Mouthpiece

Production Company

Hello Love

Callum Lloyd-James directs an affecting promo for Grace Gachot's&nbsp;Built To Be Bad embodying the feeling of a world being torn apart, weathering your emotions like a storm.&nbsp;The monochromatic video opens&nbsp;with a selection of close-up shots of Gachot's performance, the camera slowly reveals a stripped-back studio setup, with windswept fabric that battles the environment before the scene settles back to a new normal.&nbsp;"As soon as I heard the song I knew I had to work on it," explains Lloyd-James. "The words were so honest and vulnerable. You can feel this power struggle going back and forth through the track.[imgtoken data:1]"For me, it was about trying to find a way to represent that battle in a way that felt dynamic and genuine. It's a track that's so personal and close to Grace's heart, I didn't want to mess around too much with the visual side of it. It was more about tapping into the raw emotion of the song and building to the point where you let it all out and explode on the second chorus."Lloyd-James says that he and Gachot spoke at length about how to do this. "And in the end we stripped the whole video back, keeping her on one mark and pulling the world down around her," he says. "This felt like a perfect way to portray the chaos and helplessness we can all find ourselves in at the end of a relationship."

Harper Celeste

Callum Lloyd-James

Finn James

Connie Meade

Will Stuetz

Thomas English

Ndella Longley

Bulman Arshehit

Rebecca Doctor

Paulette Minott

Keiichiro Hirano

Kareem Jarche

Dominic Phipps

Company 3

Grace Gachot 'Built To Be Bad' by Callum Lloyd-James

Grace-Gachot-'Built-To-Be-Bad'-by-Callum-Lloyd-james

Lots of people have thought about who’ll be in attendance at their final farewell - old loves, or even worst enemies - and felt the existential quandary that comes with realising that (depending on your beliefs) there’s no way you can be there to experience it.But what if you could? Callum Lloyd-James's video for Liverpool rock outfit Crawlers answers that very question.In this darkly&nbsp;comic promo for the band's Would You Come To My Funeral?, a funeral descends into chaos, terror and excitement, when the deceased returns to life to settle some scores.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]“The track and video focus on the concept of whether you’d go to the funeral of an ex-lover, someone you’d once been so close to but now hate, and if you did go how would they react,” explains Lloyd-James.“Once we had that idea nailed down it was such a fun world to explore, looking at the emotional dilemmas of each character, developing the action and how the crowd react to it.“Ultimately though, this was all a big excuse to have a massive punch up in a church, which you don’t get to do every day.”

Spencer Collings

Edwin Elkington

Amy Holden-Brown

Joanna Szyczewska

Misha Omelchuk

Brendan Harvey

Danny Stoker

Sinan Yilmaz

Jack Fenton

Victoria Aquino

Anna Inglis-Hall

Toby Osmond

Dan Chan

Mahatma Khandi

Polydor Uk

Rock

Crawlers 'Would You Come To My Funeral?' by Callum Lloyd-James

Crawlers - Would You Come To My Funeral (Official Video)

Spencer Young directs this time-skipping video for Fly Anakin's Things Change, featuring&nbsp;Demae. The black and white dreamscape centres iconic London glass phone booths against a moody London backdrop, connecting the two artists across time in a pattern of near misses.“My intention was to create a video which evoked the feeling of fleeting memories from the past, and reflected the nostalgic and melancholic tones of the track," says Spencer Young."We used various in-camera techniques to achieve this, mixed with elements of VFX in which time is sped up and slowed down. The idea was to create an atmosphere of isolation against a backdrop of a fast-moving city.”[imgtoken data:1]

United Kingdom

Spencer Young

Werner Van Peppen

Alfred Thirolle

James Sieradzki

Vlad Barin

CHEAT

Jack Needham

Lex Records

Hip Hop

Fly Anakin ft Demae 'Things Change' by Spencer Young

Fly Anakin - Things Change feat. Demae (Official Video)

Ndella Longley has become the new Head of Music Videos at London-based production company Hello Love. overseeing a director's roster featuring Spencer&nbsp;Young, Josh Thornton-Allan, Calum Lloyd-James and Christophe Dolcerocca.Ndella started her journey at Hello Love as a production assistant, working on music videos with Young,&nbsp;Thornton-Allan and Lloyd-James, and on the company's output of commercials including the most recent campaign for the <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/portfolio/bbc-earth-experience">BBC Earth Experience</a>, directed by Hello Love MD&nbsp;Philip Dupée.&nbsp;With a background as a musician and songwriter, this latest appointment to Head of Music Videos is rooted in her affinity for music. Ndella released a single as an artist in her own right back in 2016, and knows the industry from the music side as well as the commercial production side. It's this experience that drives her personal, integrated approach to working with artists and creatives.&nbsp; Ndella studied American Literature at Goldsmiths, with a focus on film, and continues to work freelance in production alongside taking on the development of music videos at Hello Love.&nbsp;She aims to platform talented emerging directors and creatives,&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;those from underrepresented backgrounds, and looks forward to growing the Hello Love music video roster.• Watch Hello Love music video directors' work <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/pages/music-videos" target="_blank">here</a> &nbsp;

