Alexa Haywood @ Free Agent Uk

Director

Joe Connor

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

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

Ellie Goulding 'Like A Saviour' by Joe Connor

Ellie Goulding - Like A Saviour (Official Video)

We spoke to Joe Connor about how he came to work with Japanese superstar Hikaru Utada, how they bonded over their&nbsp;shared love of the works of Carl Jung - and why he flooded the music video shoot for Bad Mode.Joe Connor has worked with numerous big artists - The Rolling Stones, Rag 'N Bone Man, Biffy Clyro, Mumford &amp; Sons, to name a few. But it still came as something as a surprise that Connor's latest video is for a Japanese pop legend.Hikaru Utada certainly has that status, the American-Japanese singer-songwriter being a huge star in Japan since the Nineties. But she indeed turned to Connor to help launch her latest album Bad Mode with the video for the album's title track. The result is a sumptuous performance video&nbsp;with a surprising twist.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In one of several performance set-ups, a&nbsp;reflective Hikaru contemplates a new love affair while she sits&nbsp;waiting&nbsp;in a taxi rank&nbsp;- which is then flooded, and transformed into a pool, seemingly when the fishtank in the office overflows.[vidtoken data:0]With cinematography by Alex Jamin, and production design by Luke Moran-Morris, the look of the video is as glamourous&nbsp;as befits an artist of this stature. But Moran-Morris's production design&nbsp;is also ingenious: he built the main set on stilts above an underwater tank, then lowered the set into the water tank at a studio in Basildon during the shoot.So we spoke to Joe Connor about the project, and how he ended up in Essex with a Japanese pop queen...&nbsp;How did the project start? Were you surprised to be asked to write a treatment for a top Japanese artist?This particular&nbsp;project came about in a very strange and unusual way. I was contacted almost out of the blue by a representative for Hikaru who wanted to know more about my process, how I work with an artist. We struck up a really good relationship and before you know it, half of Tokyo was flying out to an underwater tank in Basildon.[imgtoken data:1]Even though I hadn't worked with Hikaru before I knew she had worked with Rina [Yang, the DoP] and I'd actually randomly recommended a friend of mine to Rina, to be a lighting designer of Hikaru's tour a few years ago. So&nbsp;there were some strange connections. It must be fate.&nbsp;<blockquote>I wrote the idea thinking the room was purgatory - an inner space where the main character is stuck.&nbsp;</blockquote>How did you come up with your idea? And how does it relate to the song, Bad Mode? What sort of references did you include in your treatment?This is the first time I've written&nbsp;an idea for a track without knowing the meaning of the lyrics. I'm a lyric-focused director, not in the sense of replicating the exact meaning, but in looking behind them and finding the emotional state of the artist writing them. It was almost impossible to do that process on this, as the translation into English doesn't quite work. There are Japanese slang terms that are only really understood by those that know.[imgtoken data:2]That being said, I got a very deep feeling of someone caught in limbo, held in a space unable to move or progress forward. That feeling formed the basis of the idea; waiting for a taxi that never comes, and waiting so long the room floods. I wrote the idea thinking the room was purgatory - an inner space where the main character is stuck.When I pitched it to Hikaru I thought she'd laugh me out the room.&nbsp;But it turns out we both have the same Jung books on our respective bedside table. Once you know someone is a fan of Jung you can move ideas into a dream space without fear that it'll be too 'out there'.Hikaru is an amazingly perceptive person and we resonated really well. My interpretation of the track captured how she felt when she was writing it, and once we had that understanding it all just fell into place.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:3] Was there much communication with the artist ahead of the shoot? Did they have requests or requirements about how they wanted to video to look and how they wanted to be filmed?I had a lot of chats with Hikaru but they were more focussed around how the video needed to feel, rather then specifics regarding looks or filming style. I knew I wanted to push this video and be a bit looser with the operation then I'm used too.I love focussed and composed photography but it felt like this one was crying out for Dutch framing, handheld camerawork, and a bit more looseness. It was unusual territory for me&nbsp;but my DoP Alex Jamin, brought so much to the party that it kept me from wanting to nail everything down. It was a very free and alive project in that sense.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>Luke Moran Morris... really brought some A-grade execution to this project.</blockquote>Where (and when) did you shoot the video? Flooding a set is always going to be a tricky business - how did you achieve it?I knew I wanted to build the set on a water tank. I've shot at Basildon for The Maccabees and more recently with Biffy Clyro, so I know the limitations of that facility. Writing ideas for specfifc&nbsp;locations is always helpful - it allows me to know what I can achieve and still surprise people with a bit of a creative twist.I must say that working out the set, how to build it on stilts, how to light it, how to lower it was all down to the genius of Luke Moran Morris and his team. He really brought some A-grade execution to this project.&nbsp;&nbsp;[imgtoken data:5]We then shot the&nbsp;dry section&nbsp;of the video before lunch, then lowered the set over lunch and while we were shooting the other set-ups (they were partly in there to give me that buffer while the set was sunk, allowing me to keep shooting without losing time) and then once the set was submerged we shot the second half of the video.The main challenge was containing the potential for chaos. A project like this can easily spiral as water starts to flood the set. So my main consideration was keeping the focus, keeping it fun and getting what we needed in the time we had.&nbsp;• Joe Connor is based at <a href="https://www.roguefilms.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rogue Films</a>, and represented by Alexa Haywood at <a href="https://www.freeagent.uk.com/" target="_blank">Free Agent UK</a> for music videos.&nbsp;More work <a href="https://www.roguefilms.co.uk/directors-roster/joe-connor" target="_blank">here</a>.

