Pulse Films

Director

Noah Lee

London-based production company <a href="http://friendlondon.tv/" target="_blank">FRIEND</a> have announced that Noah Lee has joined their commercials and music video roster.Lee is an award-winning film and music video director, born in London and dividing his time between his birthplace and Los Angeles.&nbsp;His second video for US rapper 070 Shake has just been released - Lee and 070 Shake are pictured above on the set of Skin &amp; Bones&nbsp;- which was co-produced by FRIEND and LA-based company HPLA.&nbsp;Lee wrote, directed and edited his first short at the age of 23 - which was then nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at AFI Fest - and he has gone on to win widespread acclaim and awards for subsequent work, being featured at festivals worldwide and gaining enormous credibility online, including several Vimeo Staff Picks and Best of Month selections.&nbsp;In 2020, his&nbsp;video for Nice To Have, his first for 070 Shake, won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW. He has also garnered&nbsp;numerous UKMVA nominations in the past few years, winning a Best Newcomer&nbsp;award in 2016, as then Best R&amp;B/Soul Video UK in 2021, for his video for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2021/06/14/celeste-tonight-tonight-noah-lee/71428" target="_blank">Celeste's Tonight Tonight</a>."It's an overused phrase, but Noah truly is a visionary filmmaker with the awards to back it up," comments FRIEND MD Luke Jacobs.&nbsp;"We're thrilled he's joined FRIEND."• Watch Noah&nbsp;Lee's showreel at FRIEND <a href="http://friendlondon.tv/directors/noah-lee#cat-liveaction" target="_blank">here</a>

FRIEND

Noah Lee signs to FRIEND for UK representation

Noah Lee reunites with&nbsp;Danielle Balbuena - aka&nbsp;070 Shake - to make his second mesmerizing&nbsp;and dreamlike video&nbsp;for the New Jersey-born rapper, following their marvellous collaboration on <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/08/01/070-shake-nice-have-noah-lee/60087" target="_blank">Nice To Have</a>.In the video Skin &amp; Bones, Lee deconstucts the process of making the video for Skin &amp; Bones, with meta-fictional layering of 070 Shake's own part of the process, and those of the extras that populate the set.After the initial photographic studio set-up - inspired by The Master?&nbsp;-&nbsp;Shake engages in the big video set-piece, symbolically assuming weighty NFL-style shoulder-pad gear, and becoming drenched in studio rain. The extras of all shapes, sizes and ages take up their positions in different scenes as couples.[imgtoken data:1]And then Lee brilliantly defies expectations again, in unexpected ways - both heartwarming and chilling.This is his first video since signing with FRIEND in London for UK representation for music videos and commercials. The video, shot around Los Angeles is a co-production between FRIEND and HPLA.&nbsp;

Tyler Evans

Harper Slate

Juliana Bassi

Juliann McCandles

Ryan Hahn

Hpla

Patrick Golan

Danny Herman

Janelle J Lee

Tomislav Culina

Karim Belkasami

Mackenzie Myers

Angus Bernsen

Holly Sillius

Kaitlyn Battistelli

Ethos Studio

Def Jam Records

070 Shake 'Skin & Bones' by Noah Lee

070-Shake-'Skin-&-Bones'-by-Noah-Lee

Noah Lee creates a palpably resonant dreamworld, full of quirky visual tricks streaming from the subconscious of&nbsp;his subject, the intriguing Celeste, in the video for Tonight Tonight.Once Lee sets the scene by putting Celeste through the mini-hell of not being able to light her recalcitrant cigarette, the video progresses&nbsp;into the psyche of the character our songstress embodies. The&nbsp;film meanders through dive bars and Alice-in-Wonderland-esque hallways filled with butterflies and complicated individuals.It’s definitely the film’s distortions on common realities that make its dreamworld feel somewhat familiar - an authentic imagining of a subconscious mind. It's also framed in a&nbsp;film aesthetic, and with use of lenses that creates an aura that manages to be glamourous and&nbsp;romantic as well as surreal.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Suzan Mustafa

Kate Brady

Riff Raff Films

Tom Berendson

Jack Meredith

Harry Wheeler

Philip J Heron

James Malamatinas

Lee Parfitt

Elena Isolini

Emma Lipop

Vicky Morris

Mikko Ruostila

Marco Grey

OB Management

Cinelab Film and Digital

Soul

Celeste 'Tonight Tonight' by Noah Lee

CELESTE [TONIGHT TONIGHT]

New Jersey Native 070 Shake returns&nbsp;with the stunning video&nbsp;directed by Noah Lee. Depicting a slow moving magical passage through time, life and death, the video is ethereal and poignant, making clever use of a blocked-off tunnel and the resulting traffic.Through the lens of a voyeuristic camera, we explore each of the vehicles one by one, taking in a brief vignette of the characters and situations. Captured largely in one shot, the fluid movement parallels the passage of time, staying at the same pace, despite the calm or frantic scenarios unfolding in front of the camera.&nbsp;Shake's performance begins halfway through the video - at first sat behind the wheel of a car, and then akwardly spread across a van adorned with flowers. In the latter 'post-crash' scene, she&nbsp;is disturbingly lifeless,&nbsp;only her lips moving. And she&nbsp;is the reason for the stalled traffic.The video takes increasingly surreal turns, jumping into 4x3, and focuses&nbsp;on a small camera crew who are capturing the event and filming her lifeless body. Lensed beautifully by Chris Ripley, Lee's&nbsp;video is a brilliantly directed and produced tour de force. Not quite a daydream or a nightmare, more&nbsp;a haunting mix of both.&nbsp;

