Israel is rarely a whistle-stop on the tour schedule of popular bands, a fact that director Adam Bizanski bemoans. As a lover of North American artists such as The Shins and Wolf Parade, that meant he had to be industrious when trying to convince the former to let him direct for them. In 2003, while serving a mandatory three-year term in the army, Bizanski wrote The Shins a letter and instructed a friend to deliver it along with a CD of his work to the band after a small in-store performance in New York. They called several months later and asked him to direct "Pink Bullets". While Bizanski majored in computers and communication in high school, he's largely self-taught, which is amazing considering the sophistication of his stop-motion animation style. The 23-year-old Tel Aviv-based director first gained local acclaim with his high school graduate film, A Story With A So-So Ending. It caught the eye of local artist Yoni Bloch, for whom Bizanski later directed a video while on his twice-monthly leaves from the army. Since the Shins, he's directed videos for Wolf Parade ("Modern World" - see Playlist, May 2006) and Zero 7 (featuring Jose Gonzalez "Left Behind"), which is his first foray into live action, something he'd like to do more of. Originally from Haifa (his family, all safe, spent time in a shelter during the most recent outbreak of violence in the region), Bizanski says Tel Aviv is a cultural center and like a different world compared to the rest of Israel. "It's like a massive bubble that is really hard to penetrate, even with the political situation as complex as it is." Recently signed to London's Joyrider films, he says he'd like to live somewhere other than Israel at some point, though not as a mode of escape. "I think living somewhere else would be a good thing to do, just as a person. To go and see if I miss Israel or if I'm just staying here because I was born here." If and when he does find another place to call home, if even for a while, it's guaranteed he'll get to see all the bands he wants.