by Move over, AMVs–Sims music videos are what’s hot right now, and Orange County ska band Half Past Two is ready to prove it. Earlier today, the ska ensemble released their music video for “Curtain Call,” which was shot entirely in The Sims 3.
The music video begins with a sim version of the band’s singer, Tara Hahn, riding her bike before launching into the upbeat, pop-punk track. What follows is a bunch of Sim-ly hijinks involving trampolines, bull riding and the game’s famous Dance Sphere.
Like every other music video, this venture featured a director: Rae Mystic. While Mystic has shot many music videos using more traditional methods (including some of their previous Half Past Two videos), shooting one entirely in The Sims 3 was a new and exciting challenge for them.
“I’ve played The Sims since its first generation, and I’ve always wanted to make a Sims music video since I was a kid,” Mystic said in a press release. “I posted on Twitter expressing my wish and Half Past Two was the first band to come up.”
“When Rae shot down the idea of making an entire music video on The Sims, I immediately DMed them to let them know we were in,” added guitarist Max Beckman. “I completely trust Rae’s artistic vision and knew she would deliver a creative, fun video, even though I had never worked in the medium before. I was also relieved not to have to design a video around eight members at once !”
However, while not having to coordinate eight people might have been a welcome change of pace, Mystic added that there was still a lot of process involved — and getting the members’ respective sims to do exactly what they wanted wasn’t always simple. Ultimately, the project took Mystic about 13 hours to complete.
“I shot the music video like any other: I built a set in-game, adjusted the lighting and, of course, made sure to make avatars for everyone in the band. It took about 13 hours to create and “shoot”, not including editing. It was hard to get the Sims to do what I wanted with the loose storyboard I had written. Tara riding the bike was originally planned, Mark riding the bull wasn’t planned, but it seemed fun to throw in!”
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