Director

Matt Walker

Matt Walker directs a beautiful one-take promo for Tia Carys' Intro.&nbsp;Opening in an infinity black space, with only a spotlight to burn&nbsp;through the darkness, Tia Carys performs as the lighting changes to reveal&nbsp;new aspects of her environment.&nbsp;Moving around the enigmatic space, the artist delivers the introspective track flawlessly, hitting every mark and filling each moment with emotion.&nbsp;DoP&nbsp;Thomas English masterfully cycles through a multitude of lighting cues to match the one-take concept, elevating the promo to a new level.&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Jamie Whymark

Kode

Nathan Killham

Steven O Eniraiyetan

Thomas English

Chris Steel

Chris J Orr

Ryan Delahunty

Ashleigh Stunna

Summar Hunjan

Thomas Mangham

The Mill

Carrie Sutton

Rob Anderson

Hip Hop

Tia Carys 'Intro' by Matt Walker

Tia-Carys-'Intro'-by-Matt-Walker

"The whole experience of shooting these videos has been nothing but fun. Just two mates messing around with cameras..."As the world started the indoor endurance test of lockdown in March, Matt Walker was just completing another marathon. For the previous few months, he had been working on a huge project with his close friend, the British grime artist Jme,&nbsp;making videos for numerous tracks from his acclaimed fourth album Grime MC.This was not just a massive challenge for&nbsp;the number of videos that Walker (above right) and Jme (above left;&nbsp;photo by Jordan Hughes) were&nbsp;making. The rapper -&nbsp;real name Jamie Adenuga&nbsp;-&nbsp;is also now working outside the mainstream, without the backing of a major record label. As an outspoken critic of the methods of the music business, he chooses to be completely independent,&nbsp;creating and releasing music himself&nbsp;on his own label. This is an issue that artist and director&nbsp;have confronted this issue head-on in one of the ambitious videos they have made in their series - and crops a great deal in Jme's fiercely polemical work.&nbsp;&nbsp;In that respect what the pair have achieved is even more remarkable: a&nbsp;body of work that showcases&nbsp;the artist's personality, brilliant rhymes, uncompromising viewpoint - and sense of humour - through a range of creative ideas, and made on shoestring budgets.&nbsp;On most of the videos, Walker has taken on multiple&nbsp;roles during production to get them across the line.&nbsp;&nbsp;The project comes to an end with the release of Live, the final, most ambitious, and arguably most impressive&nbsp;video of the whole series. In this video&nbsp;Jme and guest artist Merky Ace play the anchors on a rolling news channel, cutting to&nbsp;various unfolding news stories. - who also feature Jme and Merky in other roles...[vidtoken data:0]We talked to Matt Walker about the challenges of making this series of music&nbsp;videos, and bringing the full measure of Jme, the man behind the message, to his legion of fans.&nbsp;<blockquote>Hands down he's the best artist I've worked with.</blockquote>How many videos have you made now for Jme’s album&nbsp;Grime MC? In total we shot eight&nbsp;videos. There was an ambitious plan to shoot a video for all 18 tracks on the album, but I didn't want to bankrupt him.Was it always a plan to make a series of videos for the album?&nbsp; And if so, how did the project start? As any Jme fan will know, he is anything but conventional. After the previous album <a href="https://genius.com/albums/Jme/Integrity" target="_blank">Integrity &gt;</a>&nbsp;I think he was just making songs for the love of it, with no intention of even making an album. He did want videos though. So he would call me up and we would just vibe to the tracks he had made at his house. I’d pick one that I like and then we’d just go and shoot something. I don’t think we were even counting.[imgtoken data:1]Photo: Jordan HughesDoes Jme’s position as an outsider to the established system make it easier or more difficult to make the videos? Presumably you’ve been working on tight budgets throughout? Of course working outside of the industry machine drastically limits the budgets we have to work with. We always have big ideas that are often not possible to execute. On the other hand, the freedom and collaborative nature of the projects far outweighs the cons of budgetary restrictions. Although I often find myself feeling guilty when I have to ask him for money on these projects, knowing it's coming directly from his current account.<blockquote>The plan was to shoot videos for all 18 tracks, but I didn't want to bankrupt him.</blockquote>You obviously have a strong working relationship with Jme. What’s the usual process for coming up with ideas for the videos?&nbsp; It really is pure collaboration. We go back and forth on concepts so often that by the time we start shooting, it's hard to remember who came up with the ideas first. That does lead to fun arguments sometimes when it comes to taking credit though.[imgtoken data:2]Photo: Jordan HughesThe songs have these trenchant lyrics but the videos also contain humour and satire. Is that a reflection of Jme’s character? What is he like to work with?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I truly believe he gets all his frustration and angst out in his music because you never sense it much in his personality - unless we are having a group debate.