FRIEND

Director

Ian Pons Jewell

In the final episode of Natalie Steiner's film series about the music video community during the pandemic crisis, our panel of interviewees reflect upon what they have missed about their pre-lockdown work routine, and then ponder upon what the industry will look like when things start moving again.[vidtoken data:0]After <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-episode-4-wonderings-and-worries-exclusive-promonews/64893" target="_blank">Episode 4: Wonderings &amp; Worries</a>, in which Natalie Steiner's interviewees reflected upon the immediate concerns caused by Covid-19, and the bigger issues that have arisen from the crisis, The Future Of Our Industry mixes some fond recollections of the communal experience of filmmaking, from the camaraderie to the adrenalin-buzz, to the practicalities of getting the industry moving again.<blockquote>The discussion in this final episode is a mixture of prediction, hopes and nostalgic appreciation for the music video industry pre-Covid19.</blockquote>This timely episode, edited by Meg Thorne at Cut+Run,&nbsp;features nearly all of the panel interviewed by Steiner and Eleri Evans for the Music Videos In Lockdown series. 'As the loosening of lockdown approaches and shoots begin we’ve got the opportunity to collectively question old habits, and start new ones," says Steiner.&nbsp;"The discussion in this final episode is a mixture of prediction, hopes and nostalgic appreciation for the music video industry pre-Covid19."The interviewees are: 1st AD Clara Paris;&nbsp;Virgin EMI director of video James Hackett;&nbsp;My Accomplice EP Imogen Harrison;&nbsp;wardrobe stylist Terri Higgins;&nbsp;director Aidan Zamiri;&nbsp;directors Zhang &amp; Knight;&nbsp;Knucklehead EP Ore Okonedo; Greatcoat Films' EP&nbsp;Kareem Adeshina; choreographer&nbsp;Simon Donnellon; FRIEND EP Luke Tierney; DoP Diana Olifirova; Envy colourist Jax Harney; director Oscar Hudson; Atlantic Records' director of video Dan Curwin; DoP David Wright; camera assistant Jomar O'Meally; Blink EP Laura Northover; producer Tom O'Driscoll; wardrobe stylist&nbsp;Taff Williamson; OB Management director's agent Sam Davey; hair and makeup artist Jessica Summer; marketing manager&nbsp;Olivier Massey; production runner&nbsp;Amelia Mullooly; Pulse Films' EP Rik Green; director Myles Whittingham; Object &amp; Animal EP Morgan Clement; director Ian Pons Jewell; and runners' agent Julia Patterson.This is the final episode of the five-part series Music Videos In Lockdown about the UK music video community during the crisis, exclusively presented by Promonews. Here are links to the previous episodes in the series:• Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 1: Last Jobs <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-launches-promonews-episode-1-last-jobs/64690" target="_blank">here</a> • Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 2: Spending Time <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-continues-episode-2-spending-time-exclusive-promonews/64744" target="_blank">here</a> • Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 3: Working During The Lockdown <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-episode-3-working-during-lockdown-exclusive-promonews/64811" target="_blank">here</a> • Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 4: Worries &amp; Wonderings <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-episode-4-wonderings-and-worries-exclusive-promonews/64893" target="_blank">here</a>

Clara Paris

James Hackett

Imogen Harrison

Terri Higgins

Aidan Zamiri

Zhang + Knight

Ore Okonedo

Kareem Adeshina

Simon Donnellon

Luke Tierney

Diana Olifirova

Jax Harney

Oscar Hudson

Dan Curwin

David Wright

Jomar O'Meally

Laura Northover

Tom O'Driscoll

Taff Williamson

Sam Davey

Jessica Summer

Rik Green

Myles Whittingham

Morgan Clement

Natalie Steiner

Eleri Evans

Meg Thorne

'MUSIC VIDEOS IN LOCKDOWN' Episode 5: The Future Of Our Industry - exclusive on Promonews 