Rogue Films

Joe Connor on Hikaru Utada's Bad Mode: 'I had a feeling of someone caught in limbo.'

Hikaru-Utada-'Bad-Mode'-by-Joe-Connor

Hikaru Utada 'Bad Mode' by Joe Connor

Joe Connor has directed a gorgeous video for legendary Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada - using in-camera ingenuity to flood the space where she dramatizes the heartfelt track Bad Mode.The video is something of a departure in style for the director, but in creating an alluringly dreamlike edge to proceedings, Hikaru comes over as both proper pop star and intriguing artist - enigmatic,&nbsp;sensitive and strong.It's courtesy of great work not only by Connor, but also DoP Alex Jamin and production design by Luke Moran-Morris. And you'll ultimately find out why the main set was built on stilts over a water tank.

Japan

Luke Moran-Morris

Alexandre Jamin

Andrew Rawson

Rag 'n' Bone reflects on societal pressures and the idea of belonging, in Joe Connor's monumental promo for Alone.Backed up by his full band, the video follows a group of outcast personalities&nbsp;looking for meaning in their lives, who transcend their realities and embrace the light that surrounds them.&nbsp;Shot in a clandestine mega-structure, the location is as much of a character as the cast members, and lends a larger than life feel to the enigmatic concept.&nbsp;

Alexa Haywood

Chris Malin

Alex Jamin

Tim Allan

Steve Cameron

James Rose

The Quarry

George Kyriacou

Black Kite Studios

Dan Millar

Rag 'n' Bone Man 'Alone' by Joe Connor

Rag-'n'-Bone-Man-'Alone'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor and Tim Mattia collaborate over the pond, in the video&nbsp;for&nbsp;Rag 'n' Bone Man &amp; P!nk's collab on Anywhere Away From Here.Working together to create a seamless production, the UK section of the video was shot in&nbsp;The Duke Of York’s Theatre in the West End, where nature has overtaken every inch of the space, with plants growing from the stalls and wild animals stalking the stage.&nbsp;For the US section, seasoned industry vets P!nk and Mattia create&nbsp;magic in an understated yet affecting way, bringing a remarkable dynamism and presence to the project.&nbsp;It's a great collaboration, anchored by top-notch performances and picture perfect cinematography, from Patrick Meller in London, and Justin Moro in the US. And&nbsp;Joe Connor explains that the origins of his idea for the video came a long time ago.&nbsp;"I wrote in a journal once that I wanted to plant a real cornfield in a theatre when I was training at Royal Central School London," he reveals. "And we managed to do it. It's mad how things manifest years later."&nbsp;

Tim Mattia

Billy Payne

Patrick Meller

John Clarke

Marty Moore

Iain Whitewright

Tenthree Editing

George Kyriacou @ Black Kite

B.art.vfx Studio

Sony Music

Cinedyne Films

Natasha Jenkins

Justyn Moro

Rag'n'Bone Man & P!nk 'Anywhere Away From Here' by Joe Connor & Tim Mattia

Joe-Connor-+-Tim-Mattia-'Anywhere-Away-From-Here'-by-Joe-Connor-+-Tim-Mattia

Joe Connor directs an old-school musical number for Jamie Cullum's swinging new Christmas track, Hang Your Lights.&nbsp;The promo opens with Cullum leaning on a lamp post in an empty studio space, before whip-panning to a couple dancing. The concept soon evolves into an explosive collision of choreography, performance and feel-good fun.&nbsp;Charming and highly watchable, art director&nbsp;Marty Moore transforms the studio into a brilliant, high-energy environment, packed with a variety of practical lights and props.&nbsp;The amalgamation of creativity and the spirit of the&nbsp;festive period makes this a must-watch in preparation for the holidays. And after a year like this, it's great to see something unabashedly joyous and merry.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chloe Lamford

