Producer (UK)

Hannah Cooper

Tanu Muino brings us the first outstanding British music video event of 2023 with Sam Smith's unabashed, splendidly theatrical and joyfully outrageous video for I'm Not Here To Make Friends.Exuberant,&nbsp;eccentric, and defiantly brazen, this sees Sam Smith dispensing with any last vestige of previous public incarnations and embracing their queer superstar status with gusto - but also with a healthy self-knowing nod and a wink.Sam arrives by helicopter to a historic countryside manor, joining&nbsp;a gregarious crowd to engage is an extravagant costume party for the ages, over an inspirational sample of RuPaul before the disco beat of this surefire smash kicks in. And eyebrows&nbsp;are soon being raised...[imgtoken data:1]There is dancing. There are some extraordinary outfits. There's rowdy behaviour. And there is some very suggestive things going on, including a scene that may possibly be inspired by Frankie Goes To Hollywood's video for Relax!Throughout is the stunning array of costumes and looks, and Sam's playful and sexy performance, which dazzles in every vignette. They are clearly having the time of their lives.&nbsp;Bringing together so many different layers and inspirations - including a knowing nod to Steven Klein's&nbsp;promo for Gaga's Alejandro&nbsp;- the video oozes self-love and an excitable confidence, and is the perfect release to complement Gloria, Smith's just-released new album.It just ticks all the boxes it's supposed to tick - and that is really down to the genius of Tanu Muino. She just knows what a pop video like this should do, and achieved it, from start to finish.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Morgan Kennedy

Lane Casting

Ben Reardon

Tanu Muino

Robert Katz

UnderWonder Content

James Hackett

Nikita Kuzmenko

Frank Borin

Fred Bonham Carter

Alexa Haywood

Chris Kelly

Sam Rawlings

Ben Cascillo Roger

Luke Bradley

La Horde

Sorcha O'raghallaigh

Nick Royal

Ryo Narushima

Neil Moodie

Grace Ellington

Miranda Joyce

Vinnie Hobbs

Vh Post

Company 3

Joseph Bicknell

Roma Onufriychuk

Tilt

Ivanna Borin

Alexa Haywood at Free Agent UK

Just Fred

Spencer Graves

Sam Smith 'I'm Not Here To Make Friends' by Tanu Muino

Sam Smith - I'm Not Here To Make Friends

Dave Meyers

freenjoy

Nathan Scherrer

Paul McLoone

George Nelson

Scott Cunningham

Ben Mankin

Jack Carter

Tim Wiley

Alison Dominitz

Emma Lipop

Lisa Farrall

Lauren Kay

Nathan Rodgers

Cabin Edit

Stefan Sonnenfeld

Ingenuity Post

Jumanah Shaheen

Jamie Rabineau

Dan Curwin

Asylum Records

Ed Sheeran 'Bad Habits' by Dave Meyers

Ed-Sheeran--'Bad-Habits'-by-Dave-Meyers

C/o Prettybird

Prettybird

Ulrik Bentzen

Emily Tedrake

Polydor

Ellie Goulding, Diplo, Swae Lee 'Close To Me'

Ellie-Goulding,-Diplo,-Swae-Lee-'Close-To-Me'-by-C/o-Prettybird

A performance video shot partly in a reflective box...

Diane Martel

Chris Clavadetscher

Peter Arboine

Ezra Sumner

Alexander Dynan

Chiara Stephenson

Patricia Villirillo

Jeremy Maneval

Consulate Nyc

Tim Massick

Michelle Zelazny

Semera Kahn

Dirty Hits

The 1975 'Give Yourself A Try' by Diane Martel

The 1975 - Give Yourself A Try

English singer Karen Harding charms in this&nbsp;performance video for Open My Eyes, a lighthearted clip with a classic pop video look directed by James Partridge, who describes it as a &quot;mash-up&quot; of styles to create an upbeat,&nbsp;summery feel - very welcome indeed.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