Music Videos In Lockdown | EP 5: The Future of Our Industry

Things get serious in the the fourth episode of Music Videos In Lockdown. The focus is on the real impact for many as the work has dried up. And will that be a catalyst for change in how the industry operates?[vidtoken data:0]Having&nbsp;seen how the&nbsp;UK music video production community has adapted to life and work in the current situation,&nbsp;the fourth episode of Natalie Steiner's must-see series addresses some of the serious issues that now confront the industry.As camera assistant Jomar O'Meally says at the start of Episode 4, the "people at the bottom" are the ones who take the brunt of the emergency - a situation which puts music video production in common with many other sectors of business and society. Wonderings And Worries touches on these issues, and the unease and anxiety that lies just beneath the surface of an industry which, as Kareen Adeshina says, largely depends upon the commitment and work ethic of freelancers.The episode also asks interviewees about how things might change, to ensure that hardworking peple do not fall through a trapdoor in any similar eventuality in future. And director Ian Pons Jewell, UK representative of campaigning body We Direct Music Videos, talks about the initiative&nbsp;to create a new standard contract for music video production, happening at the moment.&nbsp;As Oscar Hudson says, "The film industry has a lot of bad habits...&nbsp;this crisis can offer an perspective of what is important in our working lives."&nbsp;With lockdown restrictions&nbsp;beginning to ease, should the industry be as intense and fastmoving&nbsp;as it was before?&nbsp;''As the lockdown is loosened across the UK it feels as though everyone within the industry has acknowledged the importance of working within our lives, and creative selves," says Natalie Steiner, the music video producer who has made Music Videos In Lockdown during an enforced break from working, interviewing a wide range of people within the industry on Zoom over several weeks."This episode hosts a discussion of whether 'business of usual' should be what we’re aiming to get back to, or whether lockdown has given us an opportunity to reassess how, why and what we were doing before.''For this episode&nbsp;Steiner and her co-interviewer Eleri Evans talked to camera assistant Jomar O’Meally, DoP David Wright, producer Kareem Adeshina, commissioner Dan Curwin, marketing manager Olivier Massey, production runner Amelia Mullooly, makeup artist Terri Higgins, agent Julia Patterson, director Aidan Zamiri, producer Imogen Harrison, director Zhang &amp; Knight, producer Luke Tierney, commissioner James Hackett, colourist Jax Harney, producer Morgan Clement, director Oscar Hudson, producer Rik Green, director Ian Pons Jewell, producer Laura Northover, and director Myles Whittingham.This episode of Music Videos In Lockdown was edited by Meg Thorne at Cut+Run.&nbsp;This is the fourth episode of the five-part series Music Videos In Lockdown about the UK music video community during the crisis, exclusively presented by Promonews. Here are links to the previous episodes in the series:&nbsp;•&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 1: Last Jobs&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-launches-promonews-episode-1-last-jobs/64690" target="_blank">here</a> •&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 2: Spending Time&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-continues-episode-2-spending-time-exclusive-promonews/64744" target="_blank">here</a> •&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 3: Working During The Lockdown&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-episode-3-working-during-lockdown-exclusive-promonews/64811" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;

'MUSIC VIDEOS IN LOCKDOWN' Episode 4: Wonderings And Worries - exclusive on Promonews 

Music Videos In Lockdown | EP 4: Wonderings And Worries

In the third episode of Natalie Steiner's series about the UK music video production community during lockdown, she discovers how work has continued, the ubiquitity of Zoom, the resourcefulness of music video creatives - and the resulting phenomenon of lockdown videos...[vidtoken data:0]Natalie Steiner has documented the extraordinary moment created by the pandemic, by interviewing her workmates, contemporaries and friends from the music video community in London. She has spoken to&nbsp;everyone from&nbsp;directors, producers, camera crew, choreographers, commissioners, directors reps, stylists, hair and makeup artists, and more - via Zoom, of course.In Episode 3: Working During The Lockdown, she asked interviewees about how they have managed to keep working through isolation, and&nbsp;discovered that the industry quickly mobilized to find ways to continue to make music videos, via remote directing, artists self-shooting, crowd-sourcing, and placing a greater emphasis on animation.<blockquote>The way we’ve carried on throughout this crisis has highlighted what a bunch of genuinely creative people we are.</blockquote>The interviewees in Episode 3 are directors Zhang &amp; Knight,&nbsp;Oscar Hudson,&nbsp;Myles Whittingham,&nbsp;Ian Pons Jewell, Aidan Zamiri and Will Hooper; directors' agent Sam Davey at OB Management; producers Tom O’Driscoll, Kareem Adeshina, Morgan Clement, Rik Green and Laura Northover; choreographer Simon Donnellon; commissioners James Hackett and Dan Curwin; assistant director Clara Paris; colourist Jax Harney; cinematographer Diana Olifirova and camera assistant Jomar O'Meally.&nbsp;With interviews conducted by Natalie Steiner and Eleri Evans, Episode 3 was edited by Cut+Run editor Meg Thorne.&nbsp;Natalie Steiner says: "During these interviews I was actually surprised by the interviewees and their get up and go attitude.&nbsp;The way that we’ve collectively picked up and carried on throughout this crisis has really highlighted what a bunch of genuinely creative people we are, who are able to overcome challenges and just figure it out."This is the third episode of the five-part series&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown&nbsp;about the UK music video community during the crisis, exclusively presented by Promonews. Here are links to the previous episodes in the series:&nbsp;•&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 1: Last Jobs&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-launches-promonews-episode-1-last-jobs/64690" target="_blank">here</a> •&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 2: Spending Time&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-continues-episode-2-spending-time-exclusive-promonews/64744" target="_blank">here</a>