United States

Jared Lundy @ Checkmate Films

Noco

Jean Mougin

Chris Ripley 

Angus Bernsen 

 jordan Henderson 

 peri Rosenzweig

Holly Silius

Andrew Finch

Harperslate

Laura Jones @ Representt

Hip hop, Alternative

070 Shake 'Nice To Have' by Noah Lee

Shake-'Nice-To-Have'-by-Noah-Lee

Last year’s UK Music Video Awards saw the introduction of a new set of awards aimed squarely at up-and-coming directors who were creating music promos on a budget. Backed by mobile network, giffgaff, the five Newcomer awards attracted a huge range of creative work from undiscovered talent made for under £5,000 (or the equivalent in local currency).The eventual winners were a sweet choreographed love story for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2016/07/01/will-joseph-cook-take-me-dancing-rafe-jennings/42192" target="_blank">Will Joseph Cook by Rafe Jennings</a>, an explosive portrait of childhood unruliness for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2016/07/20/honeyblood-ready-magic-thomas-james/42558" target="_blank">Honeyblood by Thomas James</a>, a cinematic tour de force by <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2016/10/27/holy-fuck-tom-tom-michael-leblanc/44311" target="_blank">Michael Leblanc for alt-rockers Holy Fuck</a>, an unsettling puppet horror tale for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdiV-W7t9Fs" target="_blank">Jesse James Solomon by Noah Lee</a> and a trippy tale of raver-love for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2015/09/21/beardyman-mountainside-lewis-rose/36907" target="_blank">Beardyman by Lewis Rose</a>&nbsp;(both pictured above at the UKMVAs16 ceremony).&nbsp;Ahead of the entry deadline for this year’s Newcomer Awards - the deadline for entries is next Wednesday August 2nd – we caught up with last year’s winners to find out what they had been up to since collecting their honours at the Roundhouse last October.&nbsp;It turns out that their&nbsp;output since then has been remarkably diverse. It's&nbsp;spanned music videos, short films, live music, advertising, branded content, even&nbsp;features. And there's much more still to come.Rafe Jennings[imgtoken data:1]Director Rafe Jennings initially won the chance to work with Warner-signing Will Joseph Cook through a brief on Radar for the track Girls Like Me. He followed up with a second video for the artist for Sweet Dreamer. And when he submitted another pitch through Radar, his most ambitious yet, for Take Me Dancing, Will snapped it up.A nomination at the Radar Awards last July gave Rafe the confidence to enter the video into the UKMVAs, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aUNZhzfPkE&amp;index=11&amp;list=PLT9fsRyDMMDl3i5uw2eAOFeaaX7c59D4q" target="_blank">his triumph in the Best Pop Video – Newcomer category</a> gave him a new level of recognition. He signed with director’s rep&nbsp;Chloe Page at Lock It In, and with her help he’s been working on a number of music video projects. Among them were a dance-based video for Rhys Lewis’ Living In the City (below),&nbsp;and a performance video for The Magic Gang in Brighton.[vidtoken data:0]More recently Rafe has been working with emerging artist Rebecca Dancer, on a promo filmed with a body rig, which will be out soon. Looking ahead, he says: "I'm excited about an upcoming comedy short and a campaign video for a car brand to be filmed in the autumn."&nbsp;Michael Leblanc[imgtoken data:2]Another director on the Lock It In roster, Michael Leblanc, was exploring solo directing after a stint with co-director Scott Cudmore when he won the chance to shoot an epic video for Canadian alt-rock band, Holy Fuck in Romania.Unable to attend the Awards last October due to his shooting schedule, Michael sent a heartfelt video message thanking his crew on the Romanian shoot. He went on the following month to direct a huge ensemble dance video for Wintersleep’s Spirit&nbsp;which won him nominations for Best Director and Best Alt Rock Video at the Canadian MMVAs in 2017.[vidtoken data:1]The following month he wrote and co-directed his first feature length film, Tenzin, about the Tibetan community in Toronto. More recently he’s directed his first solo feature length film, Homme Movie,&nbsp;entirely on Super 8. Not surprisingly this double-dip into low budget features has been keeing him busy ever since. "The only exciting projects on my plate at the moment are my two movies, which we'll be editing over the next 3 months!" he tells us.&nbsp;Noah Lee[imgtoken data:3]London-born, LA-based director Noah Lee took the Newcomer Video Urban award in 2016 with his music video for UK rapper Jesse James Solomon’s YPT. Noah's influence echoes both the "video store" generation of the 90's and the New Wave French and American filmmakers of the 1960's and 70's.&nbsp;In 2015 his first short film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at AFI FEST. Signed to international production company&nbsp;Pulse Films, Noah’s previous ventures in music video included two promos for Rejjie Snow. But it was the beautiful but unsettling YPT which won the judges’ attention.