Video / Clients

CLIENT: Warner Brothers
Frank Sinatra - "This Town" (Music Video For The Mint Royale Remix)
(June 2007)

WHAT I DID:
A lot of friggin' editing / sync

DESCRIPTION:
When the movie "Oceans 13" came out, Warner Brothers had the band Mint Royale create a special remix of the Frank Sinatra song "This Town".

A friend at Warners sent me the remix, and suggested that I cut up Frank Sinatra footage to create a music video for the remix. A quick trip to Amoeba to pick up the "Sinatra" TV special on DVD, and I was off.

To say that it was difficult to find specific words in the TV special to match the remix is a true understatement. It took a few days to map out all the lyrics, and find as many of the words as I could. When I finished the video, I sent it off to Warners for approval.

Warners loved it. Sinatra's estate did not.

Still, Warners said I could put the video on YouTube. OK. Uploaded. Done.

Bam. Copyright takedown.

Not only did the video get taken down, but apparently Frank Sinatra Jr. was so personally upset by the video that he got my phone number from Warners, and called me up directly...to yell...a lot. The thing is, I didn't believe it was really him, so I hung up on him. This then started a fun email chain between me, Warners and Mr. Sinatra Jr.

I've had this video rotting away on a hard drive for nearly fifteen years (as of this post). I think it's time for the video to come back online.

Enjoy! And, go buy or stream the Mint Royale remix! Remember, I just did the video. Mint Royale did the actual remix.

Fun additional story...

If you are a regular visitor to this website, you know that I do (did) a lot of Holiday Mixes. One year, I threw some drum and bass behind (wait for it) Frank Sinatra. One of the people I gave a limited CD-R copy of the mix to was my friend DJ Dave, who was the in-store DJ at Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard.

One night, Dave called me. "Daniel, I just got yelled at for playing your Christmas mix." "Really? Did the manager at the shop have a problem with the mix?" "No. Frank Sinatra Jr. was shopping in the store at the same time I played the mix. He was furious. I tried to explain to him that a friend of mine did the mix, and that it was not for sale. He didn't care. He was furious that I was even playing it in the shop."

So, apparently, I pissed off Mr. Frank Sinatra Jr. twice.

Sorry.