Ndella Longley appointed Head of Music Videos at Hello Love

Callum Lloyd-James directs a stirring&nbsp;promo for Grace Gachot.Inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s infinite mirror rooms, the video for F***boy Tragedy&nbsp;is a bold introduction to this new artist, emanating effortlessly cool vibes through&nbsp;an amalgam of emotional perfomance and striking art direction.&nbsp;Though the concept doesn't move from the mirrored room, there is more than enough for viewers to feast their eyes on, with an expansive aesthetic that feels as haunting as it does stylish.&nbsp;

Sammy Cullis

Grace Gachot 'F***boy Tragedy' by Callum Lloyd-James

Grace Gachot • Fuckboy Tragedy

<h3>As his short film Fuck The Honeymoon&nbsp;triumphs on the festival circuit, we talk to Hello Love director Josh Thornton-Allan (above) about his career thus far - including&nbsp;videos for the likes of James Bay and Emir Taha -&nbsp;and how he's learned to focus on performance above everything else.&nbsp;</h3>Josh Thornton-Allan was barely knocking on the door of teenhood&nbsp;when he started&nbsp;filming and editing his own films&nbsp;- with a little help from his family. “My dad had a leftover laptop from his office - an old Mac - and said 'Do you want to have it?'," Thornton-Allan remembers. "So I played around with the basic editing software on that. I have two brothers - which means I had two actors that I would cast in spy movies, and bootleg Star Wars films.”&nbsp;A few years later, he was focussing&nbsp;on screenwriting. But his degree in English and Creative Writing at Kent University&nbsp;helped him realise his relative discomfort with “handing off something I'd worked on, for somebody else to make.” Thus inspiring him to pursue directing.&nbsp;The release of his first short film&nbsp;Exit Chip shone a light on his talent, and led to commercial commissions for the likes of Expedia, Fabergé and Virgin Active, before taking him into the more “weird and wonderful” world of music videos.<blockquote>Performance is an aspect I really like to focus on.</blockquote>Thornton-Allan&nbsp;signed to Hello Love in 2021, with his first music video at the London-based production company,&nbsp;for Emily Burns' I'm So Happy, arriving shortly afterwards.&nbsp;His recent video for James Bay’s Give Me The Reason builds off the back of a portfolio of artistic, adventurous videos for indie artists like Red Moon and Emir Taha, cementing his skill and agility across numerous formats and projects.&nbsp;More recently it’s the reach and exploration of his comedic abilities, evidenced in the success of his latest short film Fuck&nbsp;The Honeymoon,&nbsp;that has been an unexpected string added to his bow. FTH is coming to the end of a successful run&nbsp;on the festival circuit too, and will also be screening at the prestigious Aesthetica and Flickers Rhode Island festivals this year.&nbsp;So we asked Josh to talk&nbsp;us through his fascinating progress so far...&nbsp;EXIT CHIP[vidtoken data:0]“Exit Chip was&nbsp;kind of the beginning of it all. That was the year after university, so I must have been about 21. It was not the first thing I had directed, but it was the first time I had been on a film set.It was based on a short story that a friend of mine,&nbsp;who was in my writing class at university, had written [about a man who has an implant that limits his lifespan].&nbsp;I thought it was a really cool idea, so I adapted it into the script. We raised a little bit of money by crowdfunding, and then the rest was achieved with a lot of favours. It took about a year to make.&nbsp;I edited it with&nbsp;Phil Hignett over at Marshall Street Editors, who now has gone on to edit things like Sex Education. I had edited stuff myself before, but learning about editing in that way was really interesting. I learned very quickly about the 'kill your darlings' method to filmmaking. There was a lot left on the cutting room floor!When you want to make your first film, you want it to be this opus. But&nbsp;Phil just said - 'No one's going to watch your 25 minute short film. Cut it down to fifteen.' Now I’m looking back… Thank God we did that.”• Exit Chip full film <a href="https://vimeo.com/128063031" target="_blank">here</a>EXPEDIA[vidtoken data:1]“Off the back of the first short film, I was commissioned by Expedia to do a piece about London. That was basically me with a C300 camera, and it was all about sights unseen, hidden parts of the city. So I mainly focused on the Underground, how it's connected to the culture and the history of London.I basically went to work during the day, and then every evening would go down on the Tube, just filming for like, four hours every night. And then I cut it together myself.&nbsp;At this point, someone was actually paying me to do something, making something for a legitimate company. As a filmmaker you're like - right, I've made it, someone's giving me money to do this.&nbsp;Off the back of that I did a couple of things for Fabergé, the jewellery company, and also for Virgin Active. They were also really good fun.”RED MOON - DOGMA[vidtoken data:2]“I'd done some other music videos before, but they were for like, 500 quid, just filming some people, and half of them didn’t go out.&nbsp;But it became more interesting when you could start to explore weird techniques and really push the envelope in terms of directing. Dogma was my first big proper music video, where we had a proper budget and I was really loving the track and had a really good team. That felt like the first music video.&nbsp;I wrote the pitch for it and despite the fact that I really didn't have anything that was relevant on my reel at that point, they really liked the idea. To sell it I did a load of test shots. The track ends with them being covered in this red dust which meant that my poor girlfriend had to sit there and allow me to pour copious amounts of dust on her to prove that the concept would work.After that, I worked with the producer, Jake River Parker, who got a really good team together, including&nbsp;the choreographer. And the artist herself&nbsp;had a friend who was a Central St. Martin's graduate that designed all the costumes. So it was one of those things where the team came together and the sum of it ended up so much more than I would have expected.[imgtoken data:1]Above: Josh Thornton-Allen with Red Moon on the set of the Dogma video: "She's quite an ethereal person and I think that came through really clearly".One of the elements I enjoy the most is pulling performances out of people, whether they're actors or non-actors. Part of that is just creating a level of comfort and also understanding what people are capable of doing. And sometimes people surprise you. I think in Red Moon’s Dogma, her ability to pick up the choreography so quickly but also bring her own personality to it was important.&nbsp;She's quite an ethereal person and I think that came through really clearly.Performance is an aspect I really like to focus on on-set. I think there are some directors that are just incredibly technical and they love to get involved in all the technical aspects. For me, I like to talk in grand, emotional terms and have my heads of department kind of translate that into the technical. I'll be&nbsp;saying 'We want them to feel strong here', or whatever it is. 