Director

Michael Holyk

Michael Holyk creates an entertaining&nbsp;faux trailer for an epic summer blockbuster, in his new promo for David Guetta, Becky Hill and Ella Henderson.&nbsp;Shot between Miami and Spain, the video is inspired by classic movie Thelma &amp; Louise - featuring&nbsp;Becky and Ella&nbsp;on the run from Guetta's enigmatic police detective.&nbsp;The video is a high-octane, fast-paced amalgamation of performance and narrative vignettes, and perfectly matches the Summer vibes of Guetta's latest hit.&nbsp;The use of title cards and fake reviews helps sell the concept, whilst all of the artists bring their A-game with the performances.Who knows, maybe a real action blockbuster with the biggest pop titans is what we've all been waiting for...&nbsp;

Laura Folch

Lane Casting

Victoria Adcock

Adele Cany

Miguel Angel Romero

Andrew Rawson

OB Management

Noir

John Hassay

Alex Garloph

Matthew Emvin Taylor

Javier Alejandrox

Greg Smith

Alex Morego

Cesar Vega

Sergi Lafeuente

Freancesc Chico

Wendy Turner

Grace Griffiths

Lisa Laudat

Flaura Atkinson

Homespun

Conor Coolbear

Electric Theatre Collective

B. Art. Studio

Warner Music

David Guetta & Becky Hill & Ella Henderson 'Crazy What Love Can Do' by Michael Holyk

David-Guetta-&-Becky-Hill-&-Ella-Henderson-'Crazy-What-Love-Can-Do'-by-Michael-Holyk

Michael Holyk returns to music videos with the sun-kissed video for Becky Hill's team up with Galantis.&nbsp;Shot in Cape Town, the video is packed with&nbsp;stunning landscape shots in and around some remarkable properties on the Cape, as Holyk portrays Hill as escaping the everyday to enjoy a glamour and romance in the sunshine.The song is another result of Hill's longstanding songwriting collaboration with MNEK. "The magic I felt when we first wrote my single ‘Losing’ back in 2012, I still feel to this day when writing with him," she has said. "I feel like every single I release has the potential to better the last one and this is no different, especially with Galantis featuring on the record, too."And Holyk's video provides the soaring, aspirational imagery that the song deserves.

United Kingdom

Oliver Whitworth

Patrischa Humm

Joseph J Goldman

Dirk Hanekom

The Cavalry Collective

Noir Productions

Marco Grey

Rob Slinger

Nicol Dippenaar

Andre Roux

Lolu Ncukana

Stephanie Gibourdel

Chaundré

Peter Vanderbyl-Smuts

Décio Lourenço

Samuel Marr

Connor Coolbear

Amin Cader

Polydor

Becky Hill, Galantis 'Run' by Michael Holyk

Anne-Marie and&nbsp;Niall Horan assume the roles of a British Bonnie&nbsp;&amp; Clyde, in&nbsp;Michael Holyk's entertaining and recklessly anachronistic&nbsp;promo for Our Song.&nbsp;Fleeing town after a successful heist, the two lovers connect in a country park, and make their getaway along&nbsp;scenic backroads&nbsp;in a&nbsp;classic British roadster from the Fifties - a Jaguar XK 120, to be precise&nbsp;- wearing appropriate period clothing.&nbsp;But the piles of £50 notes in their bag of swag hints that Anne-Marie and Niall are not exactly what they seem.When they stop at a quaint village, an elderly man dobs them in. Then the cops swoop on our fun-loving criminals, in modern vehicles. However, the&nbsp;pastel-hued fantasy of these lovable rogues'&nbsp;escape&nbsp;lingers right to the end.[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2]

Rob Jelley

Tom Kelly

Alex Jamin

Kat Burke

Palesa Dlamini

Larry King

Melissa Denham

Dan Curwin

Atlantic Records

Anne-Marie & Niall Horan 'Our Song' by Michael Holyk

Anne-marie-&-Niall-Horan-'Our-Song-'-by-Michael-Holyk

Michael Holyk&nbsp;brings a sense of authenticity to the feelgood vibe of Becky Hill and WEISS's I Could Get Used To This, as Becky heads for New York City&nbsp;and finds her soulmate.It's a vibrant story of&nbsp;a never-to-be-forgotten special few days&nbsp;in NYC, with numerous scenes crammed into the breathless edit by Flaura Atkinson and Samuel Marr.&nbsp;