Will Hooper

OB Management

Cut+Run

'MUSIC VIDEOS IN LOCKDOWN' Episode 3: Working During The Lockdown - exclusive on Promonews 

Music Videos In Lockdown | EP 3: Working During the Lockdown

In the second of music video producer Natalie Steiner's film series about the UK music video production community during lockdown, she asks people from all corners of the industry about what they are doing, now that many of them have far more time on their hands...[vidtoken data:0]Steiner has documented the extraordinary moment created by the pandemic, by interviewing her workmates, contemporaries and friends from the music video community in London. She and Eleri Evans have conducted interviews with everyone from&nbsp;directors, producers, camera crew, choreographers, commissioners, directors reps, stylists, hair and makeup artists, and more - via Zoom, of course.&nbsp;In the second of the series, she finds out about how they are spending their time now they are not working on film shoots - and elicits a range of&nbsp;illuminating, inspirational and entertaining responses from her interviewees.Episode 2: Spending Time - exclusively presented by Promonews - features directors Ian Pons Jewell, Zhang + Knight, Will Hooper, Oscar Hudson, Myles Whittingham and Aidan Zamiri; producers and executive producers Luke Tierney, Imogen Harrison, Tom O'Driscoll, Laura Northover, Morgan Clement and&nbsp;Rik Green;&nbsp;stylist and makeup artists Terri Higgins,&nbsp;Jessica Summer; colourist Jax Harney; 1st AD Clara Paris; camera crew David Wright, Diana Olifirova and Jomar O'Meally; choreographer Simon Donnellon; and&nbsp;commissioners James Hackett and Dan Curwin.As she told Promonews on <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-launches-promonews-episode-1-last-jobs/64690" target="_blank">the launch of the series with Episode One: Last Jobs on May 6th</a>,&nbsp;Steiner wanted to tap into the communal spirit of the music video community at this difficult time.&nbsp;"My hope was to pull together a film which showcases the full range of people within our industry, and shows commonality and unity amongst us. I wanted to learn something about the industry, the people in it, and what we can do it make it better. Hopefully this series does that and it makes you feel a little closer to normality."This is the second&nbsp;episode of the five-part series&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown&nbsp;about the UK music video community during the crisis, exclusively presented by Promonews. Here is the link&nbsp;to the previous episode&nbsp;in the series:&nbsp;•&nbsp;Music Videos In Lockdown Episode 1: Last Jobs&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/music-videos-lockdown-series-launches-promonews-episode-1-last-jobs/64690" target="_blank">here</a>Future episodes on Music Videos In Lockdown will focus on how work has continued during the crisis, and the impact of the seismic change in the work routines on the industry, both now and when things return to relative normality.&nbsp;

Jess Summer

'MUSIC VIDEOS IN LOCKDOWN' series continues with Episode 2: Spending Time - exclusive on Promonews 

Music Videos In Lockdown | EP 2: Spending the Day

The video for James Massiah's Natural Born Killers (Ride For Me) won Best Music Video at Energa Camerimage 2019, the film festival celebrating the art of cinematography, while Jon Hopkins' Singularity won Best Cinematography In A Music Video.The winners of the two awards in the Music Videos Competition were announced at the closing ceremony on the final night of the festival, last Saturday (November 16th), at the festival's new venue at the Jordanki Cultural Centre in Toruń, Poland.Directed by&nbsp;Ian Pons Jewell, with cinematography by&nbsp;Mauro Chiarello,&nbsp;the James Massiah video - shot in Buenos Aires, depicting an intense heatwave&nbsp;that has a remarkable effect on the city's inhabitants - won the Best Music Video award, picked&nbsp;from a&nbsp;shortlist of 18 music videos&nbsp;by a jury chaired by veteran cinematographer Pascal Lebègue. The Best Cinematography In A Video award went to Khalid Mohtaseb for his work on the Seb Edwards-directed video for&nbsp;Jon Hopkins' Singularity.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Other winners at the 27th official Camerimage were Lawrence Sher, who won the festival's Golden Frog award for his cinematography on Joker,&nbsp;directed by Todd Phillips, and also the Audience Award;&nbsp;Vladimír Smutný, DoP of The Painted Bird, directed by&nbsp;Václav Marhoul, which won the international critic's prize, the Fipresci Award; and DoP Jake Gabbay, who won the Golden Frog - Grand Prix for Best Documentary Short for his work on the Sasha Rainbow-directed Kamali.MUSIC VIDEOS COMPETITIONBest Music Video:&nbsp; James Massiah - Natural Born Killers (Ride for Me) DoP: Mauro Chiarello Director: Ian Pons JewellBest Cinematography In A Music Video:&nbsp; Jon Hopkins - Singularity DoP:&nbsp;Khalid Mohtaseb Director:&nbsp;Seb Edwards* Promonews&nbsp;is media partner of the Music Videos Competition at Energa Camerimage 2019&nbsp;