[vidtoken data:2]Earlier this year saw the release of Noah’s latest music video for Sonder’s Too Fast (above). A surreal depiction of a boy exploring his own domain, the dream-like visuals set in the Californian desert show the main character’s birth, life, death and then re-birth, with&nbsp;a parallel between the visuals and the sounds that echoes the parallel between the lead characters younger and older self.Thomas James[imgtoken data:4]Thomas James was already building a strong reputation for visually-creative music videos for artists including Fat White Family, Oh Wonder and Loom when Black Dog Films put his work forward for t<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRWYWzXd_MM&amp;list=PLT9fsRyDMMDl3i5uw2eAOFeaaX7c59D4q&amp;index=12" target="_blank">he Best Rock/Indie Newcomer video award.</a> His clip for Honeyblood’s Ready For The Magic&nbsp;saw him working in close collaboration with Honeyblood to face the twin challenges of directing the band and a cast of child actors in rural Scotland for a video which, as he explains, explores the explosive nature of infatuation.Since last October, Thomas has directed two music videos for Nothing&nbsp;But Thieves: Amsterdam&nbsp;(below) and the just-released Sorry, both big-scale projects shot in the Ukraine.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:3]He’s also directed Bliss, a short film featuring&nbsp;Steve Oram, the full version of which is going to be ready in the next month.&nbsp;Right now, Thomas is working on a series of short films, called Tender Omens, to be exhibited as part of a solo exhibition in October. The coming months will also see him focus on bigger budget music videos, advertising work and branded content. His directing career is properly up and running.Lewis Rose[imgtoken data:5]Finally, we caught up with Lewis Rose, director of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzruI1h7RrI&amp;list=PLT9fsRyDMMDl3i5uw2eAOFeaaX7c59D4q&amp;index=13" target="_blank">Newcomer Best Dance Video for ‘Mountainside’ by Beardyman</a>, in the middle of a hectic filming schedule.&nbsp;At the end of last year Lewis spent a couple of months touring film festivals - and scooping up lots more awards – with his short film&nbsp;<a href="https://vimeo.com/179445944" target="_blank">The Chop</a>, a comedy about a cocky kosher butcher who ends up working in a Muslim halal butchers.&nbsp;"It’s has been going down great," says Lewis.&nbsp;"I've also been doing lots of fiction writing... and of course, working on some great music videos."&nbsp;Lewis returned to videos earlier this year to make a clip for Joe Goddard of Hot Chip’s Home, a half live-action, half-animated piece which Lewis achieved working in collaboration with celebrated illustrator, Pete Fowler.[vidtoken data:4]As if that wasn’t enough, Lewis has just finished writing his first feature film. “It's very much mixing the worlds of music and comedy, like my Mountainside video," he says. "It's about a kid from a small mountain town in Snowdonia, who dreams of being a superstar DJ. We'll be putting the wheels in motion for production later this year. Should have a banging soundtrack!”&nbsp;And he continues to collaborate with Beardyman, both on live performances, and in narrative sketch writing. "That has been really fun - we always come up with awesome weird shit," says Lewis.&nbsp;"We should be doing another video later this year too so keep your eyes peeled for that!"Like his fellow 2016 winners, the UKMVAs Newcomer award win has acted as a launchpad for Lewis Rose. And there is still time for the next wave of directors to enter the Best Video Newcomer Awards at the UK Music Video Awards this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;To qualify, your video must have been made between 1st August 2016 and 31st July 2017 for a budget of £5k or less. To find out more visit <a href="http://www.ukmva.com/" target="_blank">the UKMVAs website</a>. You can sign up to receive more information about the Awards at info@ukmva.com.There are over 30 awards to enter at this year's UK Music Video Awards - check out all the categories. The entry deadline is next Wednesday, August 2nd. This year's UKMVAs takes place at the legendary Roundhouse in London on October 26th.[imgtoken data:6]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Lewis Rose

Thomas James

Michael Leblanc

UK Music Video Awards 2017: Newcomer Awards winners of 2016 on what they have done in the past year

Rhys Lewis - Living In The City

Wintersleep - Spirit (Official Video)

Sonder-'Too-Fast'-by-Noah-Lee

Nothing-But-Thieves-'Amsterdam-'-by-Thomas-James

Joe-Goddard-'Home-'-by-Lewis-Rose-&-Pete-Fowler-

Noah Lee&#39;s video for Sonder&#39;s Too Fast begins with the sight&nbsp;of a young boy with his chest torn open, holding his own heart. But what follows is not quite as harrowing as that opening suggests.This is a dream vision of the boy exploring his own domain, which is&nbsp;the wide open prairie. His journey is paralleled by a similar one made on foot by an adult - the young boy&#39;s older self. But it&#39;s as much as about absorbing the images - evidently shot on film, crafted by Christopher Ripley, who also graded the video&nbsp;- as deciphering the story. Sit back and enjoy.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Noah Lee

Director

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