Indianapolis Jones is led by singer/songwriter Nicholas Niespodziani. That's him jumping rope. Day-Glo, trippy, amazing rope.
And, as you can (maybe?) tell, this ain't his first experience with this underrated sport/artform — his old band Y-O-U made a mockumentary about fake rope jumping team The Flying Wallabies, presumably based upon his time in the Jumphound Gang, a competitive jump-rope team, and competering in the US Nationals of rope jumping. Which sounds like a goof, but really: What would anyone get out of inventing a fictional jump rope backstory?
"Not Ghosts Yet" is also a family affair: Nick's sister Gina Niespodziani is part of directing/creative team Hey Beautiful Jerk, with Mark Szumski, and also chips in on the rope jumping.
Nicholas Niespodziani, Indianapolis Jones: My dream of a choreographed jump rope video has always been stymied by not having access to a team of competition-level jumpers. Then it hit me that if I could create glow-in-the-dark jump ropes and outfit myself in the same material, I could film the same routine several times to create the appearance of a team of jump ropers all by myself.
My sister Gina flew from Brooklyn to Atlanta to film for a couple of days. Our first collaboration — the Moviekiss Lite Brite video — was a stop-motion animated project created entirely on a Lite Brite toy that jump-started her career as a director/animator.
I ordered a full-body spandex suit and created a light suit with electroluminescent wire. I attached the wire to jump ropes, and the battery packs made them quite unwieldy compared to normal jump ropes. With the suit covering my eyes and sunglasses on top of that, I was virtually blind while filming the video. For a few of the shots -- the double dutch and "wheel" partner routines -- Gina joined me in the glow suit and dusted off her jump roping skills.