Seb Edwards

Mauro Chiarello

Khalid Mohtaseb

Energa Camerimage 2019: James Massiah's Natural Born Killers and Jon Hopkins' Singularity win Music Videos Competition

James Massiah 'Natural Born Killers (Ride For Me)' by Ian Pons Jewell

James-Massiah-'Natural-Born-Killers-(ride-For-Me)'-by-Ian-Pons-Jewell

Jon Hopkins 'Singularity' by Seb Edwards

Ian Pons Jewell presents another grotesque delight. A cocaine bender takes a horrifying left turn in this body horror for Beardyman.In the cold light of morning, a man is locked in a race against his comedown. He’ll do anything for a little dopamine, truffling for more drugs in every corner of his dirty apartment. And when it all catches up with him, he has the mother of all hallucinations. This day of excess is narrated, blow-for-blow, by Joe Rogan - in words borrowed from legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The rabid protagonist is played with tense-jawed, red-eyed enthusiasm by Jack Morris. And the nightmarish VFX, reminiscent of cult channel <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cool3dworld/">Cool 3D World</a>, were supervised by ETC.<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/interviews/questionnaire-ian-pons-jewell/30545">Ian Pons Jewell</a> has a unique flair for affect and world building. He puts you through all the unpleasant sensations his characters experience. The texture of his bizarre worlds is so tangible and specific, it is as if you can actually smell it. His last video, <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/09/05/james-massiah-natural-born-killers-ride-me-ian-pons-jewell/60588">Natural Born Killers</a>, was a sweltering, end-of-the-world epic. Watching his evocation of wet, acrid heat, you’ll begin to feel your own sweaty, crawling discomfort.

United Kingdom

Medb Riordan

Simon Cooper

Leah Joyce

Academy Films

Elena Argiros

Ash Lockmun

Olya Kosenko

Robin Brown

Staysa Monastyrskaya

Dima Mikhailov

Gryts Makarenko

Antonia Vickers

Julia Sotnikova

Ella Girardot

Volodymyr Altsybeev

Kirill Shlyamin

Max Salo

Leo Sidorenko

David Kharaishvili

Marta Skalska

Vasya Tkachuk

Jack Morris

Whitehouse Post

Tobias Suhm

Steven Waltham

Antonia Porter

Annabel Bennett

Electric Theatre Collective

Alasdair Patrick

Sam Napper

James Sindle

Luke Morrison

Deep House

Techno

Dance

Dance, Electro

Beardyman ft Joe Rogan ‘6am (Ready To Write)'

Beardyman - 6am (Ready to Write) (Official Video) ft. Joe Rogan

Ian Pons Jewell is back with the first of two new music videos, for London-based&nbsp;poet, musician and artist James Massiah - and brings us&nbsp;the end of the world in his own inimitable fashion.The video for Massiah's Natural Born Killers shows a city facing the ultimate unbearable heatwave,&nbsp;one that brings about a rush of dopamine, as the inhabitants of the city sweat out their final hours. The heat is inescapable, and Pons Jewell brings us a snapshot of an epic storyline featuring different characters&nbsp;- including&nbsp;Massiah, the last person on Earth to retain any cool.Everyone else is surrendered to their fate, and not wearing much - or anything at all. Which leads to the inspired use of VFX in the final scene where Pons Jewell puts his own characteristically off-the-wall twist on this parable of global heating - a melted man.Shot in Buenos Aires,&nbsp;Mauro Chiarello’s cinematography focuses on contrast, blown out highlights and a burnt orange colour palette, and helps create a sense of apocalyptic dread in both the exterior and interior locations. Meanwhile, Time Based Arts in London created the inspired VFX, culminating in that extraordinary final scene.

