Director of Photography

Michael Ragen

What sleight-of-hand goes on here? The Weeknd's appearance on The Late Show to perform new single Heartless takes the TV live performance to a new level.&nbsp;First off, Abel&nbsp;Tesfaye (The Weeknd) is not there when hem is&nbsp;introduced by host Stephen Colbert. He's slouching backstage with a drink, as if he stepped straight off the set of <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/12/05/weeknd-heartless-anton-tammi/62250" target="_blank">his music video for the song</a>. And then he goes walkabout, though the corridors of the NBC Studios in New York.And then things get really weird, as the everyday takes a surreal turn. Alex Lill's direction leads us to a rare but very real 'how did they do that?' moment.&nbsp;&nbsp;If Spike Jonze pushed the door open onto the possibilities of subverting a classic TV studio performance with his direction of <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/03/20/karen-o-danger-mouse-woman-spike-jonze/57848" target="_blank">Karen O and Danger Mouse's performance of Woman on The Late Show</a> earlier this year,&nbsp;Lill and his team - including DoP Michael Ragen and production designer JC Molina - has taken it much further.&nbsp;

United States

Alex Lill

Brendan Garrett

Jeff Kopchia

Somesuch

Saskia Whinney

Connor Coolbear

Electric Theatre Collective

JC Molina

Soul

The Weeknd 'Heartless' (live on The Late Show) by Alex Lill

The-Weeknd-'&#039;heartless&#039;'-by-Alex-Lill

Detroit rapper Benjamin Earl Turner takes a bath in a truck, pours orange juice from a digger, hangs out by a car wrapped in cellophane...A charmingly scuzzy video for the charmismatic Turner, shot all over his hometown, directed by Abteen Bagheri, shot by Michael Ragen, who also created the retro-game animation of our hero.

Abteen Bagheri

Rich Hutchins

Darin Wooldridge

Hip Hop

Benjamin Earl Turner 'JA RULE' by Abteen Bagheri

Benjamin Earl Turner "JA RULE"

There&#39;s something weird happening in the Alaskan woods in Michael Ragen&#39;s video for Portugal. The Man.A barrage of confusing, surreal, yet beautiful imagery of P.T.M.&#39;s frontman John Gourley training in the forests of Alaska helps to enhance the detached sense of reality that the track conveys. The imagery flows&nbsp;at a hypnotic pace - with masses of bokeh and vivid&nbsp;colour intercut with nature and man&#39;s interruption thereof.Also, actress/singer Mary Elizabeth Winstead shows up in a brief, unexpected cameo - never something to complain about.

Richard Hutchins

Cary Gallagher

David Saslow

Atlantic Records

Portugal. The Man 'Noise Pollution' by Michael Ragen

Portugal.-The-Man-'Noise-Pollution'-by-Michael-Ragen

Gucci Mane, Travis Scott and Harmony Korine torch a floating car with the help of David M. Helman.Perhaps torching a car in this video is Helman&#39;s catharsis after <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2016/09/22/gta-ft-vince-staples-little-bit-david-m-helman" target="_blank">his car-heavy shoot with Vince Staples</a> a few months ago, but he&#39;s managed to create a simple, yet uniquely menacing performance video for Gucci Mane here.If somebody had asked me to distil a Gucci Mane video down to its elemental form, the list would likely not have included night vision, Harmony Korine smoking a cigar, and a floating car on fire in a snowy expanse. Yet all these elements together are somehow very distinctly fitting for Gucci Mane.

David M. Helman

Partizan Darkroom

Laura Jones

Lauren Nikrooz

Nick Rondeau

Arcade

Jason Wallis

Gloria FX

Gucci Mane ft Travis $cott 'Last Time' by David M. Helman 

Gucci Mane - Last Time feat. Travis Scott [Official Music Video]

AG Rojas, ably assisted by his regular DoP Michael Ragen, has&nbsp;created a sensitive portrait of real, mostly loved-up Detroit youth, into which English singer Aluna Francis has been seamlessly introduced,&nbsp;for Skrillex &amp; Diplo ft AlunaGeorge&#39;s To Ü.&nbsp;&nbsp;