'So what do we do to get that effect?' The performance angle is definitely my focus.”EMIR TAHA - LADES[vidtoken data:3]"Lades was one of those ones where they come to you with a really solid concept already. I think he's [Emir] got a really strong sense of his identity and what he wants to bring to his music. That was really clear when he came to me, and he had this idea for a male dancer - and a male belly dancer, in particular. When you've got that, you're thinking - this is already a really interesting concept to play around with.But it's exceedingly hard in the UK to find male belly dancers! The one that we found actually lives in Portugal, and we flew him over. It is a big cultural thing, actually - a counter-culture movement that's going on, especially in places like Turkey. So it was really interesting learning about that as part of the research.This was also my first time shooting on film, which was a great experience. It felt very necessary for something like this, because it was such a textural and visceral thing. It's about the exploration of the body and masculinity and subverting those things. So you want that to be very natural without any artifice, because that's kind of the whole point. We're stripping away things in this, so we didn't want this kind of glossy, digital texture to it.I worked with Carmen Pellon as the DOP, she's done some really good work, and she's done a number of things with me now. She's fantastic. She also lives in my building, which is very helpful.&nbsp;Although I think she would disagree when I knock on her door and say: “I’ve just had another thought!”JAMES BAY - GIVE ME THE REASON[vidtoken data:4]“Give Me The Reason is about the sun setting on a relationship.&nbsp;James had this idea of having a warehouse where maybe we had like a door that was slowly coming down so that we could change the sunlight landing on him."So I was thinking about sunlight, and stuff like that, and it reminded me of the Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Tate Modern, where he built the giant sun in the Turbine Hall. I had seen a documentary on Olafur Eliasson and I'm really fascinated by his work, particularly because he uses a lot of light and that's very helpful if you're working in film.One of the interesting things that Eliasson uses is monochromatic light - which is what that orange sun is. Basically, monochromatic light just means that no other colours, apart from the colour that you're putting out, can be seen. So you have this giant orange sun and everything else is in black and white.The way he achieves that is by using two very complicated, very expensive light bulbs which give out monochromatic light - but you can sort of do it, if you have any colour that's bright enough. So for example, in a red room used for photography, if you're wearing a bright pink shirt, it's just going to look black&nbsp;in that room. All other colours kind of get consumed by this one colour.So that was the beginning of the idea, and it took a little bit of explaining to get them to understand the idea. But I think they just really liked my pitch. And especially having this sort of giant orange sun was a very cool visual for them.” FUCK THE HONEYMOON[vidtoken data:5]<blockquote>I found that my natural writing style is comedy. I thought - 'I'm just going to embrace it.'</blockquote>“I was visiting my brother in New York - he's training to be an actor out there - and he told me this story of someone that actually did this [took a first date to see a marriage guidance counsellor]. We thought - what a hilarious concept, this would make a great film. So when I got back from New York, I started writing it.I worked on the script for a couple of months. Again, the producer was Jake Parker, who I've done music videos with, and a lot of the music video gang came on board. A good thing about making music videos is that you make lots of friends. We shot it over two days, and it was a really good, fun experience.I think Exit Chip is obviously quite bleak and sincere - and that's because it was based on someone else's story. When I started writing my own stuff, I found that I really like performance, and also&nbsp;that my natural writing style is comedy. So I thought - 'You know what, I'm just going to embrace it'. You also worry that festivals may not&nbsp;take comedy seriously,&nbsp;but I think maybe in the current climate, people really seem to enjoy it.[imgtoken data:2]Above: Still from Fuck The Honeymoon. "You have to step away as a screenwriter once you're on set, and be a director."&nbsp;The performance was the best part.&nbsp;There were bits where I really wanted them to stick to the script. Then there are bits where I allow improvisation to happen. But once you write the script, you have to step away as a screenwriter once you're on set, and be a director, and not be too precious about something that you spent six months working on.&nbsp;At the same time you think, 'Well, I know that there were certain beats and I know that I've written it this way for this exact reason. And so I need you to say it exactly like this.'There were some bits, especially when you're writing jokes, where&nbsp;the best way of doing it is by bouncing ideas off people. At the table reading you can feel it out in a room. You've got all your heads of departments there and you're thinking, “Well, who's laughing? Why aren't they laughing at that joke? Alright, fine. Let's throw in another one.”But on set, you're riffing, you're doing a lot of improv. Particularly the argument scene in that big montage.&nbsp;I was just stood behind the camera shouting things out like 'argue about Monopoly!'&nbsp;or 'complain about her sister!' -&nbsp;stuff that I'd written down when we were doing the table read that I thought 'This will be funny.'&nbsp;That on-the-fly [style] is very music video orientated, as on these videos, you're often not recording sound, so you can shout stuff out and you can get quite involved in it, which is nice.When it came to editing that scene, there were maybe 30 or 40 other jokes that we cut out. We spent quite a lot of time&nbsp;going up to friends and saying, “is it funny if he says this or this? We have two different penis jokes, which one's funnier?” Often people would respond with - 'Why are you talking to me...?'• Full film <a href="https://vimeo.com/626477791" target="_blank">here</a>JUNE[vidtoken data:6]"With music videos and short films you always have about three days less than you'd actually want. So you have to eke out times where you can [rehearse]. I just trick my actors by taking them for a beer afterwards and then that's actually my practise time, they just don't know it yet.The other short film that I did recently called June - which is just about to be released and go on the festival circuit - is also about a relationship between two people - a father and a daughter. I think I just like relationships where it's people that are avoiding talking about things. Maybe that's a sort of British sensibility. But it's always funny when you start to break down the divide of not wanting to talk about things because they're awkward. There's always a wealth of things in there.”&nbsp;• Josh Thornton-Allan is with Hello Love for commercials and music videos, and represented for music videos by Mouthpiece. Check out more of his work <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/josh-thornton-allan" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;

