Production designer

James Soldan

Joe Connor directs an innovative and beguiling promo for Ellie Goulding's Like A Saviour.Set against a desert backdrop cycling&nbsp;through different times of day, we see Goulding and a set of dancers perform slick choreography&nbsp;whilst the environment around them transforms.&nbsp;Making use of the latest production technology, the entire video was shot against a virtual LED screen, with the sand set built right in front (and on top)&nbsp;of it, allowing the creative team to completely control every aspect of the visual.&nbsp;Aside from the magic of the technology, Goulding and the dancers hit every mark, creating an evocative video that perfectly complements the emotive track.&nbsp;"Ellie came to me with a brief that dared me to think a little differently," explains Joe Connor. "I&nbsp;wanted to throw myself in front of the latest technology and play with what was possible using the large Virtual Production Volume screens."We’ve all seen the images of the Mandalorian, but I felt that there was so much room to use this technology for artistic expression. I wanted to create a desert space where time constantly shifted, from day to night and back to day again. This felt like a really exciting and dynamic starting point to work from.&nbsp;"Working with D-Neg studios, we built a large-scale, 3D desert in Unreal Engine and then built a detailed, real-world foreground using tonnes of sand to blend into our 3D world. The ability to shift through the time of day was enhanced by David Procter’s real-world lighting, which was synchronised with the constantly changing lighting on the screen.&nbsp;"What the team has created is a video which feels unlike any other Ellie Goulding video. It’s a great example of cooperation and collaboration in the pursuit of a singular visual idea."&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Joe Connor

Fred Bonham Carter

Alexa Haywood at Free Agent UK

Just Fred

Amanda Tuckwell

David Proctor

Oliver Hogan

Daniel Alwell

Chris Kelly

Jacques Simon

George K

Black Kite Studios

Ellie Goulding 'Like A Saviour' by Joe Connor

Ellie Goulding - Like A Saviour (Official Video)

Jak Payne directs a breathless promo for&nbsp;Rina Sawayama and her new single Frankenstein, bringing a modern-day relevance to the&nbsp;original story of a single character&nbsp;comprised of different bodies.&nbsp;&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Payne adds a psychological twist as well as a contemporary edge to the&nbsp;Frankenstein legend, with Sawayama navigating dimly lit halls at a party, before her 'monster' alter ego locks 'shy' Rina in the bathroom.&nbsp;Imbued with experimental fashion, and&nbsp;nods to influential 90s photographers such as&nbsp;Davide Sorrenti and Juergen Teller, as well as Gen Z touchstones Skins and Euphoria, the video is its own Frankenstein's monster of references, seamlessly blended together with contemporary flair.[imgtoken data:2]Payne wears his inspirations on his sleeve, but with an injection of his own style and vision, it becomes a heightened, stylish affair with just the right amount of fright for the spooky season.[imgtoken data:3]

Road Casting

Sarah Adewunmi

Charlie Morris

Jordan Kelsey

Jak Payne

Rosie Brear

Blink

Will Frost

Igor Smitka

Laura Northover

Harry Hardwick

Elle Lotherington

Austin Phillips

Edward Harper Jones

Anil Duru

Anastasya Cherkasyuk

Joshua Pilmore

Romi Roppongi

Lauren Webster

Rich Woolway

Homespun

Alex Gregory

No.8

Kelvin Chim

Aaliyah Oke

Rina Sawayama 'Frankenstein' by Jak Payne

Rina Sawayama - Frankenstein (Official Video)

Following frontman Alex Turner's video for There Ought To Be A Mirrorball, Brook Linder picks up the baton to create a&nbsp;breathtaking video, again glorying in the beauty of the moving image of its own sake, for Arctic Monkeys.&nbsp;Linder's video for Body Paint is&nbsp;a montage of abstract vignettes, each carefully considered and filmed, building a sense of mystery through the placement and contrast of different visuals and iconography.[imgtoken data:1]It's imbued with themes of vintage cinema and moving image (with the large-scale zoetrope as the most notable example), and peppered with throwbacks to famous paintings and artworks.&nbsp;Most importantly, this works brilliantly as a visual accompaniment to the new sonic direction of the band for their forthcoming album The Car, and is all of a piece with Turner's video. It's a homage to the sort of filmmaking by Jean-Luc Godard, the great disruptor of cinema, and others from the classic age of 'arthouse cinema' - but it also feels crisply contemporary. Great work.&nbsp;

Us Unit: Nikki Simmons

Brook Linder

Ali Khalil

RadicalMedia

Johnny Bradshaw

Danny Hayward

Us Unit: Joe Ramos

Natasha Duursma

Frank Mobilio

Ben Schneider

Jodie Brooks

Billie Hallows

Mark Bull

Charlotte Croft

Kaitlyn Barristelli

Ethos Studio

Matt Lathrom

Domino Record Co.