Javier Alejandro

Michael Faller

Prannoy Jacob

Shade Huntley

Andrea Mazuera

The Quarry

Lisa Foo

Ian Ross

Dance

Becky Hill X Weiss 'I Could Get Used To This' by Michael Holyk

Becky-Hill-X-Weiss-'I-Could-Get-Used-To-This'-by-Michael-Holyk

Jax Jones and Years and Years&#39; Olly Alexander get their groove on amongst the arcade games&nbsp;with their&nbsp;latest bright club anthem &lsquo;Play&rsquo;, with director Michael Holyk capturing their electric neon lit performance.

Raja Virdi

PHASE

Afzal Robbani

Sam Marr

Semera Khan

Polydor Records

Jax Jones And Years & Years 'Play' (Live) by Michael Holyk

Jax-Jones-And-Years-&-Years-'Play'-by-Michael-Holyk

New artist&nbsp;Lily Moore makes a strong impression in this one-shot performance directed&nbsp;by Michael Holyk.&nbsp;&nbsp;With Holyk's camera trained on her throughout, the audience is a party to the singer's emotional plea, Do This For Me, and it feels so sincere and heartfelt it takes a moment at the end of the video to break the spell that Moore is not actually singing live.

Javier Alenadro

Matt North

Tim Smith

Virgin EMI

Lily Moore 'Do This For Me' by Michael Holyk

Lily-Moore-'Do-This-For-Me'-by-Michael-Holyk

Michael Holyk has created an alluring showcase for Becky Hill,&nbsp;on location in Vietnam.Appropriately for Sunrise In The East,&nbsp;Holyk and his cinematographer Ed Gibbs have conjured some wonderful images by setting Becky Hill's performance among&nbsp;Vietnam's spectacular vistas&nbsp;and cultural hotspots – and capturing the magical light of this extrardinarily beautiful place.

Ed Gibbs

Terri Capon

Iain Welland

Becky Hill 'Sunrise In The East' by Michael Holyk

Becky-Hill-'Sunrise-In-The-East'-by-Michael-Holyk

Michael Holyk captures the mindset and work of daredevil&nbsp;Jeb Corliss, who skydives&nbsp;from planes at low altitudes in his natty wingsuit,&nbsp;in the banging new video for Wilkinson &amp; Sub Focus' Take It Up.

Igor Kosenko

Jeb Corliss

Ore Okonedo

Wilkinson & Sub Focus 'Take It Up' by Michael Holyk

Wilkinson-&-Sub-Focus-'Take-It-Up'-by-Michael-Holyk

Michael Holyk&#39;s second video for Callum Beattie follows We Are Stars in emphasising his down-to-earth qualities, but in a very different setting.In keeping with the songtitle, Man Behind The Sun is as blazingly sun-kissed as We Are Stars was bracingly cold - not so surprising as director and artist have replaced the Scottish highlands in winter with Spain in high summer.&nbsp;But they have retained the overall natural feel, and the focus on the performance within very beautiful landscapes.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Georgina Smith

Academy Films

Vagabond

Marisa Garner Associates

3 Beat

David Foulkes

Callum Beattie 'Man Behind The Sun' by Michael Holyk

Callum Beattie - Man Behind The Sun

The stars align for Michael Holyk&#39;s intimate yet epic video for Callum Beattie.Shot in spectacular Glencoe in Scotland, Callum&nbsp;performs We Are Stars as he roams the spectacular landscape. It&#39;s&nbsp;unfussy, uplifting stuff, and&nbsp;looks beautiful&nbsp;courtesy of lovely cinematography by Ben Fordesman, and&nbsp;a fine grade by Mark Horrobin at Smoke &amp; Mirrors.