Ellie Johnson

TenThree

Robbie Canale

Emma Farnell Watson

Jazz

Jamie Cullum 'Hang Your Lights' by Joe Connor 

Jamie-Cullum-'Hang-Your-Lights'-by-Joe-Connor-

Joe Connor shares his powerful video for Celeste's Hear My Voice, the soundtrack of upcoming Netflix release The Trial of the Chicago 7.&nbsp;The video interweaves&nbsp;poignant moments from Aaron Sorkin's&nbsp;film - which centres upon countercultural protests in Chicago in 1968, and seven defendants accused of conspiracy by the federal government - and a handful of stunning performance vignettes.&nbsp;Celeste has tremendous&nbsp;presence on-screen, bringing a warmth and vulnerability to her performance as she traverses an empty courthouse. The use of lingering shots and crossfades allows viewers to reflect on the themes present in the concept, and strikes a perfect balance between snapshots of the film and shots of the artist.&nbsp;

MrMr

Kate Taylor

Wayne Bentley

Aaron Reid

Brendan Harvey

Loren Filis

Damien Ansell

Semera Khan

Andrew Bainbridge

Alternative R&B

Soul

Celeste 'Hear My Voice' by Joe Connor

Celeste-'Hear-My-Voice'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor directs a wet and wonderful promo for Biffy Clyro's Space.&nbsp;Sitting in a car under thunderous downpours, vocalist Simon Neil is lost in thought alongside his partner, played by Jasmine Chiu. Moving from the vehicle into a black infinity studio space, the pair dive into passionate choreography as the unrelenting rain soaks them through.&nbsp;Starting as a minimalist dance concept, the video moves into deep water&nbsp;as Neil and Chiu finds themselves submerged, their movements strikingly graceful and&nbsp;poetic.&nbsp;DoP&nbsp;Ruben Woodin Dechamps contrasts the warm glow of the headlights and lamp with cool, icey blues, representing the fluctuating emotions and abstract energy of the concept.&nbsp;

Ruben Woodin Dechamps

Tanmoye Khan

Pete Bishop

Jade Denne

Jasmine Chiu

Richard Savage

Alternative Rock

Biffy Clyro 'Space' by Joe Connor

Biffy-Clyro-'Space'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor captures the eeriness of public spaces under lockdown, in the video for The Rolling Stones' Living In A Ghost Town.&nbsp;For the iconic rock group's latest release, Connor briefed&nbsp;photographers around the world (and Margate) to capture&nbsp;the changing landscape of iconic streets and buildings, while he recorded a desolate, empty London himself.Intercut with intimate studio footage, the lo-fi fisheye aesthetic used more or less throughout the piece is particularly fitting for the current situation, shot off-the-cuff whilst traversing various roads, underground stations and trains.

Richard Fearon

Polydor Records

XCIV (Cape Town)

Samantha Milligan (Osaka)

Nick Walker

Amer Chadha-Patel

Kristian Engelsen

Janick Laurent (Toronto)

Rock

The Rolling Stones 'Living In A Ghost Town' by Joe Connor

The-Rolling-Stones-'Living-In-A-Ghost-Town'-by-Joe-Connor

The Courteeners return with the thrilling final instalment of their&nbsp;Better trilogy, directed&nbsp;by Joe Connor.&nbsp;Written by&nbsp;novelist&nbsp;Emma Jane Unsworth as a short film and split across three videos,&nbsp;the final segment focusses on main protagonist Lauren,&nbsp;who has an out of body experience as a handful of surgeons operate on her. Vivid hallucinations fill the screen as her chest opens up into a black hole, and the further she delves into her&nbsp;labyrinthian mind, the weirder her experience&nbsp;becomes.&nbsp;&nbsp;Haunting and surreal, the visual ends where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8KWL4Mj1o4&amp;list=RDhe2zwSwTrK0&amp;index=2" target="_blank">the first video for Heavy Jacket</a> started, suggesting a variety of possible explanations, from a full-on drug trip to some kind of purgatory.&nbsp;The trilogy's consistent strand,&nbsp;tying together the three segments, is the band performance set-up, once again taking place in front of a retro-futuristic window in a club environment - full of energy and with a knockout performance from Corteeners' frontman Liam Fray.&nbsp;