Josh Thornton-Allan

The Story So Far... Josh Thornton-Allan

Exit Chip | Short Film Trailer

Expedia | Sight Unscene

Dogma | Red Moon

emir taha - Lades [Official Video]

Give Me the Reason - James Bay

Fuck The Honeymoon - Short film Trailer

June - Short Film Trailer

Turkish-born artist&nbsp;Emir&nbsp;Taha&nbsp;challenges expectations of masculinity in this delicately detailed video, directed by Josh Thornton-Allan.&nbsp;Shot on 16mm, the video opens with glimpses of sequins, elegant hand movements and Emir&nbsp;playing the guitar and singing into a darkened space as a lone dancer moves in its centre. The visual combination of 16mm film and dynamic lighting&nbsp;highlights the masculine form in an intimate and visceral way whilst simultaneously casting a dream-like gossamer over the scene.&nbsp;“Emir&nbsp;came to me with the idea of a male belly dancer and it immediately captured my imagination," says Thornton-Allan.&nbsp;"Exploring the subversion of societal norms through art is always an exciting prospect. I wanted to portray the dance in a way that both highlighted the dancers masculinity but also showed dance as the genderless act it can often be."&nbsp;Thornton-Allan adds that it felt perfect to shoot the video on 16mm. “Film has a texture and feel that is both physical and immediate whilst also feeling sensual and ethereal," he says.&nbsp;"It meant that everything could grow out of Gabh’s performance - rather than coming to it with a meticulous shot list it gave us the freedom to just explore the raw physicality of the dance.”The dancer in question&nbsp;Gabh Diniz, is revealed by bright light as we hit the chorus. The performance is just that, a revelation, the spectrum of gender fluidity and masculinity being explored in Diniz’s fluid and sensual movements.&nbsp;Emir&nbsp; performs understatedly in the background, a watchful narrator.&nbsp;The video is at once delicate, hypnotic, hazy and powerful in its dignified, meaningful artistry.&nbsp;

Lewis Munro

Wizzo

Louis Danckwerts

Alex Rice

Carmen Pellon

Rich Savage

Aston Born

Gary Coogan⁣⁣

The Quarry

Tim Martin

The Mill

Polydor

Gabh Diniz

Alt-Pop

Emir Taha 'Lades' by Josh Thornton-Allan

Josh Thornton-Allan directs an strikingly art directed performance&nbsp;promo for James Bay's Give Me The Reason.&nbsp;Effortlessly elegant, the video centres on Bay's emotional performance of the song, further elevated by impressive art direction and inspired lighting.The emblematic backdrop of a glowing orange sun provides a canvas for some striking silhouettes, and matches the emotive thematic elements in the lyrics.“I was really interested in the work of Olafur Eliasson, an artist who uses large scale light constructions in his work - particularly monochromatic light,” explains Thornton-Allan. “This seemed like a really unique way to explore the shifting emotionality of a dying relationship."We approached the lighting from a purely practical position, creating a monochromatic lighting setup with our giant sun and then during the chorus filling James with colour using regular, chromatic spotlights.”&nbsp;It is a perfect example of simplicity done right, and a promising comeback for the singer-songwriter, in anticipation of his third studio album.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2]

Kirsty Oldfield

Andrew Patrick

Karen Clarkson 

Jon Wong

Hélio Ribeiro

Kai Blamey Nguyen

Justin Theodore

Shane De Almeida

Josh Ighodaro

Charlie Cullen

Jack Singer

Homespun

Jonny Thorpe 

Glassworks

Republic Records

Singer-songwriter

James Bay 'Give Me The Reason' by Josh Thornton-Allan

James Bay - Give Me The Reason (Official Music Video)