Steve Overs

Liz Kessler

Antonia Vickers

Ben Fordesman

Alistair Girvan

Becky Seager

Ed Cooper

The Assembly Rooms

Mark Horrobin

Smoke & Mirrors

3 Beat Productions

Callum Beattie 'We Are Stars' by Michael Holyk

A minimalist performance with a fiery end is the name of the game in Michael Holyk&#39;s&nbsp;video for Sundara Karma.Set in the foreboding, wide-open, yet dramatically lit setting of an empty warehouse. We see singer Oscar Pollock sat on a chair, cabaret style&nbsp;make-up applied around his eyes. As the camera glides around him, he gives a physical performance of the track before stepping out of frame to make way for the flammable conclusion. A tremendous looking black and white clip, with slow motion flames creeping and warping around the frame delivering a striking visual conclusion.

Leah Joyce

Ben Todd

Daniel Harris

Edward Cooper

Sundara Karma 'Flame' by Michael Holyk

Jake Bugg puts himself on the line in his&nbsp;latest collaboration with Michael Holyk. But that seems wholly appropriate for Love Hope &amp; Misery, a song which displays the singer-songwriter&#39;s gift for melody with a greater core of emotion that he&#39;s previously shown. A future live anthem for sure.This is a pure performance video with a strong stylistic debt to the pre-music video&nbsp;era&nbsp;promos of the 1960s, and its beautifully&nbsp;shot by Adam Scarth, on 16mm.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]

Adam Scarth

Xander Mitchell

Daniel de Vue

Glassworks

James Hackett

Eira Wyn Jones

East London Studios

Indie, singer-songwriter

Jake Bugg 'Love, Hope & Misery' by Michael Holyk

It&#39;s been a few years since their last collaboration for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2012/05/24/jake-bugg-lightning-bolt-michael-holyk" target="_blank">Lighting Bolt</a>, but&nbsp;Jake Bugg has paired up again with Michael Holyk for his&nbsp;new single&nbsp;Gimme The Love.&nbsp;And it&#39;s an aggressive&nbsp;proposition, with the singer&nbsp;in a large warehouse,&nbsp;surrounded by the menacing buzz of impending brawls about to break&nbsp;out all around him.Bugg&nbsp;stares&nbsp;down the camera,&nbsp;delivering&nbsp;his performance amid&nbsp;flaring strobes and disorientating cuts to various&nbsp;confrontational&nbsp;scenes, channelling a tone of extreme tension and incipient violence&nbsp;- which appears to be in direct contrast to the intent of the lyrics.&nbsp;The singer has commented that&nbsp;he welcomed working with fellow Nottingham native&nbsp;Holyk again, and being more involved in the creative process than on his previous videos. &quot;We came up with the treatment together, which was cool because I was so sick of turning up to video shoots with no idea with what I was doing and having people write ridiculous scripts,&quot; says Bugg. &quot;I feel videos can put an interpretation in people&rsquo;s minds of what the song is about, so with that in mind I wanted a video that left the lyrics open to interpretation.&quot;&nbsp;

James Blann

Houmam Abdallah

Rock

Indie Rock

Jake Bugg 'Gimme The Love' by Michael Holyk

Michael Holyk&#39;s video for&nbsp;Nimmo&#39;s Unyoung &ndash; his first since signing to A+ &ndash; is composed&nbsp;of&nbsp;intriguing&nbsp;vignettes of British youth in all manner of intense situations.&nbsp;Featuring&nbsp;cameos from the band, firework sparks fly in between&nbsp;flashes&nbsp;of corybantic&nbsp;dancing, kissing, and screaming at&nbsp;the sea.&nbsp;