James Partridge

Imogen Rigby

th1ng th2ng

Tibo Travers

Matthew Emvin Taylor

Matt Choules

Sam Taylor

Aaron Walters

Oliver Hogan

Flora Huddart

Terri Capon

CHEAT

Caroline Clayton

Capitol Records

Lock It In

Karen Harding 'Open My Eyes' by James Partridge

Karen-Harding-'Open-My-Eyes'-by-James-Partridge

James Partridge mixes the narrative of a sensual, loved-up couple fooling around with some cool, slickly-edited&nbsp;performance footage of Sons &amp; Lovers in this very watchable promo for Lover.&nbsp;As the story develops, things turn nasty down at the snooker hall &ndash;&nbsp;resulting in a well-choreographed ruck back at home...

Shana Bah

Alex Bedford

Kat Pang

Daniel Atkinson

Hanan Cher

Rock/Pop

Sons & Lovers 'Lover' by James Partridge

Sons & Lovers - Lover

His previous video, for G Frsh&#39;s Never Can I, has garnered a MVA nomination for best urban (budget) video, but James Partridge&#39;s latest video takes a different approach. The video for folk singer Dan Croll&#39;s Home follows Dan on a journey from London to Stoke-on-Trent, and then to Liverpool, to meet different generations of his family.&nbsp;Dan&#39;s such a nice chap he&#39;s fine&nbsp;about&nbsp;being filmed with his grandma...&nbsp;&nbsp;

Joanna Thapa

Ruth Sewell

Mary Cuffe

Lee Meredith

Hendrik Faller

Danny Atkinson

Decca Records

Universal Records

Folk, Pop

Dan Croll 'Home' by James Partridge

Dan Croll - Home

A monochrome performance video for Daughter&#39;s sublime Youth by The Mitcham Submarine which highlights the intimacy of the track with its minimalism, and judicious use of lighting - and was inpired by a live performance by the&nbsp;band earlier this year.

The Mitcham Submarine

Lucile Weigel

Alex Ryle

Jason Wingrove

Andy Young

Sam Barry-Parker

David Bradshaw

Robert Mila

Wouter Poppink

Brigitta Smart

Jakob Brondum

James Harman @ TC Soho

Sean Martin

Tom Knowles @ The Joint

The Joint

Matthew Hoare

Owen Porter

Indie Rock

Daughter 'Youth' by The Mitcham Submarine

Daughter - Youth

Following a successful stint at tv commercials (his recent work includes ads for Dorritos, Vodaphone and Skype), Justin Dickel marks his return to promo-making with this high concept, visually stunning video for Misha B's next single Here's To Everything. 
Filmed at Shepperton Studios, Justin explores the fire and water themes in the lyric to produce some blinding visual effects that compliment the uptemp message of the song. 
"It's been a while and I really had forgotten quite how crazy a music video shoot could be - in terms of time and money" explains Justin. "But, in a bizarrely masochistic way I have kind of missed the mayhem, it was a lot of fun"

Justin Dickel

Dan Lumb

Jim Cole

Dan Stafford Clark

Maria Cryssikos

Alexis Knox

Holly Silius

Simone

Ross McDowell c/o th1ng

Lisa Foo

Misha B 'Here's To Everything (Ooh La La)' by Justin Dickel

Tim Burton has now directed his second video for The Killers (after 2006&#39;s Ray Harryhausen-inspired <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMulkrbTNU0" target="_blank">Bones</a>) and this one for Here With Me, reunites the über-director with an early muse, and connects him with a young actor who looks a readymade fixture in Burton movies for years to come. Craig Roberts &ndash; the kid from Richard Ayoade&#39;s debut feature Submarine &ndash; does his deadpan thing as the obsessive and rather creepy fan of a fairground performer &ndash; played by Winona Ryder. Produced by Th2ng &ndash; which has worked with Burton on many of his film&#39;s title sequences - the video was shot in various locations in Blackpool, and inspired by the song lyrics and 1935 horror movie Mad Love &ndash; starring Peter Lorre. Roberts is a bit of a Lorre-alike &ndash; although the sense that he would make a great (if youngish) Uncle Fester is confirmed in the final moments of the video, when Tim delivers a lighthearted curveball...