AG Rojas

Mary Ann Marino

Jackie Kelman Bisbee

Elise Tyler

Alicia Fischmeister

Robert Spees

Garland Gallaspy

Gregory Reese

The Mill

Park Pictures

Mainline

Heather Keenan

Alexa Haywood at Free Agent UK

Dance

Skrillex & Diplo ft AlunaGeorge 'To Ü' by AG Rojas

"TO Ü" | Skrillex & Diplo feat. AlunaGeorge

AG Rojas&#39;s ambitious and arguably controversial video for Run The Jewels&#39; Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck), featuring Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, addresses the controversy over American police brutality towards the African American community by imagining it as a one-on-one conflict&nbsp;between two individuals - the white cop and the black citizen.It&#39;s beautifully crafted, with amazing cinematography by&nbsp;Michael Ragen.&nbsp;It&#39;s also a surprisingly&nbsp;ambiguous exercise, in which the personalities of the actors (Shea Whigham&nbsp;and&nbsp;Keith Stanfield)&nbsp;and the extreme&nbsp;physical demands of their roles - has an inevitable impact on what we&#39;re seeing. It&#39;s not quite a case of mutual hatred, and in fact, there is no &#39;bad guy&#39; here. It may seem to run&nbsp;counter to the fierce polemic for which RTJ&#39;s Killer Mike and El-P (to say nothing of De la Rocha) have become renowned.&nbsp;But they say it gels with their views that&nbsp;it&#39;s the whole system, rather than rogue individuals, that is the problem.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&quot;This video represents the futile and exhausting existence of a purgatory-like law enforcement system,&quot; says Killer Mike&nbsp;&quot;There is no neat solution at the end because there is no neat solution in the real world. &nbsp;However, there is an opportunity for dialogue and to change the way communities are policed in this country. &nbsp;Salutes to AG Rojas for his unique take on the subject matter and to Shea and Keith for giving us their all and bringing it to life.&quot;[imgtoken data:1]

Peter Vitale

Chris Jones

Natasha Newman-Thomas

Justin Dial

Laurie Devine

Jamie Kohn Rabineau

Michael Dignum

Ari Robbins

Bobby Wotherspoon

Ryan McGuire

Chris Gutierrez

Keith Stanfield

Shea Whigham

Lark Creative

Alternative, Hip Hop

Run The Jewels ft Zack de la Rocha 'Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)' by AG Rojas

Run The Jewels feat. Zack de la Rocha - "Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)"

For Saint Raymond&#39;s I Want You, Niall O&#39;Brien dramatises a big moment that comes in nearly every young man&#39;s life with sensitivity, humour and one giant metaphor.Shot in California, and beautifully photographed by Michael Ragen, the brilliant footage of bodies tumbling down a cliff of sand - including a very frustrated girl and, ultimately, Saint Raymond himself -&nbsp;was shot in the desert near Baker, about 50 miles from Death Valley, on the biggest dunes in the US.&nbsp;Which Niall made look even bigger.

United Kingdom

Niall O'Brien

Liz Kessler

Academy Films

Muji Mohammed

Simon Hargood

The Assembly Rooms

Adam Watson

Aubrey Woodiwiss

Dan Curwin

Callum Caulfield

Saint Raymond 'I Want You' by Niall O'Brien

Focus Creeps&#39; video for Arctic Monkeys next single Snap Out Of It sees Miss Bala actress Stephanie Sigman delivering a mesmerizing performance as a well-to-do woman disturbed and transfixed by grainy footage of the Sheffield foursome on her TV.&nbsp;Oscillating between the band at work in the recording studio and&nbsp;Sigman in her plush home, she gets increasingly&nbsp;worked up over her favourite act &ndash; particularly Alex. Looks like there&#39;s some history there...

Focus Creeps

Vision Film Co

FRIEND

Rob Leonard

Geoff McLean

Jordan Harkins

Domino

Nico Chavez

Rock

Arctic Monkeys 'Snap Out Of It' by Focus Creeps

Arctic Monkeys - Snap Out Of It (Official Video)

Terence Neale&#39;s wild and energetic promo for Ragga Bomb by&nbsp;dubstep supremo Skrillex&nbsp;was shot in Johannesburg and Alexandra in&nbsp;South Africa.Neale&#39;s video showcases rival local talents performaing a&nbsp;fierce dance-off&nbsp; - perfectly complimenting the hard-edge soundtrack...

South Africa

Terence Neale

Egg Films

Rozanna Rocha Grey

Colin Howard

Devi Lazanas

Michael Linders

Wendy Fredrikson

Elmi Badenhorst

Evy Katz

Left Post Production

Craig Simonett

Pudding

Blade Works Post Production

Jean Du Plessis

Richard de Jager

Sandra Smit

Skrillex Feat. Ragga Twins 'Ragga Bomb' by Terence Neale

Skrillex-Feat.-Ragga-Twins-'Ragga-Bomb'-by-Terence-Neale

Their first video for Gesaffelstein is multi-nominated for awards at UK Music Video Awards 2013. And&nbsp;here&#39;s Fleur &amp; Manu&#39;s&nbsp;follow-up,&nbsp;for the head-banging DJ/producer&#39;s Hate Or Glory, which expands&nbsp;on the&nbsp;enigmatic gold glove motif of Pursuit with an allegory on the corrupting effect of power and riches.&nbsp;We&#39;re down in the &#39;hood to witness a young gangster&#39;s brutal rise to dominance &ndash; and then his uniquely extravagant method of&nbsp;demonstrating his accumulation of wealth. Like a&nbsp;sort of King Midas in reverse, he gold-plates himself. Now that&#39;s a bold statement, and frankly, you&#39;re asking for trouble...

