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Timur Almazov directs an evocative promo for singer B.minor, weaving a tale about love and addiction, tapping into&nbsp;the artist's personal experiences."We wanted to create a music video around this story, with all the visual and performance elements serving to its purpose and building up to the final twist," Almazov explains. "We knew that we had to create a multilayered film with multiple locations, outfits and lighting setups to make the audience stay for the whole show. And given our shoestring budget finding ways to pull this off was perhaps our greatest challenge."Shot in London, the video&nbsp;for Irionara&nbsp;uses the city's overcast skies and bustling atmosphere to bring a sense of understated energy to the performance, which reflects the track's lilting soundscapes."It was also important that we captured b.minor's rich and complex cultural identity that's at the heart of his music," Almazov continues. "By fusing together carefully-choreographed dance sequences with hand-held location scenes and dynamic editing, we sought to bring together K-Pop influences with more Western style aesthetics and produce something as unique as the artist's musical voice."&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Sarah Chan

Dan Hills

Pamela Da Silva Diethelm

Timur Almazov

Ash Lang Wen Li

Misha Omelchuk

Santiago Bq

Filip Adamczewski

Tom Solt

Tristan Kassam

Dylan Law

Jay Tagle

Soda Eiyn Choi

Minjeong Lee

Elyse Raphael

Peter Oppersdorff

The Mill

Layla Kao

B.minor

B.minor 'Irionora' by Timur Almazov

b.minor ‘IRIONORA (이리오너라)’ Official MV

<h3>Nomad London's resident colourist won Best Colour Grading in a Video at the UK Music Video Awards this year for his work on Katie Melua’s Love And Money. So Promonews visited Nomad to meet Felipe Szulc, the man who claimed this coveted prize.</h3>It is fair to say that Felipe Szulc was not expecting to win Best Colour Grading at this year’s UK Music Video Awards last month. Nominated for his work on the <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/04/28/katie-melua-love-and-money-mrmr/81305" target="_blank">Katie Melua video for Love And Money</a>, he says: “When the awards began, and winners started to come up and make acceptance speeches, I suddenly realised that I hadn’t prepared anything to say if I won.”We are talking in his grading suite at the London HQ of Nomad Editing, in their premises near London Bridge. It’s a couple of weeks after the ceremony, with a very grey, wet London in the grip of Storm Babet... or was it Ciaran?In fact, the video for which he won the award radiates a similar autumnal feel – minus the driving wind and rain - as it tells the story of a migrant worker, a cleaning woman, working in an affluent home, after she talks to her child back in her home country, and then lost in thoughts, her cleaning transforming into a dance. Szulc’s grade succeeded in giving the video a naturalistic cinematic feel. But it also glows with colour without being overly saturated.The theme of this and its companion video, for Melua's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/04/26/katie-melua-quiet-moves-mrmr/81297" target="_blank">Quiet Moves</a>&nbsp;– both directed by Katie Lambert&nbsp;at&nbsp;MrMr&nbsp;– is the everyday immigrant experience: people who have come to the UK to work, taking menial jobs, whatever their innate&nbsp;abilities, in order to start a new life.Coincidentally, Felipe Szulc is similar to the characters in that he too has moved to the UK to work. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil (his surname comes from his Polish émigré grandparents) he has been living in London for nearly a decade – his career in London includes being an assistant colourist at Rushes and a junior colourist at Absolute Post before joining Nomad in 2019.So by now he is completely familiar with a grey, rainy English autumn, and its occasional bursts of colour. Not surprisingly the conversation began with us talking about his award-winning work on Love And Money.On Kate Melua's Love And Money video[vidtoken data:0]<blockquote>[DoP]&nbsp;Ailsa Aikoa sent me some really precise instructions and references.</blockquote>The project was actually super-quick because, honestly, Ailsa [Aikoa], the DoP, did such a great job on this. Everything was so well balanced that once I set the look for a few shots, it was easy to replicate.The curious thing is that they, Katie [Lambert] and Ailsa, didn’t actually come for the session. I think they were busy shooting other stuff. And it was the fourth promo I had graded for Katie. She said: “I’m happy with whatever Ailsa says. I trust you both.”Ailsa’s clear vision was a great starting point. She was inspired by the beautiful Kodak colour print film, 2383 [as it was shot on digital]. Ailsa wanted very deep, punchy blacks and very rich reds and oranges; we developed the greens and cyans as well to give it the depth and richness.The first shot I graded was one of the hero shots – the one of the cleaner dancing outside the sitting room window, under the tree. All the elements came together perfectly in this scene - the warmth from the light and the red from the fallen leaves. I wanted to capture every bit of colour here and bring it to life. For me it’s the hero shot - the best shot of the film.