Company Feature: Killswitch Productions
I aim to make Boston Makes Music Videos a site not just for filmmakers and musicians, but also for producers, investors and hobbyists. To embrace everyone, I am going to try to include every facet of the industry on this site. I feel a fitting way to kick off the site, then, would be to feature a company that has been the locus of many of those aspects. Welcome to Boston Makes Music Videos!
Boston has always been known as the place to go for hardcore music. But hardcore has never really been known for its music videos. There is one company in Boston that’s working to change that.
Killswitch Productions was founded in 2004, and largely still run by, one Ian McFarland. Like any profitable music video production company, Killswitch also makes commercials and feature documentaries (notably a recent project on Boston’s rising gender-bending stars, All The King’s Men), but they have been most lauded for their contributions to the hardcore music video genre. MTV2 Headbanger’s Ball loves these guys – they’ve been nominated by this show five times!
Now that you’re appropriately impressed, let me share my favorite of their works. This is a highly acclaimed 2007 clip for the band Diecast, garnering the most awards of any of Killswitch’s videos, including an Official Selection for MTV2 Headbanger’s Ball End of the Year Countdown and award for Best Use of Creativity at the No Exit Film Festival. While many of Killswitch’s videos are super conceptual, this video is more grounded in narrative (although still visually sumptuous), which even supplies us with a satisfying twist at the end. Enjoy:
Boston Makes Music Videos 