Ace Norton
Ace Norton (born May 24, 1982, in Venice, Los Angeles, California) is a Japanese American filmmaker and artist born and raised in Venice, California. Norton creates visuals on a variety of media platforms including music videos, commercials, fashion films, and movies. Norton also is known for his drawings, sculptures, and frequently commissioned installation work.
Ace Norton | |
---|---|
Born | Venice, California | May 24, 1982
Occupation | Film & Video Director |
Years active | 2001-present |
Website | acenorton.com |
Biography
Norton grew up in Venice, and is the son of writer/director Bill Norton Junior and grandson of motion picture screenwriter William Norton Senior.
Norton spent most of high school shooting short films. One of which, "Cherry Coke Rage", won the highest award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. By the end of his high school career Norton had produced over 200 short films. Following graduation Norton attended the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinema.
At USC Norton began to direct music videos for local Los Angeles bands. While in college Norton and friends (Toben Seymour, Hiro Murai, Charles Spano, Asiel Norton) created Commondeer Films. Using Norton's bedroom as office space, they would spend weekends emailing bands and animating low budget music videos. Commondeer produced over 40 music videos. After building his name in the Los Angeles art & music scenes, Norton's work caught the attention of Partizan founder Georges Bermann. In 2007, Norton signed to Partizan, then shortly thereafter to Prettybird (London) & Solab (France), & REPRESENT (Germany)...
Since then, Ace has directed over eighty music videos, television commercials, fashion shorts, and short films. His prolific body of work includes music videos for groups such as Foster The People, The Fray, Jennifer Lopez, Scissor Sisters, Aesop Rock, The Virgins, Sebastien Tellier, Death Cab for Cutie, Norah Jones, Steve Aoki, Regina Spektor, Bloc Party and Simian Mobile Disco, And campaigns for Lexus, Gucci, Honda, Coca-Cola, La Mer, Old Spice, Adidas, Samsung, Smirnoff, Nissan, Gap, Mercedes, Dolby, Happy Socks, Paco Rabanne, T-Mobile, House of Fraser, and many many more.
Ace’s work has been featured in the L.A. Times, The Huffington Post, Nowness, Nylon, Interview, Anthem, Boards, Promo magazine and numerous others. Highsnobiety regarded him as one of the "Best 10 Directors Working Today". He won Best Film and Best Director at the Milan Fashion Film Festival as well of a slew of others at Berlin and La Jolla. He was nominated for “Director of the Year” at the MVPA for his video “Hustler,” by Simian Mobile Disco. This also won “Video of the Year” at the ViMus Music Video Awards and is listed as one of the “Top 100 Music Videos of All Time” by NME. His work for Death Cab for Cutie was nominated for a Grammy. His films and videos have also been shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival, SXSW, and festivals in Berlin, Venice, Japan, and England. Ace has served as the president of the jury at the Off Film Festival in Venice, Italy and was a keynote speaker at both LAMVF and in Berlin.
Ace loves to surf. He is a good friend of actor Emile Hirsch.
Videography
Music videos
- Sébastien Tellier – "La Ritournelle" (2005)
- The Willowz – "Ulcer Soul" (2005)
- Smoosh – "La Pump" (2005)
- The Faint – "Desperate Guys" (2005)
- Everybody Else – "Rich Girls, Poor Girls" (2003)
- A Gun Called Tension – "Gold Fronts" (2005)
- Death Cab for Cutie – "Someday You Will Be Loved" (2006)
- The Waking Hours – "Heartbeat" (2004)
- Executive Producer – Neon Blonde – "Headlines" (2005)
- Tahiti 80 – "Chinatown" (2005)
- Death Cab for Cutie – "Crooked Teeth" (2005)
- The Sounds – "Tony the Beat" (2006)
- Peter Walker – "What Do I Know" (2006)
- Smoosh – "Find a Way" (2006)
- Guster – "The New Underground" (2006)
- Teddybears feat. Madcobra – "Cobrastyle" (2006)
- Norah Jones – "Thinking About You" (2006)
- Patrick Wolf – "Hard Times" (2009)
- Norah Jones – "Sinkin' Soon" (2006)