Having recently directed two impressive videos through <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/" target="_blank">Hello Love</a>, for Sad Night Dynamite &amp; Moonchild Sanelly and Obongjayar, director Spencer Young has now officially joined the London-based production company's roster for music videos.Young is an&nbsp;alumnus&nbsp;of the National Film and Television School and Chelsea School of Art, who makes&nbsp;bold and visually inventive short films, documentaries and music videos. Through his work he has displayed his&nbsp;talent for&nbsp;in-camera effects and experimental visual techniques influenced by his&nbsp;background in fine art and his time studying at Chelsea.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;In his video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/07/07/kojaque-ft-maverick-sabre-casio-spencer-young-kojaque/71801" target="_blank">Kojaque's Casio</a>, released last summer, Young turns the Irish rapper into a ghost-like figure by incorporating thermal camera footage into conventionally-shot&nbsp;footage; then in Sad Night Dynamite and South African artist Moonchild Sanelly's collaboration on <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/11/09/moonchild-sanelly-sad-night-dynamite-demon-spencer-young/73691" target="_blank">Demon</a> - his first through Hello Love -&nbsp;he brings the artists together by projection-mapping&nbsp;footage of Sanelly shot in South Africa into a night walk in London.&nbsp;<blockquote>I have a strong drive to find new and inventive ways to tell stories.</blockquote>Most recently in the video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2022/02/09/obongjayar-try-spencer-young/74893" target="_blank">Obongjayar's Try,</a>&nbsp;his second video through Hello Love that was released earlier this month, Young combines portraiture, performance and narrative in a dreamlike package, packed with memorable imagery.&nbsp;&nbsp;"I have a strong drive to find new and inventive ways to tell stories," says Young. "Embracing limitations forces you to problem-solve, and can be a real catalyst for experimentation and invention. I am interested in making films that tap into an emotional truth and a sense of realism, but from a fresh and innovative perspective."Working with Hello Love recently has been a wonderful experience, the team have been massively supportive and quick to find solutions to complex and ambitious ideas. I'm thrilled to be working with them and really looking forward to future projects!"Now based at Hello Love, he will be represented for music videos by Claire Stubbs at<a href="https://www.mouthpiecerep.me/" target="_blank"> Mouthpiece</a>. Finn James, executive producer at Hello Love, says:&nbsp;"We're incredibly pleased to be working with Spencer. His creativity and unique visual&nbsp;style, as well as his down-to-earth, innovative approach are a great&nbsp;match for Hello Love."We look forward to supporting him in putting together memorable work that is inventive, ambitious and meaningful." • Watch Spencer Young's showreel at Hello Love <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/spencer-young-musicvideos" target="_blank">here</a>; he is represented for music videos by Claire Stubbs at <a href="https://www.mouthpiecerep.me/" target="_blank">Mouthpiece</a>.

Spencer Young signs to Hello Love

Spencer Young creates a rich display of vivid images to symbolise positive messages of joy, aspiration and strength in Obongjayar's Try.&nbsp;The director, who has recently signed to Hello Love, has created a series of portraits&nbsp;of the London-based Nigerian&nbsp;singer-songwriter for the first release from his upcoming debut album.&nbsp;Some of the most striking imagery shows Obongjayar and his brightly, regally dressed&nbsp;dancers standing still and strong - as if in defiance of Young's backdrop of evocative, billowing skies.In contrast to a sense of imposing majesty, drive and ambition that is evoked in those moving still life portraits is the innocence of a young boy who observes Obangjayar&nbsp;on his TV. The boy provides the emotional heart of the video, dancing alone in a moving representation of joy, and then transported into the regal zone.From a man waiting alone in the wings for a curtain call, to a young boy peeking out from behind the net curtains, the video touches on themes of isolation and perseverance as Obongjayar sings 'It's no guarantee our lives will change, but all we do is try'.&nbsp;

Takiyah Blaize

Jack Green

Jojo Bossman

Leopold Naessens

Lauren Taylor

Bevan Agyemang

Paige Whiting

Jonny Thorpe

Theo Lalic

September Records

Oliver Smith

Alternative

Obongjayar 'Try' by Spencer Young

Obongjayar-'Try'-by-Spencer-Young

South African star Moonchild Sanelly and Sad Night Dynamite appear as ghostly apparitions at night, in Spencer Young's hypnotic promo for Demon.Achieved through the use of&nbsp;projection mapping and other in-camera effects, the video follows a hallucinatory journey through a desolate landscape, cleverly interweaving footage shot in both London and South Africa.&nbsp;The warped, dreamlike atmosphere is both haunting and addictively absorbing, and match the danceable yet dystopian vibe of the track, which is also part of the soundtrack for the new Fifa '22 videogame.&nbsp;