Ben Chappell

Rock

Arctic Monkeys 'Body Paint' by Brook Linder

Arctic-Monkeys-'Body-Paint'-by-Brook-Linder

KLVDR's 11 minute epic for Stormzy's big return with Mel Made Me Do It is remarkable in a number of ways, and not least of course due to the star quality and sheer number of the cameo&nbsp;appearances. And yes, that does include the Special One...More to the point is the ambition of the piece. Fom the chatshow hosted by Jonathan Ross and ZeZe Mills, with Stormz sharing the sofa with Louis Theroux and Dina Asher-Smith - watched by Usain Bolt, at his home in Jamaica -&nbsp;to performance elements in the studio and the meeting with Jose Mourihno, to the momentous final chapter bringing a couple of generations of Black British talent together that includes a tribute to the late Jamal Edwards.At that point, Stormzy hands over duties to provide the spoken-word piece called Greatness - written by Wretch 32 and read by Michaela Cole. It's a&nbsp;quietly powerful climax of an impressive and entertaining production - this was a five day shoot,&nbsp;plus shooting Bolt in Kingston - that amounts to a big statement of intent by&nbsp;Stormzy - and reminds us of his unmistakeable charisma.&nbsp;&nbsp;And of course, the eponymous Mel, stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akpose, namechecked by Stormzy in the songtitle, is there too, both behind and in front of camera - with her lint roller.

KLVDR

Joseph J Goldman

Pulse Films

Nnena Nwakodo

Rik Green

Hands 

Jacqueline Eyewe

Nicola Sheppard

Melissa Holdbrook-Akpose

Leah Abbott

Jeremy Valender

Hunter Daly

Pieter Snyman

Louis Simonon

Ollie Hogan

Jamie Hodgson

Lola Cookman

Work Editorial

Ellie Johnson and Blaine Pearson

TenThree

Jason Wallis

Olivia Jessop

Electric Theatre Collective

Grime

Spoken Word

Stormzy 'Mel Made Me Do It' by KLVDR

STORMZY - MEL MADE ME DO IT

Kelli-Leigh is ready for some festive fun in&nbsp;Andy Mihov &amp; Paul Romero Mendez's promo for Underneath The Tree.&nbsp;In their first ever collaboration&nbsp;as co-directors and co-producers, the duo created a promo&nbsp;for the Grammy nominated artist and songwriter where slick performance vignettes have a&nbsp;playful and celebratory seasonal vibe, and Santa himself even stops by for an appearance.&nbsp;Kelli-Leigh's performance is absorbing and assured, providing a perfect focal point for&nbsp;the Christmassy concept.[imgtoken data:1]"We wanted the music video to feel fun, joyful, and big without coming across as pretentious." says Mihov.&nbsp;"We had roughly a nine-day timeframe in which we had to refine and develop a concept, crew up and shoot the video to be in line with the artist’s planned release.&nbsp;&nbsp;"Kelli-Leigh is a super kind and down-to-earth person. It was her idea to involve her friends, their children and celebrity bodybuilder, Armz Korleone as Santa Claus. We really leaned into that and built the concept for the video around her getting ready for Christmas Day."As the song progresses the setting changes to a more home video feel, as we see her interact with her loved ones and Santa. Many of us probably have a memory of a parent recording us opening presents on Christmas morning and we wanted to pay homage to that very relatable human experience."[imgtoken data:2]"Even with the best laid plans, we had to keep flexible. We had kids on set and two dogs! Sharing the directing and producing responsibilities turned out to an amazing experience for both Paul and I. We were able to minimize unnecessary coverage, focus on specific lines and verses for each set up."We’re definitely going to continue collaborating as a directing duo on future promos and narrative projects, both as creatives and friends."

Paul Romero Mendez

Andy Mihov

33Red Films

Jenna Leeds

Robert Howells

Tom Watts

Christian Griffiths

Sandra Hahnel

Lauren Nicole

Tom Marshall

Daniel Kadir

Silver Music Limited

Silver Music

Kelli-Leigh 'Underneath The Tree' by Andy Mihov & Paul Romero Mendez

Kelli-leigh-'Underneath-The-Tree'-by-Andy-Mihov-&-Paul-Romero-Mendez

Andy Mihov directs a vibrant studio-based promo for Erire, focussing on the charisma of the singer.&nbsp;Vibrant backgrounds and minimalist art direction&nbsp;set the tone for the All Night Long video, which is built around the artist's assured performance style and no-nonsense attitude, classily&nbsp;shot by DoP Suki Mok.&nbsp;Snapshots of lifestyle footage out and about with friends - and the inclusion of Erire's daughter Taga as the main dancer in the piece - add an intimate vibe to the concept, and a freshness to the aesthetic.&nbsp;

