Director of Photography

Anna Smoronova

Lubos Vacke directs an enigmatic, and beautifully cinematic&nbsp;promo for Czech musician dné, set on a Prague city train.&nbsp;The video for Traps In My Feed&nbsp;chronicles a young woman's journey from work. She's trying to avoid a phone call she doesn't feel like making, but in doing so, gets caught in an endless loop as different versions of her start to cycle through the train in which she's travelling.&nbsp;With a dark, cinematic aesthetic and captivating central performance, the video ponders the idea about our refusal to be present as a society, and the stress we put ourselves through in delaying the inevitable.&nbsp;

Czech Republic

Charlie Morris

Nochi Nochi

Lubos Vacke

Vasek Sladek

Matouš Heger

Creative Embassy

Ivo Gresak

Tadeas Trojanek

Petr Heidrich

David Ruzicka

Ludek Hynek

Matej Smelko

Palo Smoron

Tereza Kopecka

Katerina Sulcova

Filip Malasek

Alex Gregory

No.8

Michal Berka

Antonin Jirat

dné 'Traps In My Feed' by Lubos Vacke

Dne-'Traps-In-My-Feed'-by-Lubos-Vacke

Balázs Simon&nbsp;directs a sprawling 3D animated digital landscape for Bastille’s music video for their new single Thelma &amp; Louise&nbsp;from their upcoming fourth studio album. The video serves as the&nbsp;sequel to the video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/06/29/bastille-distorted-light-beam-jak-payne/71653" target="_blank">Distorted Light Beam</a>, building on the world established by Jak Payne - who joined this project as creative director.In this high concept work, we join frontman Dan&nbsp;exactly where we left him in the previous video:&nbsp;having entered the Futurescape with The Engineer, played by Remmie Milner.As the world continues to crumble outside, we see our heroes floating in a virtual fantasyland made entirely of pixel-like cubes. In the digital space, their avatars have moments of intimacy and play which intercut with their live-action counterparts.[imgtoken data:1]To build this 3D universe, Balázs and his team had to develop custom code, animating up to 90 million individual elements, each with its own defined mass and physics. The scale of this project meant that optimisation and rendering on the fly were integral. This process ensured there was enough computer memory and processing power for the video to be completed. Balázs later discovered that Pixar had to overcome similar hurdles in making the film&nbsp;Soul.The finished product is an immersive and impactful world that elevates Bastille’s new music into an audiovisual experience and impressive addition to Balázs Simon’s growing portfolio.[imgtoken data:2]

United Kingdom

Balázs Simon

Jak Payne

Máté Barbalics

Rosie Brear

Blinkink

Josef Byrne

Laura Northover

Remmie Milner

Tuna + Icon

Feature Films For Families

Szilard Totszegi

Umbrella Budapest

Blink

Bastille 'Thelma & Louise' by Balázs Simon

Balázs Simon - Bastille 'Thelma and Louise

Jak Payne steps into the future for Bastille’s new single Distorted Light Beam, opening the door to a world where tech advances allow users to explore multiple realities, as they plug-in and exist in an exalted state.Sitting as part of a wider campaign for Bastille and as the culmination of a series of cryptic social media videos, the film takes place some years from now, where the mass adoption of a new technology have enabled consumers of the corporate giant Future Inc to fully immerse themselves by plugging into a digital world called the Futurescape.[imgtoken data:1]The video follows lead actor Remmie Milner, recently featured in the hit HBO series His Dark Materials, cast as a Future Inc engineer who’s job is to service and update the software.The extremes of the world are revealed after she discovers Bastille’s Dan Smith, the only other person not wearing a plug, and embarks on a mission to find out more before finally succumbing and following him into the Futurescape.Shot on location in Belgrade and making full use of the brutalist architecture, Jak Payne creates an expansive and immersive world that introduces us to different layers of society and fully translates the interior experience of being plugged into the Futurescape. Payne worked closely with the Blinkink studio to design the VFX and animator Balázs Simon for the 3D shots.[imgtoken data:2]"It was really great to get a brief that referenced so many of the films and genres that I love," he says. "We had such a fun time building this world for Dan and Remmie to explore, and could really draw on a lot of classic sci-fi in that development. It was great being able to go and shoot some of the amazing locations they have in Belgrade and meeting so many talented and exciting people in the process."Blink EP Laura Northover adds that a lot of fun was had making the video. "It was an ambitious project, but Jak’s attention to detail and focus took it to the next level," she says. "The challenge was to build the world and establish its rules in a short amount of time and he really achieved that - I just wish we could now make it into a feature!"