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Above: Still from Katie Melua's Love And Money, directed by Katie Lambert, graded by Felipe SzulcWhen our actress is dancing in the sitting room at the end of the day, I thought it would be nice to introduce more cyan to the window light. This helped create a really nice contrast with the warm yellow/orange hues of the lamp – the kind of “comforting” look that makes you feel good and warm inside!Still in the living room, the scenes shot during the day, isolating the greens in the trees outside the window to add vibrancy gave it the lift it needed to really come together.[imgtoken data:2]Above: Katie Melua's Love And Money, directed by Katie Lambert, graded by Felipe SzulcI also brought in a separate layer of halation – that sort of halo that you have around bright light sources, which added a level of glow and softness to the highlights. Finally, I applied&nbsp;a layer of grain – from an actual 250 D film scan. Ailsa was keen to have a grainy feel and we applied it on top of everything. It was a great part of the finesse.The final promo is as much a testament to Ailsa’s camera work as my grade. It was so beautifully shot - the contrast and the light were already so perfectly captured in camera, so for me it was just a case of enhancing what was already there.[imgtoken data:3]Above: Katie Melua's Love And Money, directed by Katie Lambert, graded by Felipe SzulcAilsa’s brief for the other Katie Melua video, ‘Quiet Moves’, was very similar with a focus on bold, punchy colours whilst retaining a grounded and natural aesthetic. I introduced cooler tones with blues and cyans to create this colour contrast with the warmer highlights as well.The most challenging part was differentiating between the orange tones in his outfit and the set in the chip shop when he starts dancing. I spent some time isolating skin tones too - I pushed the oranges quite a lot and it naturally affected his skin tone, so I spent some time tweaking it to keep the skin looking as natural as possible.[imgtoken data:4]Above: Katie Melua's Quiet Moves, directed by Katie Lambert, graded by Felipe SzulcOn the visual influences upon Felipe’s workGrowing up in Brazil, there was colour everywhere, because nature is everywhere. And then even here in London, when you're walking back home on a sunny day or something, I catch myself looking at the skies, looking at how clouds play with the light.But I think I’m influenced by a little bit of everything: photography, graphic design, paintings, nature, real life. And when you're grading something, often images naturally come to mind.[imgtoken data:5]Above: Still from Ortolan, directed by Tracy Matthewson, graded by Felipe SzulcFor example, I have recently graded a short film,&nbsp;Ortolan, for the director Tracy Mathewson. When Tracy showed me the footage, the first thing I thought about was a Caravaggio painting, because the way they lit the scene was so similar to the&nbsp;chiaroscuro&nbsp;style that he used. So these are the things that pop into my mind when I'm grading something.[vidtoken data:1]I've always loved photography in general. But if I had to choose one photographer it would be the Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado. He is a massive inspiration. And even though it's black and white, I think his work is fantastic.The texture and the depth is just so striking, and framing and the way he captures images is almost unbelievable. I watched an interview with him recently and he said that sometimes he stays put for hours, just waiting for that moment. Nowadays, people are walking around with phones and taking 200 pictures of everything. But he is just there waiting for hours to get that one shot.[imgtoken data:6]Above: Sebastiao Salgado: Colony of Chinstrap and Macaroni Penguins, Mount Michael Volcano, Saunders Island, South Sandwich Island, 2009In terms of artists, I love American painter <a href="https://www.markmaggiori.com/" target="_blank">Mark Maggiori</a>, who creates these paintings of the American West in a classic style, but the way he uses colour is amazing. His work is a big source of inspiration for me these days. And obviously, great cinematographers like Roger Deakins and Emmanuel Lubezki (who works with Alejandro González Iñárritu).On getting started in post production – and gravitating towards gradingI grew up in São Paulo, went to São Paulo University, and I graduated in digital design. I started working as assistant art director in an agency - retouching pictures in