- Mandy Moore – "Extraordinary" (2007)
- Mickey Avalon – "Jane Fonda" (2007)
- The Willowz – "Evil Son" (2007)
- Simian Mobile Disco – "Hustler" (2007)
- Aesop Rock – "Coffee" (2007)
- Bloc Party – "Flux" (2007)
- The Mountain Goats – "Sax Rohmer #1" (2007)
- LCD Soundsystem – "Big Ideas" (2007)
- Santogold – "Creator" (2007)
- Sébastien Tellier – "Divine" (2007)
- Does It Offend You, Yeah? – "Dawn of the Dead" (2007)
- She & Him (Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward) – "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" (2008)
- The Fray – "Never Say Never" (2008)
- The Virgins – "Teen Lovers" (2009)
- Felix Cartal – "Volcano" feat. John Whitney (2010)
- Darwin Deez – "Radar Detector" (2010)
- Scissor Sisters – "Any Which Way" (2010)
- Foster the People – "Helena Beat" (2011)
- Foster the People – "Call it What You Want" (2011)
- Regina Spektor – "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" (2012)
- Best Coast – "The Only Place" (2012)
- Jennifer Lopez – "Goin' In" (2012)
- The Knocks – "Comfortable" (2014)
- phantoms – "voyeur" (2015)
- Vic Mensa – "16 Shots" (2018)
Short films
- Vacuum (2021)
- All Alone in April (2020)
- Happy Socks x THE RAMONES
- Please Touch the Art- Cantor Fine Art
- NINE LIVES with Elijah wood, Michael Angarano, Mike White, Christian Slater, Melodie Diaz, Niki Reed
- "synchronicity" 2016
- Funny or Die "9 Lives" episode (2010)
- Dewana's Bridal – starring Jaime King and Kick Gurry (2009)
- Electronic Beats – "Soundscapes" (2008)
- Powertape Short – "Oblivions Corner", starring Charles Spano (2009)
- Wake up Call – starring Emile Hirsch (2008)
- God Bless Bloc Party (documentary) (2005)[1]
Commercials
- Bonobos- The Undefinable
- Palacio Del Hierro- xmas campaign 2021
- Wedgewood- Welcome to Wedgewood
- ADDAMS Family x Go Rving
- La Mer campaign w/ Ana De Armas
- Estee Lauder- Face/ Off
- Lexus- Style w/ MJ Rodriguez
- Lexus- The Whole Package
- Lexus- Freestyle
- Old Spice- The Great Journey
- GUCCI x Farfetch
- Jose Cuervo- This is Rumba
- Smirnoff Christmas campaign w/ Laverne Cox (2019)
- Happy Sock Christmas campaign with Gaten Matarazzo (2019)
- Kinder- Bueno
- HSE 24- Spookily Beautiful
- Tribute- With Character
- Birkenstock- An Ode to Feet
- Lycra X Bandaloop
- Vin Vault- The Heist
- Bonprix- Germany
- Pantene- Miracles
- Lexus campaign starring Minnie Driver
- House of Fraser Christmas Champaign- Your Rules
- Oreo- Shaquille O'Neal
- Oreo- Christina Aguilera
- Oreo- Neymar Jr.
- Summoners War- Breaking the Barrier
- Mercedes Benz- Midnight in Stuttgart
- LILD- Reality
- Dell- Highly Specialized Henry
- Dell- Dial in Debra
- Dell- Desk Jockey Jerry
- Happy Socks x SNOOP DOGG- The Art of Inspiration
- Kalenji
- Paco Rabanne campaign w/ Emily Ratajkowski
- Smirnoff- Smash
- LA MER- Tokyo
- REBELLE
- F&F- Supermarket Woman
- Gogurt- Win Wheels
- Nissan- Tough love
- Coke Zero- Heroes
- Orbit- Clean Mouth Clean world
- MERCEDES- CHINA
- Vo5- Heads Up
- Honda Civic- FREEDOM
- Honda Hybrid - Ecosystems
- T- Mobile- Soundscapes
- Dolby - Soundscapes w Jodie smith
- Sephora- China
- Coca Cola- summer
- Honda- Element
- DEX- Local Rhythms
- McDonald’s Flip Flop
Fashion Films
- Mercedes Benz- Midnight in Stuttgart
- SYN·CHRO·NIC·I·TY- (Winner- Best Film - Cinemoi Festival, cffa Winner- Best concept- Australian Fashion Film Festival)
- An Ode to Feet- Birkenstock (2019)
- The New Sovereignty – Rhie 2017
- Welcome to wedgewood- (2020)
- GUCCI x Farfetch
- Since Last Time- INSIGHT
- The Purgatory of Monotony ( 2016) –(*Best Film, Best Director, and Best Art Direction awards at the Milan Fashion Film Festival*Gold- Best Fashion & Best Production Design. Silver- Best Actress & Best Editing. Bronze for Best Idea at the Berlin Fashion Film Festival Best Creative Concept & Best Actress at the International Fashion Film Festival *Best Actress- Mercdes-Benz Bokeh Fashion Film Festival Best Production Design- Australian International Fashion Film Festival)
- The Bad Boy- Rhie 2014
References
- "God Bless Bloc Party". IMDb.