&nbsp;On set, I challenge you to find a single crew or cast member who has a bad word to say about Jme. He is hands down the best artist I’ve worked with.He’s always on time, hilarious, extremely enthusiastic and loves people, so is always keeping the SAs entertained. He’ll do a million takes without a complaint if we needed it. Sometimes I think I take that for granted in our action scenes, I run him ragged.[imgtoken data:3]Photo: Daniel Ofori-Atta<blockquote>Pricks&nbsp;was approached more like a short film, which I've always wanted to do.</blockquote>Videos like <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/04/24/jme-issmad-matt-walker/64487" target="_blank">Issmad</a>, <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/06/03/jme-here-matt-walker/65129" target="_blank">Here</a> and <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/05/20/jme-you-know-matt-walker/64916" target="_blank">You Know</a> are studio-based, then it gets more ambitious with the likes of <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/05/26/jme-ft-skepta-nang-matt-walker/64952" target="_blank">Nang</a>, with its fantastic drone shots, and the action-packed <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/06/08/jme-pricks-matt-walker/65177" target="_blank">Pricks</a>. What were the main challenges making each video? And what has been the most challenging one to make?&nbsp; It always starts with getting gassed up by an idea, falling in love with it and then remembering that we haven't got the £30k+ needed to shoot it. Jme likes to work with people he knows, so for a while it took me ages to convince him we needed a DoP on some shoots.Nang was a real challenge. We decided to shoot with a drone during a mini-hurricane which made it almost impossible to fly through a window. As if that wasn't difficult enough already.[vidtoken data:1]We wanted to get really ambitious with Pricks with fight scenes and chase sequences. But we did not have the money for a rehearsal, so it was a case of choreographing everything on set, which was fun but hard on our AD. The stair chase scene was something we almost didn't get. I really wanted it but had to convince J that it was worth the extra money. I thought we could do it a ‘cheap way’, but was sorely mistaken...<blockquote>Nang was a challenge. We decided to shoot with a drone during a mini-hurricane...</blockquote>The Live video was the most difficult because of how many shoot days we needed. We couldn't really afford to pay a crew so I just did it all myself, from being DoP to doing hair/wardrobe. Painful but well worth it.[vidtoken data:2]Has the pandemic crisis had much of an impact on the making of the videos?&nbsp; Luckily we shot everything before the **** hit the fan. We kind of wanted to get to ten videos but those plans got nipped in the bud real quick.&nbsp;The video for Live is the most ambitious video yet in the series. What was the thinking behind the rolling news channel idea?&nbsp; &nbsp; Jme and Merky had an idea of hijacking different news broadcasts ‘blooper’ style. As soon as I heard the track, I could just see Jme as a newscaster with the wig, glasses and everything. I’ve also always wanted to have J play different characters in a video, so this was the perfect opportunity.[imgtoken data:4]Photo: Jordan Hughes<blockquote>I’ve also always wanted to have J play different characters in a video - Live was the perfect opportunity.</blockquote>The tempo and cadence in the track was so dynamic, I felt it needed to have this manic energy so we tried to think of as many funny ‘news stories’ as possible. The fun part was writing all the fake headlines on the rolling ticker.&nbsp;What are you most pleased with about the whole project? Which parts have worked best for you? I'm really pleased that we shot so many different styles of video, from studio-based shoots to&nbsp;more guerilla-style filming. I think we really pushed ourselves creatively and tried things we've never done which was a great learning experience. I finally got to play with motion control which was as annoying as people were always warning me it would be.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:5]Photo: Jordan Hughes<blockquote>Seeing This One come off was a really proud moment for us both.</blockquote>What worked best for me? I’d say Pricks&nbsp;was approached more like a short film which I've always wanted to do, so I was very proud of what we achieved all in one&nbsp;day. ‘Live’ was a labour of love, trying to add as many layers to a video as possible while keeping it quite unconventional.I was also really happy with This One&nbsp;as we tried a Memento-style video where the narrative was spliced up and re-ordered. Seeing that come off was a really proud moment for us both.[vidtoken data:3]And what were the most fun and memorable moments making the videos? That’s a tough one.&nbsp;The whole experience of shooting these videos has been nothing but fun;&nbsp;just two mates messing around with cameras and props really. I've never choreographed a fight&nbsp;scene before, so smashing sugar glass bottles on people was hilarious.During the Live shoot we stepped out to get lunch with Jme in full costume - wig and all. Some of the looks we got on Camden High Road were priceless.• Matt Walker is based for music videos and commercials at Kode Media and represented by Carrie Sutton. Watch Matt's showreel at Kode <a href="https://kodemedia.com/directors/matt-walker">here</a>.