Tim Burton

David Balfour

Tom Townend

Chris Lebenzon

The Killers 'Here With Me' by Tim Burton

The-Killers-'Here-With-Me'-by-Tim-Burton

For the killer Paris Is Burning, Ladyhawke hits the street, striding through feathers, fireworks and tickertape accompanied by a wolf. Yes, a real wolf. Just like what probably happens in the movie from whence she takes her Marmite name.
For Red Light Company it's a straight performance, playing with camera movement and light. The budgets for the two videos may be modest, but Casper has also worked with top camera guys on these; Simon Chaudoir for the Red Light Company video, and Kasper Tuxen for Ladyhawke.
Casper Balslev on the Ladyhawke's Paris Is Burning video:
"Ladyhawke is my second promo for Modular [after Presets]. As usual the brief was open, which I like.
"We shot the video in May, near Borough market in London. We had done research on shooting in Paris and Prague, but ended up shooting in London for practical reasons. Also I didn't want to portray a known Paris anyway, or take it too literally.
"The song is very up tempo and changes a lot, so a walk was a really simple and cool way to present her and the song. Its almost a genre, walking towards the camera. I watched a lot of simular themed videos, like Beat It, or Bittersweet Symphony. I was also inspired by some fashion photography.
"I came up with the wolf, after seeing some of Pip's (Ladyhawke's) wardrobe. She has lots of T-shirts with animal prints on, she really likes animals. The wolf also reminded me of the movie Ladyhawke, and fantasy movies in general. And then it's just a cool looking night animal.
"It's easy to write a wolf into a script. And it was pretty easy to get, but a bit expensive. We got it from this company that specializes in all kind of animals for film production. But it's a dangerous animal to have on set, so we had to be careful. We had some safety restrictions, and the wolf lost its concentration after a while, but we had a back-up wolf anyway, just in case. Most movie animals come in pairs, and they were howling on the set...
"Shooting a night shoot in late May was a bit stressful. We were on a really tight schedule. I wish we had two nights for the shoot, or just another time of the year, with more night hours..."

"The band and label wanted a really simple, cool looking, performance video. I think the reference was Suede or Killers.
"I can spend days writing on a treatment. This one I wrote and did the sketches in a few hours. Originally it was set in a natural environment, with a forest surrounding them.
"I had this idea about moving the light on tracks around objects - the band - parallel with the camera. And just moving the light and shadows. Simon Chaudoir the DP, had had a similar idea for some time. So besides having some motion sickness while shooting, we had fun doing this."

Hello Love

Caspar Balslev

Simon Chaudoir

Claudia Wass

Dan Millar

Ladyhawke and Red Light Company by Casper Balslev

D.A.R.Y.L. go way out West with CTE - Park Royal Studios - for a video that's like watching a car crash happening over and over.
Because it is a car crash happening over and over...

Pulse Films

D.A.R.Y.L.

Richard Stewart

Maria Chryssickos

Duncan

Quin Williams

CJ Hassay

Cage The Elephant's Ain't No Rest For The Wicked by D.A.R.Y.L.

Very attractive girls in sexy underwear + chaps who look like they model for Men's Health + Jonnie Malachi = One highly saucy video.

Between The Eyes

Jonnie Malachi

Sam Tidman

Dan Sherwen

Fragma's Toca's Miracle '08 by Jonnie Malachi

A rhythmic performance in the round by Justin Dickel for the lithe, multiplied Mr. Jordan.

Streetlight Films

Denzil Armour Brown

David Jordan's Sun Goes Down by Justin Dickel