Photoshop and created layouts for web design, things like that.Slowly I moved towards motion graphics and comping, mainly using After Effects. And I started learning about colour grading. It’s an important part of comping because you need to match plates and things like that or match CG elements with live action stuff.I went freelance, and was just doing a little bit of everything people would hire me to do. But then I decided if I want to really get good in one thing, maybe I should just focus in one thing. And I decided that grading was the thing I liked the most, and could see myself doing for a long time.I was grading for four years before I came to London. There was a short film in Brazil that I graded that was a really big step for me. And after that I moved to London in 2014.On arriving in the UK and working at RushesIt was tough to get any work at first, especially not having a portfolio that was from here, just work from Brazil. I eventually got some freelance work at Unit and Freefolk as a colour assist. But my first full time job as a grading assistant was at Rushes.I assisted several colourists at Rushes, including Simona Cristea. It was really good working with Simona. She used to do a lot of beauty stuff, for the likes of Rankin, and I learned a lot from that. Nowadays, when I'm grading beauty work, I always remember how Simona used to do it. I think she's been a big influence on me.It was at Rushes that I got my first proper grade and that was for an earlier short film by Tracy Mathewson, called Appellation,&nbsp;which I’m still very proud to have been a part of.&nbsp;That went well, and I’ve graded several of her films since, including her latest&nbsp;Ortolan. Tracy is great, a very talented director. And she&nbsp;also teaches screenwriting and directing.From here I moved on to working at Absolute Post where I worked closely with Matt Turner, collaborating on a number of projects – I learned a lot from working with Matt and carry this with me still today.On joining Nomad - and going straight into working on a Coldplay video...[vidtoken data:2]<blockquote>They built this massive rotating set... but ended up using very few shots from that.</blockquote>I had just joined Nomad as colourist, and my first or second project was this big promo for Coldplay, directed by Mat Whitecross, for Orphans. They were making a comeback after a long hiatus, so this was a really big deal. The creative direction of the video had quite a substantial reimagining, and the first version I graded was very different to the one we finished up with.For the shoot, they had built this massive rotating set, using projections and everything. It had a lot of elaborate choreography. But then Chris Martin decided to shoot the first half of the video again – which is literally phone footage of him playing the song on the streets in Italy and New York - and it changes to the rotating studio sets later on in the video.It was fun to grade this one – and as the whole team were in LA, I did the grade unattended. This was pre-pandemic, but we were already working remotely, back then in 2019. And it got a lot of attention, with something like 500,000 views within a few hours of release.On pushing the limits with Orbital and Sleaford Mods:[vidtoken data:3]With this one, I remember doing two or three versions. For the first one I did a more neutral look. But the director Luke Losey said he wanted it much darker. He said: "I almost want to damage the picture."So we lifted the blacks quite far up.&nbsp;I set a different black level for everything because we wanted the image to look almost quite rugged, grungy and raw. I spent a fair amount of time working on the sky, and also exploring the textures of the wood, grass and other natural features.I think this is a good example of when you do something and say, okay, I'm not going to risk too much because I don't know what the director will think. And then the director comes to the session and they just push you really far. And that's when you learn – that’s when you have that freedom to actually explore.On winning at the UKMVAs - and working on more videos:[imgtoken data:7]Above: Felipe on stage at the UKMVAs 2023, receiving the award for Best Colour Grade in a VideoI was humbled to receive so many congratulatory messages from other colourists, DoPs, directors and people I’ve worked with and really respect. Grading for Katie is always such a pleasure, so it’s really gratifying for the work to be recognised in this way.And&nbsp;hopefully winning the Best Colour Grading award will open new doors - not just for me but for the company as a whole because everyone that's here is so talented.• Felipe Szulc is based at Nomad Editing in London. Check out more of his work <a href="https://www.nomadedit.com/uk/color/" target="_blank">here</a>, and contact Ben Mallett at Nomad <a href="http://ben.mallett@nomadedit.com" target="_blank">here</a> for more information.