Behind The Videos: Matt Walker on his epic multi-video project with Jme 

Jme ft Merky Ace - Live

Jme-'Nang'-by-Matt-Walker

Jme-'Pricks'-by-Matt-Walker

Jme - This One

JME ft Skepta 'Nang' by Matt Walker

Jme 'Here' by Matt Walker

Jme-'Here'-by-Matt-Walker

Jme ft Merky Ace 'Live' by Matt Walker

The most ambitious - and the funniest - in Matt Walker's remarkable series of music videos for Jamie Adenuga aka Jme, has both the rapper and guest Merky Ace as anchors on 24 news channel, bringing real time news events as they happen - in which Jme and Merky also play prominent roles.&nbsp; &nbsp;Walker told Promonews about the video for Live&nbsp;in our Behind The Video feature about his numerous videos for the Grime MC album. "Jme and Merky had an idea of hijacking different news broadcasts ‘blooper’ style," explained.&nbsp;"As soon as I heard the track, I could just see Jme as a newscaster with the wig, glasses and everything. I’ve also always wanted to have J play different characters in a video, so this was the perfect opportunity."The tempo and cadence in the track was so dynamic, I felt it needed to have this manic energy so we tried to think of as many funny ‘News stories’ as possible. The fun part was writing all the fake headlines on the rolling ticker."&nbsp;The result is an absolute banger - a great video for Jme, and a brilliant&nbsp;achievement by Walker. The budget may have been&nbsp;meagre, but its packed with ideas, and humour.&nbsp;

Grime

In the fourth of Matt Walker's series of videos for Jme, the independent rap artist reveals the extent of loathing of the music business, in the action-packed and violent video for Pricks.It's set in a corporate record label, where Jme is poised to sign a contract - until he notices a clause which says he is about&nbsp;to sell&nbsp;his own soul, in perpetuity... So he refuses to sign - and then all hell breaks loose.The ensuing tear-up, and his white-knuckle ride in trying&nbsp;to escape from the building, is a perfect accompaniment to Jme's entertaining diatribe.Whether or not you sympathise with all of his sentiments (or the violence), it climaxes in a resounding message - 'Thought my style didn't fit til I stopped listening to all these pricks.'&nbsp; - just as he is about to face his final stand against a group of seriously miffed record company execs. It's&nbsp;a tremendous vehicle for a seriously talented rapper.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Antoine Dixon Bellot

Kem Ekundayo

Sam Roffey

Chris Steel ⁣

Christopher Orr⁣

Idris Rhys⁣

Ash Halliburton

Tamara Glitter

Lewis Crossfield

Mastermind Media

Jme 'Pricks' by Matt Walker

Jme's sermon against the warped values&nbsp;of modern life,&nbsp;gets a suitably brooding and minimalist visual from Matt Walker.It's one of the series of videos that Walker has directed with the independent London rapper for tracks from his album Grime MC.

Stefan Yap

JME and Matt Walker continue their creative collaboration with the dynamic Nang.&nbsp;Focused on three unique locations - a motorway bridge, derelict flats and an industrial space - the video repeats a drone movement for each setup, starting wide and flying in to get close to the action, where JME performs, and joined by Skepta in the final location.&nbsp;Another excellent addition to an outstanding campaign of visuals for&nbsp;JME's new album, by the artist, Matt Walker and a talented supporting team.

"Welcome to life," says JME,&nbsp;at the start of You Know, "Where fucked-up shit happens..." Thus begins the latest in a series of idiosyncratic visuals for the new album by the rapper who is playing by their own rules, by Matt Walker (and JME).This is stripped-back, using self-referencing humour and VFX to focus on JME and his entertaining worldview. Oh, and as they flag up at the start, including a few words&nbsp;by Stormzy...&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tom O'Keefe

Lloyd Cook

Louis Hollis

We Are Covert 

Grant Sandy Phillips

Sky Power

JME 'You Know' by Matt Walker

Jme-'You-Know'-by-Matt-Walker

Matt Walker directs a striking concept&nbsp;for JME's You Watch Me.&nbsp;Having shot a number of videos for the album&nbsp;campaign, Walker takes a more conceptual approach to this project, presenting a quickfire series of performance setups and unusual vignettes.Switching from&nbsp;police interview&nbsp;to&nbsp;art show, and then to a lo-fi black and white street setup, it's a dynamic idea that starts with a bang and keeps building until the last second.&nbsp;