Meg Sharpe

Suzie Walsh

Claire Stubbs @ Mouthpiece

Transgressive Records

Moonchild Sanelly & Sad Night Dynamite 'Demon' by Spencer Young

Moonchild-Sanelly-&-Sad-Night-Dynamite-'Demon'-by-Spencer-Young

Josh Thornton-Allan's new video for Emily Burns&nbsp;skilfully combines&nbsp;two seemingly opposing forces - radiant happiness and wanton destruction.In the video for I'm So Happy, singer-songwriter Emily&nbsp;is driving to the seaside on a beautifully sunny day, for some quality me-time. She has also brought some treasured possessions with her. But when she stops at the beach, she then proceeds to smash the living daylights out of the possessions with a baseball bat.All the time Emily's mood of quiet elation never changes - even when she walks into the sea fully clothed.We talked to Josh about the making of the video - his first since signing to <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/josh-thornton-allan-musicvideos" target="_blank">Hello Love</a> earlier this year and being represented by <a href="https://www.mouthpiecerep.me/" target="_blank">Claire Stubbs at Mouthpiece</a>.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:0]Promonews: How did the project start for you?Josh Thornton-Allan: The brief came through with this idea from Emily, which was of destroying objects. On first appearance it seems like a very well-worn&nbsp;territory in terms of music videos. But this was different in that it was being done in a very cathartic way, and that all of these objects were actually beautiful. It was not smashing up TVs with a baseball bat. It's not angry or anything like that.It's always nice when the artist has an idea that grows out of their passion for the song. Obviously they know the track better than anyone else, they have that connection to it. So I built on that theme and introduced other elements, like the sea. She wanted to shoot it on this cliff, so it felt like quite a natural extension out of that.&nbsp;Obviously if the song is called I'm So Happy, why did she want to smash things up?On the surface it's a really great feelgood track, which I'm a sucker for at the moment - I think everyone's up for something that's a little bit feelgood right now.&nbsp;But beyond that I think its a really relatable emotion. That feeling of being happy - and for her it's being in love - and then being distrustful of that emotion. Being like, 'It's too good to be true.'&nbsp;And you have that feeling&nbsp;of self-sabotage, that you're going to screw it up.[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>Very early on, Emily talked about wanting it to feel like a short film.</blockquote>So, to have all these objects which are beautiful, and then having her destroy them is a visual representation of that feeling that you're going to destroy the beautiful things in your life. But then you ultimately break through that fear and come out the other side - that's the journey.&nbsp;It's what she's talking about in the lyrics, and that's what I wanted to bring out in the video itself.For me, it's like waves of emotion. It's about calm and chaos that you feel when you're so happy you almost distrust the feeling, so the sea was a metaphor.&nbsp;It can be beautiful, and powerful, and terrifying, and all those things worked.It looks like you either waited for a long time in order to shoot it on such a wonderful sunny day in England - or you got lucky. Where did you shoot the video?It was shot all in one day down in Margate.&nbsp;I have to admit&nbsp;I've never been very lucky with the weather with filming. Especially when you shoot in the UK, you have to just prepare yourself for everything.&nbsp;I did a <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/09/09/jack-curley-im-here-you-joshua-thornton-allan/66554" target="_blank">Jack Curley music video</a> last year, where we got up at about 3am, when every weather app had said&nbsp;there would be an amazing sunrise over this lake - and it was just this dark ominous blue instead.I told this&nbsp;to Emily, and said, 'whatever the weather, we're going to go for it.'&nbsp;And then it was just ridiculously hot.&nbsp;Amazing weather - I think Emily and I were the only people in the crew who didn't get some form of sunburn on the day.[imgtoken data:2]Margate was great for it as well. We shot it in a way that you couldn't exactly put your finger on the place.&nbsp;Lots of people have asked, 'Where did you film that? It looks amazing.'&nbsp;And it's on Botany Bay, which is lovely because it's this really sandy beach and it doesn't feel like the kind of beach you normally find in the UK.The actual process of the smashing up of things can be tricky to get on camera. Were there issues?I didn't get to smash up as many things myself as I'd like. I only got to do one, and that was because I thought the vinyl record didn't smash when you threw them in the air, so I tested one and it smashed pretty gloriously. So&nbsp;I found out quite quickly about what things smash well and what things don't.I shot it in three parts, because I knew that the difficulty would be we didn't have a lot of duplicates, we had individual items.&nbsp;Art department had dug around in vintage shops and stuff like that [for the props], so you could tell that the objects have a story behind them, and an emotional connection to them. That's what the video relies on.[imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>It worked really well - Emily&nbsp;actually has incredible hand-eye coordination.</blockquote>We basically would do a wide where Emily would swing at the object and not hit them, a mid-shot where she would do the same thing, until we got to the closeups and then that just relied on us covering up the camera as best as possible, and then either the DoP [Carmen Pellon] hiding under lots of blankets so she wouldn't get hit with anything, or just stepping away from the camera.I think it worked really well - and Emily's actually got incredible hand-eye coordination. I think she's quite good at golf.