Taylor Swift won big at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night (September 11th) in New York, scooping seven VMAs - mostly for the video for Fortnight, her collaboration with Post Malone.Fortnight won Video Of The Year and Best Direction - as Taylor Swift directed the video that award went to her too. The video also won Best Editing, the award going to Chancler Haynes, and also won the awards for Best Pop and Best Collaboration. Swift also won Artist Of The Year. Other winners included Chappell Roan (Best New Artist), Lenny Kravitz's Human (Best Rock Video), LISA's Rockstar, directed by Henry Scholfield, which won Best K-Pop Video. Dua Lipa's Houdini, won Best Choreography, while Katy Perry's video for Roar won the Video Vanguard award.• Find all the winners of MTV VMAs 2024 here

Martina Pastori explores themes of class, isolation and loneliness in her video for London-based rock outfit High Vis, featuring Welsh movement artist Sem Osian. The video for Mind's A Lie begins with a jolt: a scene akin to recent turbulent events of unrest and violence in Britain. But writer/director Pastori endeavours to create a rounded portrait of a disaffected and disturbed working class young man, played by Osian, in the film shot in South London.The song itself provided the jumping off point for the creation of Osian's character. In Mind's A Lie, High Vis frontman Graham Sayle says that he wanted to "look at how quickly negative habits can take control when you lack a positive or constructive outlet for your energy." And he makes clear that this is a situation caused by decisions made at government level."While the language of mental health provision has found fertile ground in the churn of social media, access to essential services has been decimated by the indifference of successive Tory governments," adds Sayle. "Further division has been stoked through governmental rhetoric and media scapegoating. Without adequate support in times of crisis, life can quickly spiral into an angry and isolated existence."Pastori makes that political point by focussing entirely on Osian, as a very believable character caught in that spiral.

Shanelle Jae and her best friend make a statement on a London street in Tansy Taylor's sassy video for the rising R&B artist's Saka For The Boys.Dressed to kill and plenty of attitude to boot, Shanelle and her feisty pal seem to upset a few locals with their larger than life presence. But one young girl is definitely impressed. Filmed on a modest budget in the director's home neighbourhood in Kentish Town, North London, Tansy Taylor says: "It was a lovely day in the sunshine with a wonderful team."