Tito Ortiz Basualdo

Landia, In Association With Reset

Time Based Arts

Luciana Abramzon

Andrés Chenaut

Maximiliano Villavedra

Agustin Rocca

Sebastian Beretta

Sol Montalvo

Lucrecia Fontana  - Magdalena Wust

Magdalena Wust

Gaia Borretti

The Assembly Rooms

Lewis Crossfield

Landia, Reset

Levels

After taking home two awards at the 2016 UKMVAs, Ian Pons Jewell has had a quiet year where music videos are concerned.&nbsp; If it seems like he has dropped off the map, don&#39;t worry - he&#39;s just been taking care of business. He&#39;s directed over a dozen commercials in the past 18 months. But finally, as 2017 drew to a close there was at last, a new Ian Pons Jewell-directed music video was released&nbsp;- a knockout punch of cinematic surrealism for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2017/11/24/sevdaliza-hear-my-pain-heal-ian-pons-jewell" target="_blank">Sevdaliza&#39;s Hear My Pain Heal</a>.Ian Pons Jewell is&nbsp;a whirlwind - it&#39;s hard to know where he is going to be at any given time &ndash; but we managed to pin him down for long enough to answer our questions about the Sevdaliza video (above), his eventful&nbsp;2017, the progress of his career and, frank and fearless as ever, he told us about about weird synchronicity at play in making the video.LB: It&rsquo;s been over a year since your last music video. So what have you been up to?IPJ: Busy doing paid work... just kidding, sort of.&nbsp;I started doing commercials halfway through last year and it caught alight. The projects came in one after the other to the point I was working back to back, often with overlap. So, I just didn&#39;t have any time to do a music video.Because I&#39;d just broken into that world, I was very conscious of riding the momentum. In your first year, it&#39;s make or break. That one project that changes everything is then needed to be built on. Every single project is a potential massive step forward, or even a step back. Now I&#39;ve got some strong commercials under my belt [that includes his commercials for Pixel 2, TK Maxx and Finish]&nbsp;I can afford to step out of a project or two for personal work, which I consider music videos to be.[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>&quot;The idea came on the first few listens with eyes closed. I could see the whole video. It&#39;s hardly changed since that first moment. I had to make it.&rdquo; Ian Pons Jewell</blockquote>It&#39;s a weird one as a director. You&#39;re constantly evaluating your profile and career on every single project. You see directors you admire going off the radar and drying up. It&#39;s an industry that feeds off hype and temporary waves, so you have to make the most of the moment. That was commercials for me the last year and half - but still have a big way to go.Which commercial you&#39;ve done this year are you most proud of - the one you think that will stand the test of time?That&#39;s a tough one. I&#39;d have to say <a href="http://friendlondon.tv/directors/ian-pons-jewell#cat-liveaction">Finish</a>. It&#39;s the one I feel is the most direct lines from the music video work. But I&#39;m also very proud of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQZrmUjd2M" target="_blank">Pixel 2 spot</a>. It was such a mammoth job and an amazing experience.Since you&rsquo;ve been away from music promos all year, what was it about the Sevdaliza&nbsp;project that hooked you back in?Sevdaliza herself. She wrote to me almost two years ago about working together and it just spun from there. She was patient too, so that meant I could slot in the video as soon as me and Mauro Chiarello (DoP) had a free two weeks. Anyway, I&#39;m boring you with constant schedule talk... the track was the main show. It hit me hard. Deeply. The idea came on the first few listens with eyes closed. I could see the whole video. It&#39;s hardly changed since that first moment. I had to make it. The thought of it not having a video drove me forward.I&#39;ll fall in love with a track and the need to bring the images to it. It&#39;s not just feeling like I could make a great video to it, It&#39;s the feeling of tapping into the&nbsp;existing&nbsp;visual that the track has in a subconscious reality. It&#39;s as if all music has its visual counterpart out there in the collective unconscious which is then tapped into when the director listens to the music.Sometimes it&#39;s so strong and such a pure reaction to the music that it&#39;s an existential process, one that has to be materialised and unified. Music and image. Which is why I&#39;ve been completely heartbroken when a project that was looking good was cancelled, or a pitch I was so sure of wasn&#39;t picked.When and where did you shoot the Sevdaliza video?We shot it in March in Milan.[imgtoken data:2]<blockquote>&quot;It&#39;s not just feeling like I could make a great video, it&#39;s the feeling of tapping into the&nbsp;existing&nbsp;visual that the track has in a subconscious reality.&quot;&nbsp;</blockquote>This video sees the humorous elements of a lot of your previous work take a back seat in favour of a slow-burning, surreal, cinematic meditation. Was this a conscious tonal shift for you?There was no conscious decision in the tone. The video you see is the physical product of a totally subconscious reaction to the music. But I was very happy to be making this type of video as a lot of my recent work does have that comedic element, but I really don&#39;t see myself as a &quot;comedy&quot; guy. I really noticed how people saw my work once I was doing commercials. Comedy scripts make up 75% of the briefs that I get. So, it&#39;s certainly something I&#39;m wary of.Sevdaliza&rsquo;s previous videos all seem to follow a similar visual language (an opulent setting, performative melancholy and physical transformation) How aware of these motifs were you when creating the world of the video?I love her previous videos. Emmanuel Adjei&#39;s work for her is stunning. I adore his work, and can see we share some similar sensibilities, but there wasn&#39;t a conscious decision to add to that body of videos.Music has a soul that you tap into. It would be interesting to have two directors make a video at the same time for the same track and see what similarities occur. Something that&#39;s very particular with Sevdaliza though, is that there&#39;s not many artists that I can&#39;t remove from their music. I cannot remove her. Every track I&#39;ve listened to, I see her singing it. I see her as a core character. I tend to do videos without the artist, but with her the whole idea revolved around her personality and the power she holds. This has happened on the previous scripts I&#39;ve written for her music also.How would you summarize the relationship between the characters, and what they represent?I see them all as characters in such need of each other that as soon as one is gone, the entire fabric of their reality rips apart. We are seeing the moment of disarray.[imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>&quot;There&#39;s not many artists that I can&#39;t remove from their music. I cannot remove her.&quot;</blockquote>The depiction of grief feels both surreal and sincere here and I&rsquo;ve seen your collaboration with Sevdaliza as &quot;strange synchronous relationship.&rdquo; Can you elaborate on that a little bit?It was happening alongside some things in my personal life, emotional loss and difficulty moving forward from it. The process of making this video was a big part of working through it. The relationship with Sevdaliza was just filled with synchronisities, dreams, coincidences. One night I dreamt I was passing my hands over her back as she writhed in pain. I woke from this to a text message from her, which was strange enough as we don&#39;t text frequently. I recounted my dream and she told me she&#39;d just seen a specialist doctor about her back pains.There were other moments like this that just pointed toward two artists working on the same frequency. It really brought back my faith in the artistic process as it was all stuff I&#39;d put to one side in the heavy work load I&#39;d had over that last year.Why was it important that Sevdaliza appears naked at the end of the video, and did she need much convincing to shoot that scene?It&#39;s just what I saw when I listened to the music. Her naked self wandering into the room with shoes of her dead lover, performing a final&nbsp;swaying dance with his soul. I can&#39;t imagine that scene any other way. She was incredibly trusting and had no issue with it as the project&nbsp;was so dear to us both. We had been wanting to make this script for quite some time.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>&quot;The thought of it not having a video drove me forward.&quot;</blockquote>Is there anything from the shoot that you couldn&rsquo;t include or wish you&rsquo;d done differently?There&#39;s always stuff you wish you have done differently, that&#39;s hindsight for you. But nothing that bugs me in any way.What&rsquo;s in store for you for 2018?I&#39;ll mainly keep pushing the commercials further, but definitely a couple more music videos, I hope.

