Eyes of The Insane - Music Video

Music Video

By the time Slayer decided that a music video should be filmed, touring commitments prevented their involvement in the actual shoot. Instead, others were contacted to produce the film. Director Tony Petrossian presented Slayer with the first draft, and the group made a few suggestions for improvement. Never having met him, King recalled Petrossian "had a treatment, and we all dug the treatment so we just turned him loose." "Eyes of the Insane"'s war-themed music video was filmed on August 13, 2006, in the Los Angeles area. Casting company Tolley Casparis Casting sought a male Caucasian between the ages of 18 and 26 to appear in the clip, with auditions held on August 10, 2006. The official project notes deemed that "This guy must be a serious actor, capable of emoting everything through his eyes. He was innocent a few months ago, now he is scarred by seeing so much fighting. Strong eyebrows that do not overpower the face. Scars or large veins actually a plus."

The video was shot as a "first-person narrative about the horrors leading up to the final moments of a soldier at war", and was described as "a single, long and tight close-up of the soldier's eye with images clearly reflected within his pupil and iris and perfectly choreographed with the rhythm of the music. Reflected are disconcerting images of para trooping into enemy territory, gunfire, helicopters and tanks, explosions, poignant flashbacks of his wife and child and home, and the images of his death." Two endings were shot; one in which the soldier is killed as the result of sustained combat wounds, and another in which the soldier commits suicide - the latter one was used. Jeff Hanneman confirmed that the band "loved" the eye concept, and personally felt that the video was "pretty amazing" when he first viewed it. King admitted that the film is "pretty cool — I thought it was neat idea — very different, especially for us, because we usually do performance based videos." The video was exclusively posted on mp3.com late in October 2006. In April 2007, it was announced that the video had earnd a Metal Hammer Golden God Award nomination for Best Video with the winner to be revealed on June 11, 2007, at the Koko Club in London, England.