Director

Josh Thornton-Allan

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;

United Kingdom

Lewis Munro

Wizzo

Finn James

Hello Love

Louis Danckwerts

Alex Rice

Carmen Pellon

Rich Savage

Aston Born

Gary Coogan⁣⁣

The Quarry

Tim Martin

The Mill

Polydor

Gabh Diniz

Mouthpiece

Alt-Pop

Emir Taha 'Lades' by Josh Thornton-Allan

emir taha - Lades [Official Video]

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

James Sieradzki

Republic Records

Singer-songwriter

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

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

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

Claire Stubbs @ Mouthpiece

Emily Jeffery

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

A woman thrashes out her painful memories in Joshua Thornton-Allan's video for singer-songwriter Jack Curley.The visual for I'm Here For You depicts a heartbroken woman trapped in her head, screaming at nothingness and trying her best to move on with life. Intercut with Jack's performance, she backtracks over snapshots of love and loss.But finally, she finds the power to take back control - with a magnificent moment of catharsis.

Josh Thornton-Allan

Director

Interviews featuring Josh Thornton-Allan

Videos featuring Josh Thornton-Allan

2022 (2)

2021 (1)

2020 (1)

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