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Move over, AMVs–The Sims music videos are what’s hot right now and Orange County ska band Half Past Two is out 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 kicks off with a sim version of the band’s lead singer, Tara Hahn, riding her bicycle before kicking into the upbeat, pop-punk track. What ensues is a whole lot of Sim-ly hijinks involving trampolines, bull-riding, and the game’s infamous Dance Sphere.
Much like any other music video, this endeavor featured a director: Rae Mystic. While Mystic has shot plenty of music videos using more traditional methods (including some of Half Past Two’s previous videos), filming one entirely in The Sims 3 was a new and exciting challenge for them.
“I’ve been playing The Sims since the first generation of it 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 jump on.”
“When Rae threw out the idea of creating an entire music video in The Sims, I DMed them back immediately to let them know we were in,” guitarist Max Beckman added. “I completely trust Rae’s artistic vision and knew they would deliver a creative, entertaining video, despite never having worked in the medium previously. I also got to breathe a sigh of relief not having to plan a video shoot around eight members for once!”
However, while not having to coordinate eight people might have been a welcome change of pace, Mystic added that there were still a lot of processes involved–and getting the members’ corresponding 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, customized the lighting, and, of course, made sure that I made avatars for everyone in the band. Creating and ‘filming’ took about 13 hours, not including the editing. It was challenging to force Sims to do what I wanted them to do with the loose story board I had written down. Tara riding the bike in the beginning was planned, Mark riding the bull was not planned but seemed fun to throw in!”
