If we had to guess, we'd say that a music video is way out of the picture for many local bands. Too expensive, no contacts, lead singer with acne--there are handfuls of reasons. Screw all that. Dallas bands have a secret weapon if they just know where to go. There's a Kurosawa and Malick right in their own backyard. Too strong a reference? Yeah, probably, but the team behind Tactics Productions has outrageous skill and serious cred. In the summer of 2001, Kristofer Youmans (producer, director) and Kristopher Hardy (director, director of photography) directed their first video, Centro-matic's "Janitorial on Channel Fail." The study in vibrant color and cruising movement led them to create visual launching pads for bands such as The Hourly Radio, Burden Brothers, Rocket Summer, Baboon, the Fags, Deathray Davies and the Paper Chase (for whom Tactics crafted one of their finest productions and their own favorite, "Said the Spider to the Fly"). The team since has expanded to include Justin Wilson (editor) and Erin Fairbrother (producer) and has garnered much attention for this year's study in fraternal order, Slowride's "Morals and Dogma," as well as the intimate expression of Centro-matic's "Triggers and Trash Heaps."