Video

New music video for the track “Devil and the Gun” from Grand Bargain!. Directed by Rick

Shot on a warm afternoon in Connecticut during the 2018 East Coast tour. Directed by Michael Mongillo, Meantime Productions

The lovely Allerton Mansion in Monticello, Illinois plays the role of the White House in this video. Directed by John Isberg

This time our green screen was made out of cloth from the local fabric shop rather than paper from the local school supply store. The lovely stock footage came from the Prelinger Archives. We were trying to make the kind of video you would see on Night Flight or MV3, actually that pretty much sums up the intent for most of our videos. Directed by Rick

Shot on DV with a green screen set up in R ‘n R’s living room plus a location shoot in the back yard on a cold December night. Jim’s method acting surprised us all, he not only stayed in character for the duration of filming, but is still in character to this day. The dream of a Poster Children video that looks like a newscast is finally realized. Directed by Rick

Another pre-DV clip shot in the basement of Rick and Rose’s house. This tiny room actually exists, although it is not the inspiration for the song. Nothing exciting happend while filming except a broken light bulb during a manic dance sequence. Directed by Rick

The dawn of the Poster Children DIY video era. Shot with a home videocam and edited at 320X240 pixels, 12 fps in a time before Digital Video. We were questioned by the police as to why a group of young men and women dressed in black uniforms were hanging around a storage yard filled with cement pipes. They thought we were a SWAT team or militia group on exercises. Directed by Rick

A public service announcement made for Fox TV. We were flown to LA and filmed in a real Hollywood studio; the closest we have ever gotten to a big budget video. The most shocking revelations: it is very, very difficult to look good in tights and Howie was born to wear a police officer’s uniform.

David offered to do this video at no cost to us, so we packed up and drove to Beantown. This was a big production with a crew, a set filled with water, a crane, filmstock and location shooting on a public beach, complete with police and a small crowd of onlookers. There was a big argument at the end when it was discovered the director of photography had shot everything really dark. Directed by David Ring

We got this one on the cheap because it was to be part of a demo reel for a new video production company in Chicago. As a result it’s kind of a kitchen sink of different people’s talents. Our original concept was to have the video look like a news broadcast but somehow that was re-translated into a band broadcasting to a bunch of paper cutout people in a post-apocalyptic, nightmare world. Directed by Eric Zimmerman

We built a set in our loft using foam insulation panels painted white. It was August and the loft had no A.C. resulting in some very sweaty close-ups. We knew Matt the director because he had been the drummer for the legendary Thin White Rope. Our attempt at making a New Wave-style video. Directed by Matt Abourezk

This was shot on ruins left after the filming of “Backdraft” in Chicago. We were most likely trespassing but it was a great location. MTV had some kind of issue with the guy blowing himself up but we explained that people who blow up in dynamite chairs don’t die (it’s not suicide, it’s a stunt) and all was OK. Directed by Bill Ward

The first of many attempts to weave text into our videos. It looks good but unintentionally references Van Halen’s “Right Now” video. This was done in a real studio so there was a deli tray, hence the heavily symbolic shot of Johnny eating an apple. Directed by Bill Ward

Initially we were going to do a video for Chain Reaction but Bill convinced everyone that the video should be If You See Kay (duh!). He came down to Champaign, taped us in our practice space which was quickly decorated with a tiki backdrop from local party suppliers Dallas & Co. The outdoor scenes were done near some train tracks in Chicago, the live stuff was at the Metro. Directed by Bill Ward