Sony Music

Laura Clayton

Dance, Electronica

Nimmo 'Unyoung' by Michael Holyk

Nottingham-born&nbsp;Michael Holyk started directing music videos in&nbsp;2011, for an unknown teenage local lad&nbsp;called Jake Bugg. Since then he&#39;s worked with&nbsp;Sam Smith, DJ Fresh and lots more, with 2015 already a productive year: he&#39;s directed&nbsp;two upbeat videos for Ady Suleiman, and moodier outings for&nbsp;Gabrielle Alpin and Whilk &amp; Misky. And he probably owns the sexiest beard in British music videos.Now Michael, 26, is just about to&nbsp;start working with Sam Smith again as he tours and records the next album. High time, then, to give him the Questionnaire treatment. And find all about his shameful video directing past...Education:&nbsp;GCSE&rsquo;s and A-Levels in my hometown Nottingham. I took a gap year to do some work experience then just never ended up at university. The BBC was a big education for me as I was full-time since I was 18.Previous occupations:&nbsp;Station sound producer at BBC Nottingham, and assistant producer at Radio 1 &amp; 1Xtra.Favourite music video of the past 12 months?&nbsp;How can I NOT say Paolo Nutini&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2014/08/07/paolo-nutini-iron-sky-daniel-wolfe" target="_blank">Iron Sky</a>? I enjoyed U2&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/02/13/u2-every-breaking-wave-aoife-mcardle">Every Breaking Wave</a> as well. Recently Ian Pons Jewell&rsquo;s <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</a> promo was wicked.<blockquote>Favourite video of all time?&nbsp;I can&rsquo;t possibly give you one answer: Justice&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2008/05/02/justices-stress-romain-gavras" target="_blank">Stress</a>,&nbsp;Etienne De Crecy&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2011/03/31/etienne-de-crecy%E2%80%99s-no-brain-fleur-manu" target="_blank">No Brain </a>and Aphex Twin&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ghznC4GU4" target="_blank">Come To Daddy</a>. Gondry&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5zaDZq0sc" target="_blank">Lucas With the Lid Off</a> is up there too [Yeah!&nbsp;ed]</blockquote>Favorite publications/websites:&nbsp;BBC News, PromoNews, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, TED.Favourite food/restaurant:&nbsp;River Café in Hammersmith.Favourite drink/drug:&nbsp;Lager &amp; Acid (not together)Last movie you saw (and was it any good)?&nbsp;Re-watched Black Swan for some lighting ideas. Great film.Favourite directors:&nbsp;Dougal Wilson is the reason I started making stuff.&nbsp;For movies and all-time Hollywood inspirations,&nbsp;(and I&rsquo;m sure no great surprises here) Hitchcock, Kubrick, P. T.&nbsp;Anderson, Scorsese and Ridley Scott.Last gig you went to (and was it any good)?&nbsp;David Rodigan and yup &ndash; amazing.Favourite bands/artists:&nbsp;Too many to mention so a few recently listened to on my Spotify: Otis Reading, Oasis, Nick Drake, Nina Simone, Arctic Monkeys, Kanye West, Gang Starr, Hendrix, Bob Marley, Nas, Scorzayzee, Big Pun, Biggie Smalls, Jamie T.Currently reading/favourite book:&nbsp;The 48 Laws of Power.[imgtoken data:1]Above: Michael (right) with Ady Suleiman on set of the State Of Mind videoWhat was the first music video you worked on - and what were you doing on that job? It was my A-Level media coursework and our tutor gave us a track by a rock band&nbsp;I&rsquo;d never heard of&nbsp;to do a music video for. We filmed it in my garage at home with an ad-hoc projector set up. For what it was, it was good. I shared it on YouTube afterwards and within it week it had 500K hits. The fans thought it was a leak and it took off.It&rsquo;s online now with like 8 million hits and I purposely left out the band&#39;s name because it&rsquo;s ultra-shite and I&rsquo;m acting in it &ndash; I look like my auntie&#39;s girlfriend.<blockquote>Favourite job of the past 12 months:&nbsp;I directed a series for MTV India, based in Mumbai, with Rayban &amp; Sony Music which was absolutely insane. I got asked to direct a music video before leaving too - such a crazy experience working in Bollywood.</blockquote>What&rsquo;s the next Big Thing you&rsquo;re working on?&nbsp;When I know, you&rsquo;ll know. A feature length Documentary I made with Jake Bugg is pretty exciting. Documentaries are a form I see myself working more on going forward as I really enjoy making them and I have this ability to get truly into the heart of it capturing moments that make me think, &lsquo;fuck, that was special.&rsquo;What would most improve your life?&nbsp;Mindfulness.Best moment, or fondest memory, of your career thus far?&nbsp;I was full-time at the BBC when making music promos really took off. I called in sick to direct a promo for Benga. Flying to Amsterdam a day after to work with Jake Bugg returning to my 9-5 later that week. Hard work but crafted my career to what it is now.&nbsp;With filmmaking &ndash; I fucking love grading. I love the final process of each video, it&rsquo;s really satisfying.Worst moment?&nbsp;My first music video commission getting destroyed by feedback as I was on the way to the grade, from Nottingham, soon to realize that it was back to the edit for me and I had to get a train back home to pull apart a video I loved. Luckily that doesn&rsquo;t happen anymore and I can just get the tube home.<blockquote>Biggest frustration?&nbsp;That I haven&rsquo;t made my best video yet.</blockquote>What&rsquo;s the big issue or issues facing music video makers right now? Have faith - you signed off an idea and everyone wants to make the best promo possible. There is no need to micro-manage. I am also pretty fed up at the amount of time-wasting. Just like the time you have spent reading this.Person you most admire?&nbsp;Anyone who stands up for what is right.What advice would you give to someone starting out in music video production? It won&rsquo;t come to you &ndash; work work work. The more experience you can get the better. Also, don&rsquo;t be a dickhead &ndash; be nice to everyone.Any hot tips on who will be the future stars in music video in the next couple of years &ndash; directors or otherwise?&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve just started working with Eva Arnold &ndash; very excellent DoP.

