New York-based design and animation studio Click 3X recently launched Haunt, a division that specializes in cutting-edge motion design for music videos, virals, and installations. Through the years, Click 3X has cultivated partnerships with both directors and artists, uniting to create visually powerful music video projects-the launch of Haunt, which will be headed by lead VFX artist Mark Szumski, is indicative of this collection of work. The group's latest project, now showcased on the Haunt site, is the highly-acclaimed music video for I Decided by Solange Knowles-the first major release from Beyonce's younger sister. Click recognizes that these types of stylistic works require a distinct, intensively collaborative approach and a commitment to this unique visual style led to the development, and ultimate launch of the new division. In addition to the recent work with Solange, Haunt's rapidly expanding body of work has fused innovative directors including Timothy Saccenti, Floria Sigismondi, Georgie Greville (until recently with MTV) and Epoch's Matt Lenski with successful artists such as Jamie Lidell, Zero7, Mark Ronson, and Fallout Boy.
Their latest historic visual voyage, I Decided, is the video for the first single off Solange’s new album, SoL-AngeL and The Hadley St. Dreams, set to be released in August. With the help of Haunt’s artists and VFX talent, Solange is transported across a kaleidoscopic journey through the decades in a fantastical montage of politics and pop culture. In the foreground of a flurry of multi-colored newsreels, iconic symbols, bright lights, and glitter, Solange performs in the styles of the times-vintage clothing, hairstyles and dances included. Haunt artists worked with director Melina of RSA to create the series of intricate and imaginative media environments. On working with Szumski, Melina muses, “Since the piece jumps through different decades it was important that the style of the artwork and visuals mirrored the artistic trends of that era, incorporating the political aspects of the archival footage while maintaining the pop feel of the song. Not only was the artwork informed by the decades, but so was the look of the actual film—the 80s filled with video footage and television static while the 70s portion had a more grainy feel, like it was 16mm. Overall, it was a tremendously difficult balance to capture, but Mark consistently was able to develop new looks that were all equally as amazing as the ones before.”

Also commenting on the making of the video, Nicole Ehrlich, Director of Creative Services and Broadcast Media (video commissioner) at Interscope/geffen/a&m, notes, “The Click 3X team was the integral part of bringing this Solange video – I Decided – Pt. 1 and I Decided – Pt. 2 – to the next level. They not only went above and beyond the treatment and call of duty, but blew my mind and expectations on the end product…more like an art piece. It was musical and visual and super cutting-edge, while throwing back to classic styles. I wish they had time to work with me on everything! They get aesthetic and really understand all genres and ideas. They make dreams a reality! Best of all they are listeners, but have great opinions, making them easy to work with and flexible. They just want to make dope stuff!”

Click 3X artists worked primarily in Flame, Maya, as well as liquid light and cloud chamber film plates actually from the 60s and 70s, to create all the design environments, paper textures, and color treatments. Commenting on the breadth of the process, Szumski explains, “The work for I Decided is the most effects shots weve ever done for one project-nearly every frame was designed and the project ended up with over 300 effects shots! Collaborating with Melina before, during, and after the shoot allowed us to get so many great shots as quickly as possible and really elevate the artistry of the decade-by-decade creative tour.” Achieving immediate success, the recently-released video has already garnered over half-a-million hits across popular video-sharing and media sites, and another 200,000 views on celebrity blog PerezHilton.com. Szumski also adds, “We have created a really powerful and diverse body of work across the entire music spectrumwith really different visual and design environments, from Animal Collective to Solange. The entire team here, as well as at RSA and the label, was truly thrilled with how the I Decided turned out and the acclaim it has already received since it released.”

The Haunt team draws on all the creative resources of both Click 3X and ClickFire Media to continue to produce ground-breaking visual solutions. While the company has always worked with music videos, the official launch of Haunt only reinforces the team’s cooperative, creative focus, and significant collection of work. Clicks Founder Peter Corbett elaborates, “We wanted to build an environment to showcase some really cool and innovative work in music videos, both historically and several recent projects that really highlight our range.” Partner/MD Jason Mayo adds, “The last several years have been great for our growth; we have been able to build up our resources and talent pool and the launch of both ClickFire Media and now Haunt really display our depth and ability to work across channels and on the entire spectrum of projects.” In addition to Solange, the Haunt site displays the divisions wide range of music video projects, including:

- Fallout Boy “We’re Going Down”, with over 3 million web views
- Jamie Lidell “Another Day”, a YouTube featured video four times internationally
- Animal Collective “Peacebone”, with over 700,000 YouTube views
- Doctor Octagon “Trees”, an environmentally-conscious, musical PSA with over 300,000 views
- Suga Pop “Suga Pop Viral”
- Living Things “Bom Bom Bom”
- Zero Seven “Throw It All Away”
- The Giraffes “Having Fun”
- Mark Ronson “Stop Me”
- MetalBallz “Metal Method”

Haunt takes pride in enthusiastically embracing the unique risks and opportunities that characterize music videos, while also establishing powerful creative partnerships across the industry. The entire Click 3X family employs the same philosophy, as they develop compelling visual solutions across advertising, interactive, and broadcast. By pushing the limits of creative possibility, Click 3X remains at the forefront of cutting-edge integrated media properties across platforms. In addition to the range of design, animation, and effects for music videos at Haunt, their talented creative team continues to deliver innovative solutions in advertising, recently working on projects for brands including Motorola, Ford, Verizon, Coca-Cola, and Time Warner.