Felipe Szulc

Felipe Szulc: "Music videos give you the freedom to explore and learn."

Katie-Melua-'Love-And-Money-'-by-Mrmr

ORTOLAN trailer

Coldplay - Orphans (Official Video)

Orbital--'Dirty-Rat-'-by-Luke-Losey-

Priya Ahluwalia directs a quietly forceful video for Grace Carter's poerfully anthmeic Riot.Carter's poised performance, sitting at a candlelit table, and the red-costumed focus among a white-gowned Bass Note Collective choir, is intercut with everyday scenes and naturalistic portraits of Black Britons at work, at leisure and with family.Felipe Szulc's grade emphasises the distinction with a richly colourful treatment for the performance, and black and white for the documentary element.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Grace Carter has written: "This song is about injustice. I’m so proud of what myself and the director Priya Ahluwalia have created. It was important to me that this video wasn’t dark, I wanted it to be uplifting. So much of what we see in the media when it comes to Black people is linked to trauma and suffering but I don’t think that's a fair representation of what being Black really means. It is also about community, unity and lifting each other up."I had the amazing honour of being able to share the screen with Bass Note Collective for this one and I honestly had goosebumps the whole time we shot together. This song is about coming together and collectively using our voices to make a change. The lyrics of this song seem to be made relevant time and time again, we still have a long way to go. I hope this one makes you feel something." &nbsp;

Priya Ahluwalia

Dasha Deriagina

Becky Bishop

Deon Van Zyl

James Norris

Renäta Fabri

Black Dog Films

Martin Roker

Lily Moore

Ryan Buchschacher

Kashman Harris

Justin McGillivray

Jake Buckley

Julia Dias

Beanie Stolper

Lucy Thomas

Kreszend Sackey

Grace Carter 'Riot' by Priya Ahluwalia

Grace-Carter-'Riot'-by-Priya-Ahluwalia

Pip Blom stalks the object of her affection - fairground worker&nbsp;Alex Kapranos, taking a break from&nbsp;Franz Ferdinand frontman duties - in MrMr's charming video for the Dutch indie quartet who share the name of their lead singer.Or is she? Things take a turn when someone else enters the fairground scenario and then a trip to the dodgems leads to a fortuitous collision...[imgtoken data:1]"This video encapsulated all of our favourite things. Rides, unrequited love and the flexibility of gender. If I had a pound for every man I’ve stalked around a fun fair I’d have maybe two, maybe three pounds," says MrMr's Katie Lambert on Instagram."[Pip Blom] really brought it performance wise on this video in less than ideal conditions and so a mega well done to her and also a huge thank you to dreamboat&nbsp;[Alex Kapranos]. Thank you to the small but mighty team on this."

Len Blanco

MrMr

Olivia Awuor

Adam Barnett

Martha McGuirk

Sunjna Mullick

Joel Rosenberg

Patrycja Cygan

Chris Wilson

Homespun

Digital Orchard

Indie Rock

Indie

Pip Blom ft Alex Kapranos 'Is This Love?' by MrMr 

Pip-Blom-Ft.-Alex-Kapranos-'Is-This-Love?-'-by-Mrmr-

Sekou Abineri directs an evocative visual for the next generation French alt-pop star&nbsp;Aime Simone.For&nbsp;Give Me Love Or Give Me Nothing, Abineri has Simone radiating urban cool, but while walking through the desert, dressed in white, leading a white pony, and shadowed by a solitary motorbike rider, also in white.It's an object lesson in how to appear sensitive and also super-cool.[imgtoken data:1][imgtoken data:2]

France

Sekou Abineri

Lou Bardou-Jacquet

Partizan

Charlie Scannell

Jeanne Grenat

Robin Chabas

Kai Blamey

Farid Karioty

Matias Sahnoune

Melaine Coleiro

Florent Farinelli

Fiona Bourgeois

Jamie O'Donnell

Connor Coolbear

Electric Theatre Collective

Mouthpiece

Natalia Maus

Alt-Pop

Aime Simone 'Give Me Love Or Give Me Nothing' by Sekou Abineri

Aime Simone - Give Me Love or Give Me Nothing (Official Music Video)