The Questionnaire: Michael Holyk

Continuing a prolific run of work that&#39;s included his second&nbsp;video for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/05/15/ady-suleiman-state-mind-michael-holyk" target="_blank">Ady Suleiman</a>,&nbsp;Michael Holyk has now been&nbsp;charged&nbsp;with the task of giving&nbsp;British singer-songwriter&nbsp;Gabrielle Aplin&nbsp;a rock&nbsp;edge for Light Up The Dark, the&nbsp;title track from her new record out in September.&nbsp;Working again with DP Eva Arnold, Holyk employs a&nbsp;combination of strobing light and polished&nbsp;cinematography that makes for an engaging, energetic performance piece.

Juan Pablo

Nice & Polite

Jennifer Gelin

Eva Arnold

Sonia Rodriguez

Lydia Stott

Toren Adams

Robin Brigham

Paul Allen

Adam Bell

Sonny Horwell

Ryan Monteith

Daniel Smith

Robert Cobbina

Lucy Wearing

Johnnie Biles

Tyrone Grosvenor

George Murphy

Abigail Arthur

Dan Moran

William Nichols

Sam Seager

Adelaide Turnbull

Hannah Blurton

Gabrielle Aplin 'Light Up The Dark' by Michael Holyk

GABRIELLE APLIN - Light Up The Dark

After getting together&nbsp;for the <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/02/24/ady-suleiman-so-lost-michael-holyk" target="_blank">So Lost</a> promo earlier this year,&nbsp;Ady Suleiman&nbsp;has teamed up yet again with Michael Holyk&nbsp;to deliver this amusing comment on modern society, with Suleiman smoothly rolling through the streets of London, expressing his thoughts on religion, faith and&nbsp;politics in the video for State Of Mind.On his journey, Suleiman&#39;s thoughts are brought to life&nbsp;by a diverse supporting cast,&nbsp;a religious figure (possibly Jesus) with a megaphone, Adam and Eve, nuns, and prospective MPs. When nighttime comes, the tone goes darker, and the singer demands to know, &#39;Where were you when the soldiers went to war, because it&#39;s you they&#39;re fighting for.&#39; But even the solemn subjects are uplifted by Suleiman&#39;s confident, charismatic&nbsp;performance.

Steve Whiteley

Matt Frost

James Dyer

Marcus Domleo

Elliot Beach

Cassius McCabe

Stephanie Kevers

Mark Meadows

Lydia Evitt

Pemba Records/Sony Music

Elizabeth Doonan

Ady Suleiman 'State Of Mind' by Michael Holyk

Ady Suleiman - State of Mind

Director Michael Holyk has gone deep into slow-mo concept-driven cinematic loveliness in this study of the ugliness and beauty we experience during a heady night out, for Whilk &amp; Misky&#39;s Burn With Me.Shot in a classic black and white to match the Delta-bluesy sound of the track, the video is comprised of a series of vignettes, including&nbsp;super-close up shots, that flow into each other with ease, creating a sensuous nighttime atmosphere. &nbsp;

Rebecca Gaines

Scott Whitson

Junior Agyeman-Owusu

Whilk & Misky 'Burn With Me' by Michael Holyk

Michael Holyk

Director

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