Suki Mok

Ed Grant

Ollie Riches

Diana Francis

James Angus

Biometric Records

Erire 'All Night Long' by Andy Mihov

Erire-'All-Night-Long'-by-Andy-Mihov

Dreamjob - that's Jack Whiteley and Joe Wills - give the now-familiar Groundhog Day structure an existential makeover for Metronomy's return to action with the aptly titled&nbsp;It's Good To Be Back.Metronomy's frontman Joe Mount encounters his fellow bandmembers through a series of studio-set exteriors of exaggerated fakeness. He ends the sequence with a singing cowboy in front of a sunset backdrop 'shooting' him with his fingers, sending Mount spinning back to the beginning.[imgtoken data:1]As he repeats the sequence of events, things inevitably change, but not quite in the way you might expect. This is no exercise in achieving improvement and ultimate perfection - quite the opposite. Mount and company's swing between indifference, cheeriness, depression and beyond, as they head repeatedly to the cowboy's inevitable finger-gun.Heroic failure is so more interesting than success...

Dreamjob

Curate Films

Dan Dickenson

Abbey Valentina

Steve Wingrove

Carlos Veron

Tekko Osman

Steve Cameron

Celia Arias

Natasha Lawes

Yulia Bulashenko

Natalia Maus

Because Music

Jack Whiteley

Joe Wills

Alternative

Indie

Metronomy 'It's Good To Be Back' by Dreamjob

Metronomy-'It's-Good-To-Be-Back'-by-Dreamjob

Tom Beard and Olly Alexander reinterpret A Midsummer Night’s Dream&nbsp;for Gen-Z, in the sensual and surreal promo for Crave.&nbsp;Featuring subverted Disney villains and references to the Cult of Dionysus, the fantasy-inspired visuals are a hallucinogenic rollercoaster ride, complete with phenomenal styling and set design.Alexander's trademark performance style is the glue that binds the carousel of vignettes, and represents a leap into a more authentic, maximalist aesthetic for the artist.And the video&nbsp;features a number of Alexander's fellow cast members from the award-winning TV drama It's A Sin, including&nbsp;Omari Douglas, Nathaniel Hall, and David Carlisle, as well as model Munroe Bergdorf.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]

Tom Beard

MrMr

Prettybird

Chris Murdoch

Jack Meredith

Jack Exton

Kate Molins

Cullum Ross

Ryo Narushima

Jimmy Owen Jones

Sam Bould

Final Cut Uk

Vic Parker

Raised By Wolves

Mikey Smith + Zee S

Louis Danckwerts

Luke Snowball

Lee Sharrock

Years & Years 'Crave' by Tom Beard 

Years-&-Years--'Crave'-by-Tom-Beard-

Lewis Capaldi has released a&nbsp;second, official video for his monster hit Someone You Loved directed by Ozzie Pullin, which sees&nbsp;Lewis star as&nbsp;a heartbroken man in the immediate aftermath of a break-up with his girlfriend – while pals try to stop him from chasing after her.Focused&nbsp;almost purely on performance, Lewis&nbsp;pushes aside the funny, goofy personality we all know and uncovers a broken, vulnerable&nbsp;side of himself.“I wanted to show another side to the song,” Capaldi said in a press statement. “For me the video is about the people we surround ourselves with that have the strength when we don’t and help us continue to make the right decisions in moments of fear or hardship. In the moment we often choose to ignore friends and family, thinking our judgement is better, but of course in hindsight when you’re in that headspace it’s almost impossible to make the right decisions.”Ozzie Pullin's video follows&nbsp;the first one released in February, featuring Lewis's relative Peter Capaldi, which doubled as a promo for the organ donation charity&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livelifegivelife.org.uk/" target="_blank">Life Life Give Life</a>.&nbsp;

Ozzie Pullin

Byron McNally

Partizan

Mayling Wong

Anastasia Chabanova

Louis Barron

Ula Pontikos

Mike Linforth

Rob Hawkins

Tim Wiley

Luci Ellis

Georgina Hamed

Lisa Chau

Rebecca Gore

Meg Thorne

Cut+Run

Jack McGinity

CHEAT

Mouthpiece

Targa Sahyoun

Singer-songwriter

Lewis Capaldi 'Someone You Loved' by Ozzie Pullin

Lewis-Capaldi-'Someone-You-Loved'-by-Ozzie-Pullin

A surprise performance by Ray Blk for her mother in their local church, becomes a tribute to motherhood in general in Joshua Neale&#39;s lovely video for Mama.As well as documenting the performance at Rye Chapel in Peckham, south east London - which ends with Ray&#39;s mum getting some time on the mic - Neale also captures moments with a range of mothers from the area in their homes, doing what mums do, cleverly worked through the main event by editor Max Windows.Uplifting, emotional stuff, and very good work by everyone concerned.

James Soldan

Production designer

Videos featuring James Soldan

2023 (1)

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2019 (1)

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2016 (1)

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