A second video for Katie Melua by director/producer duo MrMr takes a poignant and emotional&nbsp;look at the experience of women coming to work in the UK, with&nbsp;loved ones far away.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In the video for Love and Money, we see the lead character - played by Sophie Chinner - talk&nbsp;to her son on a video call, making the most of a small window of time before she needs to get back to work.&nbsp;As a cleaner of an upscale home, her work day is silent and contemplative, but when her memories begin to seep into the present moment, she takes the opportunity to dance&nbsp;in reflection of times spent with her loved ones.This is one of a pair of videos for Melua by MrMr - Katie Lambert and Martha McGuirk - that explore the experience of coming to live and work in the UK from elsewhere,&nbsp;and released shortly before the more upbeat <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/04/26/katie-melua-quiet-moves-mrmr-0/81297" target="_blank">Quiet Moves</a>.[imgtoken data:1]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"This song made us think about the countless women all over the world who travel to foreign countries in order to work and to send money to their loved ones at home," say Lambert and McGuirk, aka MrMr.&nbsp;"We wanted to show the sadness in being apart from your family, but also the strength and determination these women have. When we spoke to Katie Melua about the idea this is something which really resonated with her as she comes from Georgia, where a lot of women travel abroad for work."The video was beautifully shot by Ailsa Aikoa and cut by Tamara Ishida at Assembly Rooms. Our lead Sophie Chinner was also amazing - a brilliant dancer and actress."

Sam Storey

Nathalie Gabrielsson

Maya Dufeu

Faye Purcell

Abi Hurcomb

Ailsa Aikoa

Liam Wallace Cook

Wayne A.w. Bentley

Lou Macnamara

Em Turner

Maxi-boy O'sullivan

Mikey Boats

Tamara Ishida

Assembly Rooms

Bmg Rights Management (ltd) Uk

Katie Melua 'Love And Money' by MrMr

A bored fish and chip worker loves to dance, in this life-affirming video for Katie Melua by MrMr.&nbsp;Melua's song Quiet Moves is about immigration and culture; how growing up in the UK impacts on those who were come from other countries - as Melua herself did - and how these people retain their cultural heritage, often 'quietly'. The video&nbsp;reflects that message through the lead character. He&nbsp;has the most English of jobs - working in a fish &amp; chip shop. But he wants to dance... when no-one is watching.Only it turns out that someone is watching: a little girl who becomes his fascinated spectator and then his dance-partner, when he takes his dance to the streets around the fish and chip shop.&nbsp;MrMr - aka Katie Lambert and Martha&nbsp;McGuirk - give the video a charming simplicity and lightness of touch that suits the&nbsp;characteristic gentle delivery of Katie Melua - who cameos as one of the fish &amp; chip shop customers. The duo are better known as producers, but they show here they have a good reason to be serious about switching over to directing.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Emily Engelman

Bmg Rights Management Ltd

Katie Melua 'Quiet Moves' by MrMr

Katie-Melua-'Quiet-Moves-'-by-Mrmr

Caroline Hajny directs an evocative promo for Danish pop-soul duo AICK.&nbsp;The video for Default invites viewers into a nostalgic Noughties time capsule, exploring carefree youthful attitudes&nbsp;and the limbo between the present and the future.&nbsp;Centred around a road trip to the beach, the video cycles between unabashed excitement and poignant pause, meditating on themes of loneliness and the fear of missing out.&nbsp;Shot in Denmark last summer, the cast features some of the biggest names in the Danish dance scene, taking us along on their euphoric journey.[imgtoken data:1]

Denmark

Monique Colomb Simon

Caroline Hajny

Christy Dokbua

Philip Peng Rosenthal

Jonathan Holten

Lise Videbaek Jensen

Serena Rossi

Alex O'Brien

Company 3

Deadbeat Films

Marisa Garner Associates

Soul

AICK 'Default' by Caroline Hajny

AICK  - Default

Orbital team up with&nbsp;Sleaford Mods to lament our rulers and the voters that put them there, in this full-on promo for Dirty Rat - the follow-up to Luke Losey's MVA-nominated video for Smiley.&nbsp;Shot in Leysdown-on-Sea on The Isle Of Sheppey, the video features local residents as actors, and is focused on spontaneous, eccentric performances that elevate the hyper-frenetic pace of the track.&nbsp;It's raw, gritty and unapologetic, and is impossible to tear your eyes away from.&nbsp;