Ian Pons Jewell on Sevdaliza's Hear My Pain Heal "The track hit me hard"       

Sevdaliza-'Hear-My-Pain-Heal'-by-Ian-Pons-Jewell

Sevdaliza mourns the sudden death of her lover in the sensual, dreamlike drama for Hear My Pain Heal, a triumphant&nbsp;return to music videos&nbsp;by Ian Pons Jewell.In this labour of love project, shot in Italy, Pons Jewell establishes a powerfully cinematic atmosphere before introducing a brilliant visual motif to symbolise the departure of the soul of the deceased, but above all the video belongs to the smouldering, body and soul-bearing presence of Sevdaliza herself.&nbsp;

Ilaria Celeghin

Withstand In Association With Time Based Arts

Hamlet

Davide Ferazza (withstand), Jason Felstead

Ruben Goots (hamlet)

Yuri Tartari Pucci

Alessandro Stellari

Paolo Gobbi

Giovanni Fiormarino

Fabio Bonizzoni

Michela Natella

Francesca Cefis

Adriano Cattide

Lucia Giacomin

Simone Grattarola

Sam Napper (producer), Stephen Grasso (lead), Sam Osborne (supervisor)

Sevdaliza, Imola Gaspar, Omer Bila

Twisted Elegance

Alternative

Sevdaliza 'Hear My Pain Heal' by Ian Pons Jewell

Ian Pons Jewell takes us on a journey through an overcrowded house in a way that only he and his mind can in his video for Nimmo&#39;s My Only Friend,&nbsp;whilst outside a storm brews to an astonishing&nbsp;climax.

