Editor

Nick Allix

As we welcome in the new year, here's a personal perspective of the unprecedented&nbsp;one that has just passed into history, from poet&nbsp;Hussain Manawer, brought to the screen by Jake Polonsky BSC.A cinematographer&nbsp;who has worked on hit TV show&nbsp;Billions&nbsp;over the past few years,&nbsp;Polonsky returns to shortform&nbsp;- where he made his name as a DoP on music videos in the late Nineties and early Noughties- to direct this visualisation of Manawer's personal account of lockdown, and his strategem to deal with its effect on his mental health.As the poet reads in a recording studio, a sole dancer begins to perform in a huge, empty space - The Troxy in East London, looking glorious, and prepared for its next live show before an audience, whenever that may be. The dancer works his way through the room, and the neat rows of seats, to make for the stage...Shot by Haris Zambarloukos BSC, with Polonsky filming other London venues, all designed to serve a specific community - a primary school, a mosque, a synagogue, and various other important&nbsp;live music venues - 2020 Vision was shot on the <a href="https://fujifilm-x.com/global/products/cameras/gfx100/" target="_blank">Fujifilm&nbsp;GFX100 large format camera</a>, and the film was made possible through finance by Fuji as well as support from a variety of bodies, from Time Based Arts and Panalux to the Music Venues Trust and Save Our Venues.&nbsp;It certainly serves to show how important those venues are to our collective wellbeing.&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Jake Polonsky

Kat Armour-Brown

FRIEND

Luke Jacobs

Elliott Tagg

Caswell Coggins

Haris Zambarloukos

Dom Cheung

Johannes Lohmann

Sabrina Corda

Simone Grattarola

Time Based Arts

Marc Cattrall @ Fujifilm

Andreas Georghiades @ Fujifilm

Maxine Doyle

Will Thompson

Poetry

Hussain Manawer '2020 Vision' by Jake Polonsky

Hussain-Manawer-'2020-Vision'-by-Jake-Polonsky

Dawn Shadforth delivers some spectacular visuals in the promo for&nbsp;Siberian newcomer&nbsp;Polyna to perfectly compliment&nbsp;the haunting soundtrack that is her new single Angel.&nbsp;A selection of back projections, in-camera effects and Aaron Sillis maverick choreography complete the mix.

Dawn Shadforth

Sonny

Rachel Rumbold

Robbie Ryan

Mark Connell

Anna Trevelyan

The Playroom

Truss

Coffee & TV

Aaron Sillis

OB Management

John Moule

Electronica

Polyna 'Angel' by Dawn Shadforth

Polyna-'Angel'-by-Dawn-Shadforth

Into the Blue&nbsp;sees the return of the hugely successful collaboration between Kylie Minogue and director Dawn Shadforth.Dawn&#39;s intimate and&nbsp;stylish promo shows Kylie alongside French actor Clement Sibony. With the narrative played out in a variety of formats&nbsp;- DoP Richard Stewart&#39;s great work included shooting on the new black and white&nbsp;Alexa, with Mark Adcock&#39;s 16mm Bolex as the second camera &ndash;&nbsp;we see a very sophisticated&nbsp;Ms Minogue, dressed in Saint Laurent and sunglasses by Bulgari,&nbsp;partying and dressed to kill in&nbsp;London&#39;s more upmarket streets...

Leanne Stott

Richard Stewart

Mark Adcock

Alison Dominitz

Clement Sibony

Jean Clement Soret

Arri Media

Parlophone

Stefan Demetriou

Georgina Graham

Christian Vermaak

Tracey Cahoon

Cathy Edwards

Ellie Grace Cumming

Kylie 'Into The Blue' by Dawn Shadforth

Kylie-'Into-The-Blue'-by-Dawn-Shadforth

As part of the Fairtrade Fortnight campaign, Corin Hardy directed this special promo for Paolo Nutini's Pencil Full Of Lead starring the singer and the Big Ghana Band. The Ghana musicians had previously recorded the song as part of the Big Swap Songs ad campaign for Cadbury. 
Nutini was filmed in Glasgow and the band in Ghana. With both parties enjoying a game of football, a nice contrast between the two continents is highlighted - the deep snow of Scotland and the beautiful African sunshine...

Corin Hardy

Liz Kessler

Academy Films

Stu Bentley

Paolo Nutini/Big Ghana Band’s Pencil Full Of Lead for Cadbury's Big Swap Songs by Corin Hardy 

Mark Waring

Simon Paul

Gordon Allen

Smoke &amp; Mirrors

Richard Skinner

Local Natives’ Airplanes by Mark Waring

A clay, stop-animated Paolo Nutini is brilliantly integrated into the real world in Corin Hardy's hugely entertaining, beautifully-made new video for Paolo, created with the help of animators who worked on Fantastic Mr Fox. 
Big trouble is just around the corner for our malleable chap, on account of his Stone Age attitude towards the girls in the TV studio. But he ends up like putty in their hands... 