France

Fleur & Manu

Jules de Chateleux

Division

Jorge Pallares

Jean Davi

Loïc Andrieu

Christopher Dahdah

Victoria Aronson

Haley O'Neil

Clémence Cuvelier

Paul Crehange

Home Digital Pictures

Mathematic

Guillaume Marien 

Jehan Bard-Bouazza

Thomas Van Maele

Fred Brandon

Nicolas Larrouquere

Electronica

Gesaffelstein 'Hate Or Glory' by Fleur & Manu

Gesaffelstein - "Hate or Glory" (Official Music Video)

After her contentious&nbsp;outings with those VMA pals Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus this year,&nbsp;Diane Martel takes a break from making provocative pop vids - and makes a provocative, gleefully stomach-churning video instead,&nbsp;for Franz Ferdinand&#39;s Evil Eye.It&#39;s a real schlock-horror, and witty with it, as Diane and the band&nbsp;pay homage to low budget gorefests with&nbsp;explicit scenes of dismemberment by axe, cannibalism, and blood running like water from a tap (in fact, that happens in the video).&nbsp;And worst of all, a fat man with the face of Alex Kapranos imprinted on his tummy, who picks a bogy from his nose and then&nbsp;eats it. Now that really is going too far...&nbsp;&nbsp;

Diane Martel

OB Management

John Moule

Black Dog Films

Coleen Haynes

David Robertson

Georgia Walker

Alyssa Morgan

Katie Middleton

Gage Munster

Lawrence Mercado

Matt Hartfield

Lisa Katnic

Cristina Waltz

Alfredo Llamas

Indie Rock

Franz Ferdinand 'Evil Eye' by Diane Martel

Franz-Ferdinand-'Evil-Eye'-by-Diane-Martel

AG Rojas and his crew visited 15 locations in America for this mammoth and exhaustive shoot for the promo to Modern Jesus by Alaska/Oregon band Portugal. The Man.Shot over 20 days back in April, AG unveils an evolving and highly watchable promo with beautifully&nbsp;contrasting scenes from locations such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Michigan, Wyoming, Utah and California. Along the way AG and his crew encountered barbed-wire wrestlers in Texas, musicians in New Orleans,&nbsp;banjo players in Tennessee,&nbsp;a boxer in Detroit, Wyoming ranchers, and flew a bi-plane out of Denver. His DoP Michael Ragen captured in all (including a cow birth) on a variety of formats - everything here is original footage.It&#39;s spellbinding, and&nbsp;the whole story of the shoot (and plenty of pics) can be found at producer Anna Rau&#39;s excellent blog <a href="http://wellblessmystars.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/portugal-the-man-modern-jesus/" target="_blank">Well Bless My Stars</a>.&nbsp;

Anna Rau

Corbett Jones

Terry Huynh

Sam Grffith

Gregory Reece

Patrick Pask

Karl Williams Jr

John Grover

Carmela Makela

Keith Matthews

Dustin Miller

Chris Black

Caviar

Jasper Thomlinson

Portugal. The Man 'Modern Jesus' by AG Rojas

"MODERN JESUS" | Portugal. The Man

It&#39;s The 1975&#39;s song called Sex so Adam Powell heads off to LA to bring us raging teen hormones, angst and naked flesh.&nbsp;But&nbsp;Adam, teaming up with local DoP hero Michael Ragen,&nbsp;gets down with the Korine-style non-glamour to a surprising degree for a band who are, at the moment, making guitar-pop.&nbsp;So I don&#39;t want my&nbsp;13 year old daughter to see this, okay?&nbsp;&nbsp;

Adam Powell

Randy Donaldson

Chris Clavadetscher

Kimberly Stuckwisch

Big Disco

The 1975 'Sex' by Adam Powell

Minneapolis 4-piece Atmosphere team up with Carmela Makela for this surreal and curious promo to Ain’t Nobody, taken from their Family Sign album.Centred around a pair of scantily clad similar looking ladies who get up to all kinds in the kitchen, the bathroom, a bowling alley… its heavy on suggestive erotica – almost comedically so – perfectly partnering the jolly and loose nature of the soundtrack…

Michael Ragen

Director of Photography

Videos featuring Michael Ragen

2019 (2)

2016 (2)

2015 (2)

2014 (3)

2013 (9)

2012 (4)

2011 (7)

2010 (1)

2009 (2)

2008 (1)

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