In our latest Snapshot Q&A, the CMN PPL director reflects on a very busy year so far with Soft Play, getting the call from hip hop legends, loving Edgar Wright's cult TV classic, and why the music video pitching process needs fixing.Thomas (or Tommy) Davis picked up a camera when he discovered skateboarding at 12 and hasn't looked back - but his work still holds true to his roots. Davis directs music videos that are bursting with raw energy, colour and humour, creating great vids for the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Willow Kayne, NOISY and the band fka Slaves, who he has been working with this year. He is also an accomplished live video director, working with Beabadoobee, Sam Fender and others. And with a few year's experience under his belt now, his skillset also includes creative direction, commercial directing and documentary making. And photography - so it's great that Tommy could do another kind of Snapshot for us...Name: Tommy DavisBirthday: May 1997Where did you grow up? Essex, UKPlace of further education and course (if any)? London Southbank Universty, BA HONS Film PracticeWhere do you live now? Essex, UKWhat were the important first projects for you, in terms of a learning experience and getting noticed?I think the important first project would have had to be the video I directed at the start of my career with my good friend RAT BOY. At the time I had never directed anything more than a few kids rapping/spitting bars at the local skatepark. So after building my relationship with RB and the commissioner at Parlophone [Sam Seager], I directed my debut video - for Get Over It - in the middle of the desert in Spain.It was very exciting - a mental experience for me. And then a few months after its release it got nominated for Best Music Video at the NME Awards in 2017. So that's what kicked it all off.Best film you’ve seen this year? A24’s Maxxxine - or Despicable Me 4 (ha)Favourite song/album/music artist this year? Fontaines D.C. - Romance; Beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves; SOFT PLAY - Heavy JellyFavourite music video/videos you’ve seen this year? The favourite from me has to be Aube Perrie for Fontaines' Starburster. Surreal narratives - always so much fun to be explored with videos like this.What has been (or usually is) your favourite night out this year? Corrr, anything spontanious with friends. Or any evening at Glastonbury.Too many directors pitch on videos and just get completely ghosted on their ideas.Name a film or video or other creative work that had a huge influence on your career choice?This is a hard question. But in terms of television, it would have to be Edgar Wright’s debut TV series Spaced, from the early 2000s. It was the production that put Edgar, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the map.The show is amazing, but Season 1 Episode 6 in particular. If you’re new to music videos or already making them, pay close attention the relationship between the sound and image in this show. You could learn somethingWhat about music video-related jobs of the past year or so… What were the most rewarding creatively, and why?Over the past year, I took on the role of creative director for the punk band SOFT PLAY, formerly known as SLAVES. I led the entire rebranding process, including bringing their name-change to life. In addition, I directed four wildly unique music videos for each of the singles on their album: Punk's Dead, Mirror Muscles, Act Violently and Everything & Nothing.I led the entire rebranding process, including bringing their name-change to life.My work also involved creating a one-hour album documentary, photographing the album artwork, and managing two press campaigns, along with capturing moments from multiple festivals and two tours. It was incredibly challenging work with tight budgets, but thanks to my amazing team, we were always able to push the boundaries as far as possible.What are your favourite other (non-mv) projects of the past year or so?Directing the commercial for the long awaited KORN x Adidas clothing collection. We shot it in Vegas in two days with the band. So dope.Most annoying/irksome thing that’s been going on this year (work-related or otherwise)? TIK TOK & AI… HA! Nah, but the amount of hate in the world is obviously something that is just beyond too far. Palestine, the UK riots. We all gotta start coming together and spreading more love across the world xWhat’s the most surprising thing that’s happened this year? Getting the dial-up to shoot Dr Dre, Snoop & Eminem all performing together in London.Your top suggestion to change and improve how the music video industry works?Fix the pitching process. Directors write a short pitch/ bio. Commissoners/Artist pick two or three to meet with. Then the all directors agreed to bid write on the video. Cancellations on the chosen video will incur a late fee. Too many directors pitch on videos and just get completely ghosted on their ideas.What are you looking forward to most for the summer and/or the rest of the year?Summer has been awesome. Live music has been pretty damn spectacular. Now I’m looking to focus get writing & make some non-music related projects too.• Tommy Davis is a director at Common People Films, represented for music videos by Andy Roberts at Las Bandas Be Brave - check his showreel here.

Jake River Parker directs a standout one-take promo for Myles Morgan. The concept for In The Dark seems deceptively simple at first glance - a long take of the artist by a lighthouse, and a solo performance on a cliff - but when you start taking notice of the immense logistical challenges and how beautiful everything looks, it's clear that this is a truly inspired visual. The performances on-screen are understated and mellow, matching the breezy calm of the location, building to something exciting and stirring with the saxophone performance. Better known as an experienced music video producer, River Parker demonstrates skill as a director here: his eye for detail and timing shines through. It's one of those videos that gets better each time you watch it. "We knew we wanted to do a stupidly long one taker video, in a stupidly crazy location that no one had shot at before, and this is what we came up with," the director explains."The producer and artist scaled a 2 hour cliff down to the beach to reach the lighthouse at 3am, in complete darkness, whilst the rest of us set up at the top and waited, radio in hand, praying they would turn up and we could shoot."As we started shooting, the tide arrived, blocking the artist off from the rest of the world, stuck on the lighthouse for 8 hours. But, we got the shot. And what a shot it is, only made even more beautiful by the magic colourist Kaitlyn at Ethos Studio."With a £0 budget, and a lot of passion, we made this dream video of mine happen, and we are incredibly proud of what we made. A simplistic but beautifully captured true one taker."

Bryan M. Ferguson creates a hardcore glitchfest for US electronic duo Machine Girl, riffing on edgy techno videos and sci-fi movies from back in the day.Another fine example of the Scottish director's uncompromising aesthetic, stylistic flair and resourceful approach to filmmaking. "We had less than than a week to shoot, cut and deliver this video," says Ferguson. "A neck break speed production and intense shoot that consisted of running around an old glue factory in the middle of Glasgow with a skeleton cast and crew who were willing to break themselves to create something that felt like a feverish live-action anime film that was forgotten in on a video shop shelf back in the early 2000s."The video explores using retro-tech to invade someone's dream state with the ability of turning it into a nightmare."