&nbsp;I have terrible hand-eye coordination myself, and it's something I didn't think about until she started doing it. And I just thought, "Oh my gosh, thank god she's so good at this." Otherwise, this could've dragged on for quite a long time.Emily actually doesn't lipsync the song at any point in the video.&nbsp;When did you decide on not going the lipsync route?Very early on, Emily talked about wanting it to feel like a short film, and taking a very cinematic approach to it.&nbsp;And avoiding lipsync is&nbsp;something I've wanted to try for a while. But it can make it trickier - it gives you something to cut back to, and also it can give a good energy to the video.When artists are lip syncing, it gives them a natural thing to do. Not having that means that you really need to think about what your shots are and how you're going to edit together. You need to be thinking about that as you shoot it.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>It's really relatable. That feeling of being happy... and then being distrustful of that emotion.</blockquote>We did chat about seeing on the day if we felt that there were any moments where we could get it in naturally, maybe having her more talking the lyrics. But I think on the day we were so in the moment, and&nbsp;everything we were doing felt so natural, that it just didn't feel like it warranted the lip syncing.What kind of direction did you give her for her performance?Emily was great in that she just threw herself in to it. Because she had a real understanding of the emotionality of the song, that came through really well.I did talk to her a lot before about the kind of emotions that we were going through, toying this line where it is building towards this happiness, but not this too cheesy or over the top. We wanted to keep the mystery of her emotions building and bubbling throughout the film. She just really understood it and was incredible at just being in the emotional space of the song.That made it really easy. And she was up for everything, and smashing things, and going into the quite cold British sea and stuff like that. So, she just threw herself into it.[imgtoken data:5]Above: Josh Thornton-AllanHow did you shoot this?We shot on the Alexa Mini. Well, we had two cameras because we shot in the water with a Black Magic, because you can get an underwater case for it, and it's a cost-effective way of doing water shots. But yeah, we [mainly] shot with an Alexa. I didn't want to go down that line of getting a Phantom and going ultra slow-mo, because I think then it becomes just about the visuals of things being destroyed, instead of the act of doing it.&nbsp;It was more about the emotional act of her destroying the object.We shot on the Mini&nbsp;with some anamorphic lenses, which obviously lent itself very nicely to where we were, and the day. As Emily had&nbsp;talked early on about wanting it to feel like a short film, that's why we wanted to go with anamorphic lenses and really push a cinematic look.[imgtoken data:6]<blockquote>We wanted to go with anamorphic lenses and really push a cinematic look.</blockquote>Making a music videos usually&nbsp;involves getting the best production value possible from a limited budget. What other tricks did you employ to make this look so good?I think it's just attention to detail, isn't it? It's just making sure those little things feel rich, and alive.&nbsp;For example, the old Mini that's she's driving in the video - which I think we hired off somebody in Whitstable.&nbsp;I didn't want it to be just any car that's&nbsp;devoid of personality, because it helps to make her personality shine through. Then&nbsp;you get a sense of who she is, and what she's about, and what the song is about.What were the biggest&nbsp;challenges at the post production stage?I think our editor Garry Coogan did a great job in finding the pacing of it. Again not having the lipsync, you've really got to think about your pacing as you would a short film, or any other film like that, and how you build the narrative with abstract images, which is a challenge.Lipsync is like a little bit dialogue in your short films, in that you can base your structure around it. So it's an interesting challenge for sure, and Garry did a great job with it. He came up with some lovely ideas, like&nbsp;the reverse moment in the song just as we go into the second verse.... I would love to have taken credit for that, but that was actually just an idea that he popped in.[imgtoken data:7]Presumably Emily and the label are&nbsp;pleased with how it's come out?Super pleased. There was lots of Instagraming between me and Emily the day it came out, where she would share a picture of mine and then I would share. It was getting like 'Instagram Inception', where we were just sharing each other's posts. So, it was really lovely, and she dropped me a really nice message on Instagram. So, yeah, we're all super happy and hoping to do another one.CREDITS:Director: Josh Thornton-Allan Production Company: Hello Love Music Directors Rep: Claire Stubbs (Mouthpiece)&nbsp; Producer: Finn James DOP: Carmen Pellon 1st AC: Joe Edwards Camera Trainee: Zlata Kontseva&nbsp; Stylist: Natalie Hartley Makeup and Hair: Emily Jane Williams&nbsp; Art Director: James Cross Runner: Gabriel Hartley&nbsp; Runner: Victoria Aquino Editor: Garry Coogan Editing company: Quarry Edit Producer: Jenn Sanders&nbsp; Colourist: Richard Fearon Grade: Black Kite Grade producer: Bruce Langfield• Josh Thornton-Allen is signed to <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/" target="_blank">Hello Love</a> for music videos and commercials, and represented for music videos by <a href="https://www.mouthpiecerep.me/" target="_blank">Claire Stubbs at Mouthpiece</a>.