Zuzanna Skurtys

JME 'You Watch Me' by Matt Walker

Jme-'You-Watch-Me'-by-Matt-Walker

Matt Walker directs a quickfire performance video for his latest project with JME.&nbsp;Utilising a motion control rig, the artist is shown in several different vignettes around the space, with guest cameos&nbsp;interweaved into the transitions.At once frenetic yet smooth, the darting camera movements&nbsp;create&nbsp;an ever-evolving tapestry of slick performance, masterfully planned and executed by DoP Tom O'Keefe.&nbsp;

James Wilkes ⁣

William Pope

JME 'Issmad' by Matt Walker

Jme-'Issmad'-by-Matt-Walker

Ray Blk gets revenge on a cheating boyfriend in Matt Walker's provocative video for In My Bed. Opening in a stylised prison holding room, Ray and a gang of girls are getting their mugshots taken, before we cut right back to the scene of the crime.In a neon-lit car in a residential street, Ray witnesses her boyfriend&nbsp;with another girl. The group get out&nbsp;and arm themselves with heavy chains and baseball bats, before charging off into the night. Returning with a rolled up carpet, it's evident what has happened. But will they get away with it?David Wright's cinematography elevates the simple concept, using neon light to contrast Ray and the group against the dim residential location, and the styling and subtle art direction help turn quite a dark idea into something more accessible and commercial. &nbsp;

James Cross

Georgiana Clark

Afzal Robanni

David Wright

Jeffrey Vine

Harry Bennett

Lee Parfitt

Natalie Michaelides

Shanice Cooke

Esther Twenefour

Jack Williams

The Assembly Rooms

Jonny Tully

Big Bouy

Caroline Clayton

Ray Blk 'In My Bed' by Matt Walker

Ray-Blk-'In-My-Bed'-by-Matt-Walker

Tom Grennan and his girlfriend make their getaway in a cool vintage BMW in Matt Walker&#39;s video for Sober.

Stephanie Paeplow

Kevin Hasham

Wayne Bentley

Aaron Reid

Chris Hayden

Matt Wright

Martin Kloud

Koulla Sergi

Cinta Miller

Charlie Reddie

Homespun

Tim Smith

Electric Theatre Collective

Daniel Millar

Sony Music

Sasha Moon

Tom Grennan 'Sober' by Matt Walker

Tom-Grennan-'Sober'-by-Matt-Walker

Skepta toys with expectations of who he really is in his latest collaboration with Matt Walker, for Hypocrisy.He starts in the unlikely role of host of a Eurotrash-style TV show - even down to the titles - before becoming the viewer of a images of African slaves, mirroring the lyrics of watching the miniseries Roots. Finally he becomes himself - presiding over&nbsp;the destruction of the set of that bogus&nbsp;TV show.

Antoine Dixon-Bellot

Josh Brooks

Afzal Robbani

Charlie Goodger

Michael Hobdell

Jomar O'Meally

Wyndham Harris

Neesha Sharma

Dan Moran

Coffee & TV

Konstantin Ermakov

Skepta

Anthony Neale

East London Studios

Skepta 'Hypocrisy' by Matt Walker

Skepta-'Hypocrisy'-by-Matt-Walker

Tom Grennan delivers a suitably pumped-up and charismatic display&nbsp;in Matt Walker&#39;s&nbsp;stripped-down but powerful performance video for Found What I&#39;ve Been Looking For.&nbsp;

Ayo Davis

Kode Media

Tamara Lenz

Julian Higgs

Gary Long

Milo Brown

Jakob Gierse

Lulu Wentworth

Krystle Gohel

Sam Bould

Mark Horrobin

Big Buoy

Tom Grennan 'Found What I've Been Looking For' by Matt Walker

Tom-Grennan-'Found-What-I've-Been-Looking-For'-by-Matt-Walker

Matt Walker and Skepta team up to create a hugely imaginative pulp visual for No Security.With a classic film look&nbsp;and some classic film references to boot, Skepta works his way through various boxed-in, rough-and-ready sets with an added&nbsp;analogue veneer. It&#39;s a heavily-stylised, beautifully-crafted piece that steps well outside the Skepta&#39;s aesthetic comfort zone and benefits from it tremendously.

Rob Jelley

Kerry Green

Joe Ramsden

Matthew Emvin Taylor

Rob Webster

Julian Sharma

Callum Ross

Chloe Brady

Felix Brady

Nil Tomakan

Emma Regan

Ethan Iveson

Joe Salkey

Ollie Ramsey

Tom Fivesnakes

Skepta 'No Security' by Matt Walker & Skepta

Skepta - No Security

Matt Walker turns a house party into a repeating cycle of increasing trauma for one girl in his mesmeric video for young London-based singer&nbsp;Poté&#39;s haunting Egosurf.

Matt Walker

Director

Interviews featuring Matt Walker

Videos featuring Matt Walker

2020 (8)

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