Dobi Manolova

Denitza Daverova

Edis Seliminski

Borja Lopez Diaz

Kaloyan Nedelchev

Rado

Pavel Mitov

Severina Stoyanova

Tsvetomir Goranov

Boryana Koseva

Slav Anastasov

Richard Fearon

Ryan Hancocks

Hugo Saunders

Laura Clayton

Columbia

Alternative Pop, Electronica

Nimmo 'My Only Friend' by Ian Pons Jewell

Nimmo - My Only Friend

Ian Pons Jewell is peripatetic, making a habit of filming in all corners of the globe - from his important Bolivian career phase which included <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2013/05/03/naughty-boy-%E2%80%98la-la-la%E2%80%99-ft-sam-smith-ian-pons-jewell" target="_blank">Naughty Boy&#39;s La La La</a>, to shooting <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/05/27/vince-staples-ft-future-snoh-aalegra-se%C3%B1orita-ian-pons-jewell" target="_blank">Vince Staples&#39; Senorita</a> in Los Angeles, and then&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/11/19/nao-bad-blood-ian-pons-jewell" target="_blank">NAO&#39;s Bad Blood</a> in the Bulgaria. He even shoots in the UK from time to time...&nbsp;Until now, his travels had not extended to working in Japan, but he&#39;s put that right with the Tokyo-shot video for Valentino Khan&#39;s Deep Down Low - a VFX-heavy kinetic visual comedy that&nbsp;has notched nearly two million views in its first week of release. It could become&nbsp;his most popular video since La La La, but as Ian explains here, he needed lots of his international contacts&nbsp;to help with the crucial VFX work...PN: How did the job come about? Was this a track that inspired the idea or was this something you&rsquo;ve been&nbsp;wanting to do for a while? IPJ: Caroline Clayton [the commissioner]&nbsp;sent me the track and I had the rough idea on the first few listens. I could see these character&#39;s eyes shifting downward to the beat, and then things in the restaurant they&#39;re in also getting &quot;low&quot;.It made me quite anxious too. It&#39;s a dark track that gives you this particular rush, so that&#39;s where the idea of having all this stuff happen from the point of view of a guy who&#39;s been out clubbing all weekend. I&#39;ve always wanted to make something based on a really horrific comedown, so it was the perfect chance.[imgtoken data:1] Above: Ian Pons Jewell (right) on the set of the Valentino Khan&#39;s Deep Down Low videoIt&#39;s not specifically about that though. It&#39;s read generally as a guy&#39;s terrible trip who just wants a glass of water. Maybe he&#39;s losing his mind, or he&#39;s taken something. The other thing I&#39;ve wanted to do for a while, is to make something very rich and synced to the music. In general my videos ride the music, but this was a chance to follow the beat on a much more minute scale, rather than broader &quot;brushstrokes&quot;.It&#39;s why electronic music is probably the most exciting genre at the moment for me, in terms of making videos. The best music video ever made, in my opinion, is Rubber Johnny [by Chris Cunningham for Aphex Twin]. I aspire to make something one day that is that perfectly dictated by the music&#39;s rhythm.&nbsp;I find those videos so incredibly hypnotic.<blockquote>&quot;In general my videos ride the music, but this was a chance to follow the beat on a much more minute scale.&quot;</blockquote>Did Valentino and OWSLA need much convincing? Did you have to lose even weirder stuff from the script?&nbsp; Not at all. I&#39;d spoken to the guys at OWSLA before and they were fans of my work which was quite amazing to hear. I&#39;d pitched on a couple of things to them before that didn&#39;t work out. Valentino and OWSLA knew from the start they wanted something really out there that would grab you and take you for a ride.The only thing they didn&#39;t want was my idea of seeing the skirt blow up in front of the camera&nbsp;when it comes out of from the intestinal journey. I wanted it to be quite clear we&#39;d gone into her mouth, and out of the other side. This was a bit much, and I agreed it didn&#39;t need to be so obvious. But in the end, I think it&#39;s pretty clear. Daniel Terrazas from Rebel VFX did a fine job of creating that opening to the teary eye!&bull; Was this your first time shooting in Japan? What were the big challenges around the&nbsp;shoot? It was my first time there in general, but it tends to be filming that brings me to countries on the first go anyway. It&#39;s really all down to Yukihiro Shoda, an amazing director in Tokyo and great friend. He invited me to co-direct a commercial with him, shooting in LA but editing in Tokyo. This meant I got to go there and meet his friends, crew and the other founders of NION, the new company I was invited to join.&nbsp;It was just a wonderful coincidence that I was going over there when I got the track.Caroline asked where I was when she sent the track&nbsp;and was very much up for shooting in Tokyo - she&nbsp;has a similar gypsy lifestyle.&nbsp;The label were really trusting of her and myself, and&nbsp;happy for us to go ahead and do it despite the budget not allowing them to fly out there.&nbsp;We&nbsp;weren&#39;t sure if it would be affordable, but our producer Satoshi Takahashi is incredible and worked some miracles - it was&nbsp;NION&#39;s&nbsp;first production.<blockquote>&quot;VFX were done in various countries - which made it particularly difficult in post to co-ordinate.&quot;&nbsp;</blockquote>One of the challenges &ndash;&nbsp;which was actually a lot of&nbsp;fun &ndash; was location recce-ing. I ended up quite drunk, because we couldn&#39;t just waltz into a place, have a look around, and ask if we could shoot. You can&#39;t do that there.&nbsp;So we had to go into a place, sit down, drink and eat, then ask politely at the end if we could speak to the manager.&nbsp;We went to a few places doing this.Shooting there was wonderful, such an amazing crew, and Satoshi - now a great friend - was superb.&nbsp;I&nbsp;think it&#39;s probably possible to have difficulties with the language when you don&#39;t know people there, but everyone speaks English at NION, and I had an amazing assistant producer, Azumi Kotake who speaks incredible English with a slight Geordie accent having studied in Newcastle. She assisted me throughout, translating on set too, it was wonderful to work with her.&nbsp; We had such a fun time out there, it was a really special shoot.&nbsp;I can&#39;t wait to go back.[imgtoken data:2]It&rsquo;s a very VFX-dependent video, so were you sure that all the moving faces FX would work? How long did it&nbsp;take to make everything perfect? I was probably a bit over optimistic on the VFX working smoothly. After the first few passes we realised the eye movements weren&#39;t working in the style I wanted, so we had more work done on that. This was the most troublesome part. In the end, Ryan McNeely from Visual Creatures did a test to help us out, coming up with a more droopy/morphing sort of style to it which changed the direction we went in.Brandon Hirzel from Bemo then took this part of the VFX on and re-worked this into the rest of them, adding the kaleidoscope eyes and really nailing it. Gloria VFX did all the blank face work and clean ups, with Alejandro Villavicencio Vargas doing the initial work on the end shot as a guide for us to go from.<blockquote>&quot;Valentino, OWSLA and Caroline were so patient and supportive of us getting the VFX right.&quot;</blockquote>Finally we had Daniel Terrazas from Rebel VFX, also based in Bolivia, doing the incredible tentacle and intestinal journey VFX, which we realised needed to be full 3D. Originally we had filmed some tentacles to use but it didn&#39;t work. So the VFX were done in various countries in the end which made it particularly difficult in post to co-ordinate.Can&#39;t thank them enough for the great work they did, they really nailed it. Also Valentino, OWSLA and Caroline for being so patient and supportive of us getting the VFX right even though it took much longer than it was meant to.This follows recent FX-heavy vids for NAO and Vince Staples. Are you consciously tending towards more Post&nbsp;VFX work and away from in-camera stuff at the moment? Not consciously, I&#39;ve pitched work before that has had VFX work but never had the opportunity to work with VFX artists. Music video budgets rarely allow you to bring on VFX artists as you would a commercial. You have to have a relationship with them already, or have an idea that the VFX artist is really into, or present the project at a time where the post house has got time and is up for having one of their artists, or the whole company, work on your project for the love of it.So I&#39;m incredibly grateful to all the post houses I&#39;ve worked with including The Mill who have been incredibly supportive with my collaboration over the years with colourist Luke Morrison, and his producers Laurie Adrianopoli and Samantha Letzler. I think once I did work with VFX more, it definitely opened this side of film up to me and meant that it&#39;s now in the back of my mind.&nbsp;But I&#39;ve been pitching stuff that is totally in camera also, so it&#39;s something newer for me, but not a &quot;conscious&quot; decision.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Ian Pons Jewell on Deep Down Low: "Valentino wanted something really out there"