Luke Losey

Phil Tidy

Laura Kelly

Joel Levack

Hopi Demattio

Ben Unwin

London Records

Serge Teulon

Jay Creagh

Squire

Dance

Electronic

Orbital ft Sleaford Mods 'Dirty Rat' by Luke Losey 

Caroline Hajny continues Michael Aldag's story from <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2022/10/24/michael-aldag-bleak-caroline-hajny/78906">the recent video for Bleak</a>, in this poignant promo for Okay.&nbsp;Picking up directly from the end of the first concept - which sees Aldag jump into a swimming pool fully dressed - we see the artist emerge with a new lease on life.&nbsp;Aldag runs&nbsp;through the city, drying off as he heads somewhere unknown, and the aesthetic becomes more vibrant and lively, cutting between the past and present videos to show the contrast.&nbsp;Completing the emotional arc of the story, and offering a brilliant rooftop performance at the end, it's a remarkable piece of work that stands on its own and as part of a whole.&nbsp;

Patricia Odysseos Suther

Maddie Godsill

Denisa Cantor

Marisa Garner

Deimante Sprai

Wouter Verheul

Jack Thompson - Roylance

Laura Prast

Oliver Pearson

Hannah Backshall

Francesca Ingram

Sebastian Ziabka

Juliette Wileman

Absolute London

3beat

Michael Aldag 'Okay' by Caroline Hajny

Michael-Aldag-'Okay'-by-Caroline-Hajny

Caroline Hajny directs an emotional promo for Michael Aldag's Bleak.&nbsp;Exploring mental health and relationships - both internal and external - the video places Aldag in several everyday locations, letting his emotional performance do all the talking.&nbsp;Switching from high contrast black and white to a desaturated, raw treatment, the video carries an important message, and presents it beautifully.

Jack Thompson-Roylance

Julitte Wileman

Tomas Soltonas

Michael Aldag 'Bleak' by Caroline Hajny

Michael-Aldag-'Bleak'-by-Caroline-Hajny

Suede have launched their latest album Autofiction with a short film to feature two of its singles - She Still Leads Me On&nbsp;and 15 Again - written and directed by Katie Lambert.The film is the story of a couple, Hannah and Chris. Hannah is ready to settle down and start a family; Chris far more inclined to retain their independence. Can they reconcile these conflicting impulses?Lambert's short film directing debut is impressive, with engaging performances by&nbsp;by Hannah Higton and Noah Granville, with outstanding cinematography by Adam Barnett.&nbsp;&nbsp;"It's about that moment in a relationship when it’s crunch time," says Lambert. "The moment when you’re at a certain age and forever feels incredibly close. When you’re not sure if you’re with the one, or if you could find another one, or if that’s a crap societal construction anyway."

Elena Muntoni

Lane Casting

Ellie McNaughtan

Holly Adamthwaite Wood

Katie Lambert

Lucy Bradley

Faye Hunter

Ian Stowe

Wayne Bentley

Dave Littlejohns

James Wicks

Rain Keene

Work Editorial

Hannah Higton

Noah Granville

Rock

Suede 'Autofiction' by Katie Lambert 

Suede--'Autofiction-'-by-Katie-Lambert-

The Trash Factory (aka James Arden)&nbsp;continues his collaborative streak&nbsp;with Dylan Fraser, with&nbsp;this transcendent ride for Vampire.The hypnotic visual&nbsp;sees Fraser holding onto featured artist Alaska&nbsp;Reid, as they ride a motorbike through coruscating lights and an abstract otherworld.&nbsp;The theme&nbsp;of showing your worst self in front of a loved one is&nbsp;visualised by a bold step into horror at the end, which acts as a perfect climax to the haunting yet surprisingly intimate promo.&nbsp;