Nick Crossley

Chief Productions

Joel Honeywell

Ian McLaughlin

Paul McKee

Alternative, Indie Rock

Courteeners 'Hanging Off Your Cloud' by Joe Connor

Courteeners-'Hanging-Off-Your-Cloud'-by-Joe-Connor

Lief&nbsp;Vollebekk traverses the Icelandic countryside in&nbsp;Joe Connor's video for&nbsp;Apalachee Plain.Aesthetically reminiscent of old home movies - this was shot partly on Super 8mm - the black and white visuals are beautifully authentic and rich. Set against moody skies and breathtaking landscapes, Leif delivers an emotional performance surrounded by nature and wild animals, unfiltered and totally at ease in his surroundings.

Canada

James Henry

Liam Bachler

Indie Folk

Leif Vollebekk 'Apalachee Plain' by Joe Connor

Leif-Vollebekk-'Apalachee-Plain'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor celebrates the rituals of getting ready for a big night out, in his hallucinatory&nbsp;video for Georgia's 24 Hours.&nbsp;Stuctured in split-screen throughout, we see various vignettes of people&nbsp;preparing themselves for the evening ahead&nbsp;- drinking and dancing whilst they count down the clock in anticipation. Intermittent shots of a car racing around the Berlin streets creates an electric sense of urgency, a clever juxtaposition to the more relaxed vibe inside the characters' homes. And DoP&nbsp;Giuseppe Favale also experiments with different frame rates, stretching and manipulating time to represent the partygoers' foggy and dazed state of mind.A powerful performance from Georgia on a drum machine, bathed in red light, neatly rounds off the concept, acting as an anchor to the frenetic variety of characters within the concept.&nbsp;

Giuseppe Favale

Electronic

Georgia '24 Hours' by Joe Connor

Georgia-'24-Hours'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor does a classic London thing&nbsp;with a twist in his charming video for Leif Vollebekk.The Canadian singer-songwriter is&nbsp;taking an early morning trip on a nearly deserted open-topped double decker bus around London landmarks in the video for Blood Brother.&nbsp;Intriguingly, he happens to be handcuffed to his seat.So there are a few questions that pop up immediately, but they quickly fade when it's evident Vollebekk is accepting of his situation. And he certainly attracts an admirer, as the only other passenger becomes his enthusiastic ally, breaking into an endearingly&nbsp;supportive dance routine.Feeling both vintage and contemporary at once, the universal aspects of the concept translate perfectly to screen, and bring the upbeat ballad to life in a colourful and quirky way.

Blain

Sylvester Yiu

Yolande Haynes

Alice Burridge

Kip Johnson

Singer-songwriter

Leif Vollebekk 'Blood Brother' by Joe Connor

Leif-Vollebekk-'Blood-Brother'-by-Joe-Connor

Georgia strolls through a desert wilderness in this simple, celestial video by Joe Connor.On a breezy evening, Connor took a skeleton crew of five to the Jordanian desert, a decision that gives Georgia free rein of a sublime, dramatic landscape. Then he placed the footage in the capable hands of Black Kite Studios, who delivered the stellar sky work.The team used Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night as a guiding principle, and in the closing moments of Never Let Me Go, the video conjures the spectre of that painting with a magical, billowing skyline.

Callan Green

Felix Pickles

Chris Roebuck

John Moule

Domino Records

Synth Pop

Georgia 'Never Let You Go' by Joe Connor

Georgia "Never Let You Go."

Joe Connor gives Jess Glynne with a suitably elegant video to accompany the reflective sentiment of her song Thursday - co-written with Ed Sheeran.The song declares that Thursday is the day that the singer gets to be herself - no makeup, drinking from the can (not in the American sense). It's a declaration of self-love, and with the video Connor provides Jess Glynne with situations to explore new ways to present herself, and ideas of beauty.Perhaps most notably this includes Jess in an oversized suit, surrounded by Greek-style statuary. Very 90s Madonna...&nbsp;