Valentino Khan - Deep Down Low (Official Video)

Valentino Khan 'Deep Down Low' by Ian Pons Jewell

Valentino Khan - Deep Down Low (Official Music Video)

Ian Pons Jewell has directed this banger of a video for&nbsp;Valentino Khan&#39;s Deep Down Low, following a delirious young man as he walks&nbsp;the streets of Tokyo.Whether it&#39;s caused by&nbsp;fever,&nbsp;hallucinogenic&nbsp;drugs or the track&#39;s&nbsp;craze-inducing beat,&nbsp;his nightmarish visions&nbsp;only get&nbsp;progressively wackier after he sits down at a restaurant. But with peoples&#39;&nbsp;dancing facial features and&nbsp;tentacles bursting out&nbsp;of the waitresses eye sockets, there&#39;s only so much the man can take before running back on to&nbsp;the streets&nbsp;again.&nbsp;

NION TOKYO / Robot

Caroline Clayton

OWSLA

Satoshi Takahashi

Fumikazu Matsubara

Azumi Kotake

Naoki Noda

Mitsutaka Mizutani

Koji Naoi

Naoyuki Hashimoto

Naoki Yamada

Tadayuki Suyama

Yuuri Hasegawa

Daichi Tanaka

Yukihiro Miyagawa

Shun Umeda

Tom Newman

Seb Bruen

Laurie Adrianopoli

Ian Pons Jewell has outdone himself in his video for Irish rapper&nbsp;Rejjie Snow&#39;s&nbsp;Blakkst Skn, with a unique and captivating&nbsp;commentary on race set against a story of forbidden love.&nbsp;Like his video for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/11/19/nao-bad-blood-ian-pons-jewell" target="_blank">NAO</a>&nbsp;released a few weeks ago,&nbsp;Blakkst Skn is&nbsp;uncanny&nbsp;and more than slightly off-kilter&nbsp;scene which&nbsp;melds with the song lyrics and commands the viewer&#39;s&nbsp;interpretation. The video sees the rapper living in a sewer, accompanied by a homeless man and looked down at through a drainage opening&nbsp;by a red-haired woman who is at street level.Then, we&#39;re jolted by a&nbsp;thought-provoking sequence,&nbsp;revealing that&nbsp;the woman is anything but ordinary, as she&nbsp;turns Rejjie into a extraordinary,&nbsp;gold-skinned man.&nbsp;

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