Behind The Video: Josh Thornton-Allan on Emily Burns's I'm So Happy

Emily Burns - I’m So Happy (Official Video)

In Josh Thornton-Allan's video for Emily Burns I'm So Happy, the singer-songwriter drives to the seaside on a sunny day.Emily is not just happy - she has also brought some treasured possessions with her. When she stops at the beach, she proceeds to smash the living daylights out of the possessions with a baseball bat.

Joe Edwards

Zlata Kontseva

Natalie Hartley

Emily Jane Williams

James Cross 

Gary Coogan

Jenn Sanders

Emily Jeffery

Emily Burns 'I'm So Happy' by Josh Thornton-Allan

Stella Belle Hex directs a punky retro-futuristic promo for Sophie and the Giants.&nbsp;Continuing to hone her surreal, tech-inspired style&nbsp;across the mediums of live action and animation, the video for Don't Ask Me To Change marries together early internet-era iconography with contemporary styling and effects.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]“I wrote this song at a time when I was at a crossroads and examining my relationships with people," explains Sophie Scott of SATG. "Every time I discovered something new about myself, I’d feel the compulsion to repress it slightly and minimize my true self to avoid being judged or losing people. I wrote Don’t Ask Me To Change&nbsp;when I finally decided 'f*** that'. Because if they really loved me, I wouldn’t have to make those compromises.”This sentiment is wonderfully visualised in the no-holds-barred performance, where Sophie boasts an assured, confident attitude and an unforgettable presence on screen.&nbsp;

Stella Belle Hex

Rosie Brear

Claire Stubbs

Micheal Newton

Chris Malin

Jan Vrhovnik

Andrea Buccelli

Aimee Whitehouse

Grace Sinnott

James Hackett

Sophie and the Giants 'Don't Ask Me To Change' by Stella Belle Hex 

Sophie and the Giants - Don't ask me to change (Official Video)

London-based production company Hello Love has announced the&nbsp;signing of Stella Belle Hex to the directors'&nbsp;roster, coinciding with the release of Belle Hex's new video for The Vaccines.Stella Belle Hex is an award-winning visual artist and animator whose work spans across live installations, music promos and commercials. Her distinctive&nbsp;visual style has allowed her work for many different mediums, which includes numerous festivals, live events, music artists and installations. She's made work for the likes of Idles, Take That and Glastonbury, and her music video directing debut for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/05/18/vaccines-headphones-baby-stella-belle-hex/70934" target="_blank">The Vaccines' Headphones Baby</a> (above), recently featured on Promonews, encapsulates her bold signature animation style."My interests lie curiously in animation and manipulating found materials to conjure surreal collages and social sculptures," explains Stella Belle Hex.&nbsp;"I like to cast shadows with light and play in immersive spaces. I like taking the familiar into the unfamiliar and to challenge the conventional. I have always been particularly fond of being creatively involved in the music environment, thriving on community spirit and collaboration." Finn James, executive producer at Hello Love, adds: "We are beyond excited to work with Stella and see what she can bring into adland and music videos."• Watch Stella Belle Hex's showreel at Hello Love <a href="https://www.hellolove.tv/belle-hex-musicvideos" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp;

Stella Belle Hex joins Hello Love for representation

The Vaccines lead singer Justin Young goes on a hallucinatory trip, in&nbsp;Stella Belle Hex's extravaganza for Headphones Baby.&nbsp;Opening with an abstract live action scene - where young consumes the edge of a postcard stamp, LSD style - the video soon transforms into a neon euphoria, full of trippy&nbsp;visual candy.&nbsp;Hex's playfully surreal style bleeds into every pixel of the video, culminating in a wild, immersive experience for the viewer.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;

Jordan Copeland

Tentacle Post

Morgan Beringer

Laura Taylor - Redlight Management

Awal

Indie

The Vaccines 'Headphones Baby' by Stella Belle Hex

The Vaccines - Headphones Baby

Miles Kane and his band give a robust and spirited performance in Dan Sully&#39;s stylishly retro performance promo for Kane&#39;s new single Better Than That.&nbsp;With some cool art department touches from Sophie Jacobs, a pretty young dancer seals the Ready Steady Go&nbsp;vibe with Miles looking very &#39;George Harrison 1965&#39;.&nbsp;We think&nbsp;it&#39;s the teeth...

Dan Sully

Shimmy Ahmed

Paul McKee

RED Dan Precious

Annabel Norbury

Dan Stafford Clark

Dave Agha-Rafei

Stephanie Kennedy

Jonathan Spencer

Sets Appeal

Matt Hare

Ralph Mathers

Nil Tomakan

Oskar Pera

Lucy Wearing

Sony Music

Lisa Foo

Dale Slater

Miles Kane 'Better Than That' by Dan Sully

Miles Kane - Better Than That

&nbsp;&nbsp;Charlie&#39;s done a great job of capturing the innate sense of clean, British simplicity to Khan&#39;s music. Makes you wish for a seaside retreat yourself.http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Q3xtin4rzrE

Charlie Targett

Anne

Henry Lockyer

Oliver Hammerton

Luke Morrisson

William Nichols

James Elias

Bat for Lashes 'Letting Go of Ghosts –  Creating the Haunted Man' by Charlie Targett-Adams 

Bat-for-Lashes-'Letting-Go-of-Ghosts-–--Creating-the-Haunted-Man'-by-Charlie-Targett-Adams-

Following their commercial for the Renault Clio - which was Campaign's Ad Of The Week and described by News Of The World as 'Britain's sexiest TV ad ever' - Ishbel Whitaker and Marc Hawker have signed to Love for music promos. 
Marc &amp; Ish's work originates in fine art and experimental architecture and have collaborated with David LaCapelle, Dita Von Teese, Zaha Hadid. The team worked with BBH, Weiden + Kennedy, Publicis and have been commissioned by Channel 4 and More4. 
Their debut for Love is this fun and raunchy promo for Marina &amp; The Diamonds which sees singer Marina having a wee get-together with a bunch of semi-naked men in the shower...

Marc and Ish

Mikkel Damkiær

Joakim Harder

Stuart Graham

John Frimand

Marina & The Diamonds '(How To Be A) Heartbreaker' by Marc & Ish - now signed to Love

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