Jeremy Goold

Anneliese Meisel

Mark McPadden

Atlantic Records

Zoe Klinck

Flaura Atkinson

Jess Glynne 'Thursday' by Joe Connor

Jess-Glynne-'Thursday'-by-Joe-Connor

Joe Connor has directed a classic pop video for Sam Smith&#39;s Pray, filmed in one of the most spectacular locations seen in a music video for a long time.The video begins with Sam Smith&nbsp;travelling in a classically stylish&nbsp;speedboat - soon revealed to be speeding across the beautiful Lake Como in Italy. From then on, the video takes place in one of the grandest houses on the shores of the Lake.Performances by the singer and rapper Logic are captured in its&nbsp;exquisitely furnished rooms, together with supplementary performances by dancers as Connor starts to subvert the perfection of the location with memorably bold imagery.&nbsp;As Connor explains below, after the powerful lyrics of the song his inspirations came from Edgar Allan Poe and Caravaggio.This is the second video that Joe Connor has directed for Sam Smith, with the previous one for One Last Song shot within London&#39;s most iconic theatre, The Palladium. But that seems like a mere aperitif&nbsp;to the breathtaking majesty of this one.[imgtoken data:1]

Colin Offland

Happy MC

Dom Murgia

Michella De Rossi

Georgie Winter

Sam Smith ft Logic 'Pray' by Joe Connor

Sam Smith - Pray (Official Video) ft. Logic

Joe Connor&#39;s video for Sam Smith starts on stage at the London Palladium. But this begins where the public performance ends.The video for One Last Song reflects the intimacy of the message by having Smith perform it as he&#39;s walking backstage through this iconic London theatre in a near one shot. A bravura, wonderfully choreographed piece, in which Connor has Britain&#39;s premier pop balladeer&nbsp;ending up on the roof - and somewhere else entirely.

Peter Lee Scott

Barbara Nanna

Robert Gilmour

Julian Morson

Tom Stansfield

Suzette Brissett

Verity May Lane

Martin McLean

Paul Edmonds

Helen Oke

Freddie Bonfanti

Sam Smith 'One Last Song' by Joe Connor

Sam Smith - One Last Song (Official Video)

Joe Connor&#39;s video for Stereophonics attempts something usually avoided at all costs in videos&nbsp;- the literal retelling of the song&#39;s lyrics. But perhaps because the story is so important here - and so fantasically outlandish - Connor goes for itAs told in Kelly Jones&#39; characteristically clipped lyrics for All In One Night, Connor fills in the spaces in a drama where a young man becomes wrapped up in events he could never have imagined, and that have life-changing effects. With a swirling camera connecting the narrative with the band&#39;s performance, the video draws the viewer in brilliantly until the last seconds. Wonderful stuff.

Mike Higson

Simon Hawken

Stamos Triantafyllos

Joe Reel

Rebecca Lockwood

Alexandra Jackson

Sam Seager

Stereophonics 'All In One Night' by Joe Connor

Stereophonics – All In One Night (Official Video)

Joe Connor&#39;s eighth video&nbsp;for The Courteeners is a dizzying, blurry Parisian hyperlapse of love, or something close to it at least.Shot as if we&#39;re looking through the eyes of one half of a couple - we follow the story of a whirlwind fling over 24 hours in the French capital. Still photos stitched together with light trails dragging us from scene to scene, the opportunistic run-and-gun clip is a haze of light and colour that only ever briefly stops to take a breath.

Matt Clyde

Eva Pomposo

Ellora Choudhury

Rae-anna Evans (j'adore Models)

Conrad Murray

Ignition, Pias.

Indie

Courteeners 'Modern Love' by Joe Connor

Joe Connor's long-awaited, hauntingly beautiful ice-dancer video for Coldplay's Everglow is finally here.&nbsp;Commissioned by the band but then withheld from being&nbsp;the official video for the track, Connor's work has nevertheless avoided the fate of numerous canned videos that never see the light of day (as discussed at length in a feisty panel at MusicVidFest last November)&nbsp;by receiving Coldplay's assent for this latterday release. And it's wonderful that Connor's&nbsp;exceptional video is finally available.&nbsp;The clip focuses on an ice dancer (Tanja&nbsp;Kolbe) who is coping with loss. We see her dancing, apparently on her own - until it slowly becomes clear she is in fact dancing with a partner who is no longer visible, on a rink that has become part of a natural landscape.&nbsp;The sequence is paced beautifully and builds subtly - courtesy of superb VFX work undetaken by the team at Cherry Cherry – before ripping it all away for a heartbreaking final few shots.

Joe Connor

Director

Featured Work