Corin Hardy on making the video for Paolo Nutini's Pencil Full Of Lead
"My aim with this video was to set up a situation where a clay Paolo would live in a real world and behave just like a real person. Once the viewer has accepted that, I then wanted to break the rules I had devised for myself and see what goes on when a clay Paolo just pushes it a bit too far. 
"I got very lucky with the animators. Fantastic Mr Fox had just wrapped and the lead animator Mark Waring, and Andy Gent - who built all the puppets for the film - were both available and agreed to do the video. 
"It was shot in a TV studio previously graced by Gloria Hunniford' chat show, and somehow this felt strangely fitting. We shot each take in two versions, one with a stand-in Paolo dancer and then one without. The animation was matched to the stand-in wherever possible and this helped us get the very real movement into the clay Paolo that I wanted. 
"The animation schedule was brutal. We had three weeks to animate and I pretty much moved into Clapham Rd Studios. Due to the animation needing to be composited into live action, it had to be 25 frames a second which gives the movement a beautiful rich feel, but is really tough work and there are no short cuts. 
"The post happened as we went along, and it was inspiring to see the shots come back 24 hours later bedded into the film and actually see the laborious work coming to life."

Ed Wild

Hannah Glossop

Laura Johnstone

Amarejeet Singh

Mark Horrobin

Tim Nash

Paolo Nutini’s Pencil Full Of Lead by Corin Hardy

It's Emil Nava's latest for Tinchy, featuring Amelle from Sugababes. It's just a little smoother and slicker than previous, and obviously another airplay monster.
Blimey, it's already done 750,000 plays on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=jFSO9B1K_xw[/youtube]

Between The Eyes

Emil Nava

Claire Oxley

Ben Pugh/Rory Aitkin

John Perez

Chris Lightburn

Chloe Richardson

Tareq &amp; James

Prime Focus

Bob Brimson

Alison Elwin

Tinchy Stryder feat Amelle’s Never Leave You by Emil Nava

Tinchy-Stryder-feat-Amelle’s-Never-Leave-You-by-Emil-Nava

There's a touch of the Thrillers about Richard Ayoade's new vid for the wonderful Yeahs. And the Billie Jeans.
And, for that matter, Beat It. Check out that synth sound at the start...

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=Dt0IlrQYOxM[/youtube]

Warp Films

Richard Ayoade

Jon Adams

Charlie Leech

Erik Wilson

Barney Davis

Thorin Thompson

Sangeet Pradhaker

Lucy Hoffman

Paul O'Brien

Simon Bourne

Ross Anderson

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Heads Will Roll by Richard Ayoade

Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs’-Heads-Will-Roll-by-Richard-Ayoade

Tommy Sparks and Max Vitali are both new names in these parts, but you'll be hearing more from them.
Tommy is a dance-pop god-in-the-making; Max is HSI London's new Swedish signing - he's done commercials, but his only previous video was for Robyn's Be Mine - who had the rum idea of having a group of people hypnotized (by a clever chap called David Knight) and instructed to go wild when Tommy starts performing future smash I'm A Rope.
The result is morally ambiguous, possibly voyeuristic - and properly exciting. There's nothing quite like a crowd losing themselves in the music (hypnotised or not), and this is ramped up further by Nick Allix's splendid edit.

http://uk.youtube.com/watchv=UFR7zMLFZJs[/youtube]
Max Vitali on making his video for Tommy Sparks' I'm A Rope
"The set-up was simple: we wanted to hypnotise people and create situations through mind control. Although we wanted to keep it a positive experience for everyone involved, we also wanted to go towards a slightly freakier and darker aspect of hypnosis than the 'make out with a floormop' kind of stuff you see in shows.
"It was a one day punk shoot, just keeping the energy high, doing things and trying to get it on camera as it happened. We used two cameras, video, so we could capture as much as possible not knowing if things could be repeated or how long they would stay in trance.
"The first thing we tried is exactly what the video shows: we told them that when Tommy Sparks appeared on stage they would go absolutely wild, it would be the most amazing performance they had ever seen and they would love Tommy like no other artist.
"I, and probably others, where a bit nervous before the first take, not knowing how it would play out once we where rolling. We'd done casting sessions to find people who where good, but still. But as soon as the track was pumping and Tommy was performing, they went absolutely bananas, grabbing him, ripping his shirt, whispering messages of love to him... It was brilliant, and after that we just tried to keep it up for as long as we could, going through the ideas we had planned.
"David Knight, the hypnotist, was amazing. Extremely professional, helpful and a big part in getting a good vibe on the day. It was exhausting but fun, and pretty amazing to see the hypnosis work, having lots of people in trance around you acting like waves or gorillas or crazy fans."

HSI London

Max Vitali

Lucy Booth

Steve Annis

Aubery

Carmen Montanez

Tommy Sparks’ I’m A Rope by Max Vitali

Tommy-Sparks’-I’m-A-Rope-by-Max-Vitali

New pop-soulboy Bryn Christopher gets the Sam Brown treatment.
That is: a distinctive, ambitious, even a bit weird take on the ol' pop video.
With dancing girls who arrive in a couple of Dodge Vipers in kabuki-mask makeup, bearing flares and glitter - and Bryn rather commendably wearing silver shoes...

Flynn
Director

Tom Townend

Bryn Christopher's Smilin' by Sam Brown

Promonews Podcast

Nick Allix

Editor

Videos featuring Nick Allix

2021 (1)

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2008 (2)

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