Mortimer's visual language always functions simultaneously on several layers of meaning, in both ad hoc and indirect fashion. His short films keep viewers guessing for long stretches, before suddenly culminating in a clear plot."

+ January 15th 2007: Alright! We went to the desert, and in ONE day we shot 3 (THREE) shorts for Fox Atomic. This time they are viral marketing videos for THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2. I've just finished editing the first of three. It's a little pseudo-snuff mutant-on-man action we like to call MUTANT POV KILL. Produced by Rob + Georg at Lodger Films, shot by Todd Bell, with FX by the totally legendary Gary Tunnicliffe

+ December 1st 2006: I completed a second NIGHTMARE film for Fox Atomic. Entitled FEEDER, this one stars ROACH SUICIDE from suicidegirls.com. It's even more insane than the first one -- CHECK IT OUT

+ November 1st 2006: Very nice words written at BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM: in an article covering the Fox Atomic site, they refer to The Eye Opener as "one of the coolest things on the site." Thanks guys!

+ October 30th 2006: Just in time for HALLOWEEN here's a scary-ass SHORT FILM called THE EYE OPENER I directed for FOX ATOMICs NIGHTMARE FACTORY series. We shot in a crackwhore hotel in downtown LA, where I had to bribe the guy behind bullet proof glass to let us in. I love how it turned out -- disturbing as hell.

+ July 6th 2006: Finished my MUSIC VIDEO for Erase Errata's track TAX DOLLAR. Shot in Atlanta, this projet mixes live action with stop-motion footage of dolls and toys in their own hallucinatory / psychotic world.

+ November 10th: TIME OUT NY listed my video "THE BLACK POPE" as "mp3 of the week," with a nice write-up about the band and video.

+October 21st, 2005: Finished music video "THE BLACK POPE" for No-Neck Blues Band, off their new album Qvaris on Kill Rock Stars / 5RC.

+ fxguide has posted an article about the effects behind Halloween project I directed last year for Nickelodeon. The project won a Promax Gold award. The article interviews lead compositior Emery Wells.