Marko StepiĆ

Ivan Grbin

Marko Jokić

Nedeljko Maletić

Damjan Paranosić

Suna Kažić

Zvezdana Svetozarević

Marija Stošić

Zlata Blagojević

Samuel Marr

Angus Wilson

The Mill

Amy Smith

Ivana Antic

Jelena Radojević

Diana Bojović

Miloš Kodemo

Bastille 'Distorted Light Beam' by Jak Payne

Bastille-'Distorted-Light-Beam'-by-Jak-Payne

A man experiences time slips as an elusive woman pops in and out of his vision, in Jay Walker's mesmerising promo for Diplo and Sonny Fodera.&nbsp;Playing with themes of sanity, time and the very fabric of reality itself, the video moves at a breakneck speed, as the protagonist tries his best to maintain a sense of normality.&nbsp;DoP&nbsp;Anna Smoroňová uses lasers and strobing light effects to match the frenzied energy of the concept, and intermixes static establishing shots with handheld camerawork and subtle Snorricam footage to reflect the abstract vision.&nbsp;

Jay Walker

Klára Plechsson

Provoke Pictures

Mojas Perovic

Zach Slouka

Patrik Rams

Lukáš Král

Jirka Vrana

Jirka Krmelík

Martin Polák

Andrej Pocisk

Phil La Noiraude

Jakub Jelínek

Marina Starke

Sam Seager

Vojtěch Komrzý

Electronic

Diplo & Sonny Fodera 'Turn Back Time' by Jay Walker

Diplo-&-Sonny-Fodera-'Turn-Back-Time'-by-Jay-Walker

Jay Walker's spellbinding video for Slovakian singer Katarzia Kubošiová is a gripping, impressionistic&nbsp;affair, dramatising&nbsp;different historical strands, connected by their theme: the subjugation&nbsp;of women by men&nbsp;and their institutions. It's so impressive it has been championed by women's groups protesting against systematic sexism and limits on reproductive rights in Slovakia and neighbouring Poland.In storylines that she devised with Katarzia and her DoP Anna&nbsp;Smoronova in response to recent events&nbsp;in Slovakia, NFTS graduate Walker interweaves three enigmatic narratives: in the first, set at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a group of women gathering quietly in a forest are discovered and then&nbsp;chased&nbsp;by the menfolk of the village; in the second, a Catholic priest whips&nbsp;himself up into a&nbsp;frenzy of anger; in the third, perhaps set in the Soviet era,&nbsp;a pregnant woman is wheeled into a committee, to be&nbsp;gynaecologically examined by apparatchniks.[imgtoken data:1]Each separate narrative strand features leading Slovakian acting talent, which has been a factor in popularising the video and getting its message across to Czech-speaking audiences. But&nbsp;the real power and instant engagement of the piece comes from Walker's assured direction and in Smoronova's&nbsp;exceptional cinematography. &nbsp;The DoP was one of an all-female complement of heads of department on this video, and as Walker explains below, she instigated a mentoring scheme on the production as well, so three young women could shadow her and the department heads during the making of the film, to get that crucial first foothold in a male-dominated industry. Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.And since it has been released, events in neighbouring Poland, with women's groups protesting against draconian new laws forbidding abortion in almost all cases, Walker has been&nbsp;fielding numerous enquiries&nbsp;from Polish press to comment on the situation. If the video has become a cause célèbre, then its entirely worthy of the attention.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2]&nbsp;

Slovakia

Jakub Koula

Kristýna Rousková

Radka Filipská

Nina Feriancová

Simon Says Casting

Tomáš Brož

Slnko Records

Petr Oplatka

Alternative

Electronica

Katarzia 'Even Water Burns' by Jay Walker

Katarzia-'Even-Water-Burns'-by-Jay-Walker

A beautiful woman lures Alle Farben into a surprising challenge in Jared Malik Royal's&nbsp;atmospheric and stylish video for the German producer, filmed in Bangkok.When he senses this glamourous female&nbsp;outside his room, Farben is irresistably drawn into following her through dark, and smoke-filled streets. And then he emerges into anoutdoor party, taking place among a selection of sleek supercars.&nbsp;Farben finds himself taking to the wheel of one of the vehicles, taking on a mysterious driver in a burn-up along the Bangkok strip in the video's adrenalin-fuelled finale.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Malik Royal's video draws its inspiration from traditional Thai folklore, with the girl as an updated personification of the goddess Mae Nang Kwak - regarded&nbsp;as a symbol of good fortune and prosperity. Likewise, Malik Royal's version also leads Farben to excitement, and success.

Anna Smoronova

Director of Photography

Videos featuring Anna Smoronova

2023 (1)

2021 (3)

2020 (2)

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