Rogue is one of London's most distinctive entertainment production companies.

Production Company

Rogue Films

Rogue has announced the launch of REBEL., a platform within the London-based production company’s network to elevate and develop breakthrough directors.Headed up by Rogue's Head of Talent&nbsp;Charlie Roberson as a distinct destination for creative agencies, brands, labels and music&nbsp;artists,&nbsp;REBEL. launches with a roster of four young directors who have already made a considerable&nbsp;impact with their work:&nbsp;Yasmin Afifi,&nbsp;Jeremi Durand, DONPROD and Danny Seth.Afifi won a BAFTA this year for her bittersweet short film&nbsp;Jellyfish &amp; Lobster, the first ever for a&nbsp;NFTS graduation film, and she has&nbsp;a reel of other compelling and award winning shorts and&nbsp;is in development on her first feature. Durand, a filmmaker and photographer born in France and living between Paris and London, has directed acclaimed videos&nbsp;for&nbsp; Chinese Man, Grands Corps Malade and others, his work shortlisted for this year's 1.4 Awards.&nbsp;His work for SYNC launches on May 23rd with an exciting campaign of music videos for DJ Mustard coming soon.DONPROD are Jack and Tom, a director duo who&nbsp;moved from the Isle of Wight to London two years ago. Since then they have directed music videos for top artists including&nbsp;Unknown T, Aitch, A1, Mist, Digga D, Fredo, Tunde, Nines, Krept &amp; Konan. They have elevated their craft as they become go-to hitmakers and have directed branded projects for brands including TRAPSTAR.Danny Seth is a&nbsp;rapper, creative director and director. Having spent time in America making music and working with big US acts, he is back in the UK making audio visual spectacles - including the video for 21 Savage's Redrum, which was shortlisted at the 2024 1.4 Awards.The initiative to create REBEL. as a distinct destination for creative agencies, brands, labels and music&nbsp;artists,&nbsp;comes at a significant moment in the history of Rogue, who set up shop in 1998, and have been championing the next generation of filmmakers since its inception."We’ve celebrated 25 years of being Rogue this year and REBEL. is the perfect way to&nbsp;kickstart the next 25 years," says Charlie Roberson.&nbsp;"The industry is constantly evolving and, in 2024, directors, creative directors, photographers and musicians engage with film in a new way. They are at the forefront of&nbsp;content with access to fanbases and consumers through social media. This is shaking up the status quo&nbsp;and we are proud to launch with four directors who are absolutely representative of this new wave. They&nbsp;are REBEL. They are Rogue.”Rogue Partner &amp; MD, Kate Taylor adds: “It’s always been our passion and ambition to nurture and&nbsp;showcase emerging talent at Rogue - and now that the landscape for celebrating young directing talent&nbsp;has changed beyond recognition, what better way to cut through the noise, than a dedicated platform and&nbsp;brand to support these exciting young Rogues."REBEL. has been a long time coming. I’m delighted that&nbsp;it’s here and look forward to seeing thrilling new work coming from those brave enough to break the&nbsp;rules."• Watch the REBEL. directors' showreels <a href="https://www.roguefilms.co.uk/rebel" target="_blank">here</a>

Rogue launches REBEL. for breakthrough talent

The return of Jack Sibley's music project&nbsp;North Downs after a four-year hiatus is heralded with the psych-drenched electronica of&nbsp;Here Come Butterflies and an absorbing&nbsp;visual interpretation directed by Jake Mavity, featuring Farah Ashraf as a girl undergoing a remarkable transformation.In the video, the girl's commonplace life on a canalside walk is interrupted by visions, and then a room of TVs with distorted images of Sibley performing, and another version of herself, trapped in the TV, wearing a green party dress. When 'real' Farah connects&nbsp;with the girl in the TV it triggers a change, where she becomes that other version of herself, within an enclosed mirror-lined space - until she is ready to emerge from the cocoon.[imgtoken data:1]Sibley's brief for Mavity was to represent a butterfly's transformation within its chrysalis - in the song he draws a parallel between humanity's incessant drive for technological advancement&nbsp;with the instinct of a caterpillar building its cocoon - and Mavity's response was to take a strictly&nbsp;in-camera, analogue approach, mostly eschewing digital VFX in favour of&nbsp;practical effects.Most crucially he built a real, mirror-lined 'cocoon' space, in an LED studio, in which he had enclosed Ashraf. Previously shot footage was played onto the LED studio floor, reflecting up on to the mirrors in the cocoon surrounding Ashraf.[imgtoken data:2]“Jack approached me with not just the banger that is Here Come Butterflies but also an intriguing creative vision too. There seemed to be a commonality with the transformation we underwent everyday via our online, digital lives."So the question was how best to explore what happened inside a butterfly’s cocoon during metamorphosis? How could we peel back the skin and expose the flesh beneath.“We built a 3 metre high, mirrored cocoon and then projected imagery we’d shot from an LED floor, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. We also played footage of North Downs performing through various analogue filters, adding effects and pulses organically and instinctively as the track played."It was a wild-pitch acid house mindset and meant there was a degree of uncontrolled rawness that complimented the ethos of the track perfectly.”&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Jake Mavity

Farah Ashraf

Thom Neal

Hammond & Cox

Sam Tidman

Jenny Cogan

Nacho Munoz De Leon

Blake Kent

Sam Barnham

Totty O’Clee

Morgan Lashley

Jules Bayer-Crier

TenThree

Dan Levy

Rascal Post

Absolute Post

Space Daddy Records

Electronic

Psychedelic

Rock

Alternative

North Downs 'Here Come Butterflies' by Jake Mavity

North Downs - Here Come Butterflies (Official Music Video)

A young woman attends a séance, where events take an even stranger turn than expected, in this riveting cinematic spectacle, co-directed by&nbsp;Emile Rafael and Joe Connor for the pair's own synth-based music project, Supermodel.Set in a grand hotel, with a cast of characters gathered in their finery to engage in the séance, the narrative element of the video for the pulsating Push moves into a dreamlike world, where the participants are engulfed in sensory overload - visally expressed in charged blur of colour and choreography.It's an intense&nbsp;and mesmerizing experience, with superb cinematography (by Michal Babinec), editing (by Liv Ay at Trim) and VFX work (at Agile Studio). It means that Emile Rafael and Joe Connor's first collaboration as directors is easily as successful as their musical partnership.&nbsp;&nbsp;We spoke to the pair to discover more about how they started making music together, and how they made the video.[imgtoken data:1]<blockquote>For me it’s a story about grief.</blockquote>&nbsp; PROMONEWS: How and when did you start making music together? And when did it get serious and you wanted to release it as Supermodel? JOE CONNOR: I’d been trying to write another sad folk album (after my first one in 2017), but I was really uninspired. I just wasn't that sad anymore. I started messing around with synths and drums to find a new sound. Emile, I think, was doing a similar exercise, just exploring music that chimed with a kind of post-Brexit decay we both felt. We started passing tracks back and forth and out of that, we got one of our first releases, Have You Forgot. It was a miracle process and we decided to keep going with it.&nbsp;EMILE RAFAEL: Yes, it was Covid and we all were at home and not being able to shoot and we were depressed along with everyone else (I actually secretly enjoyed the lack of any FOMO).&nbsp;This is when I got a few dusty synths out and started working on some sketches. I was a big fan of Joe’s music already. I spent a whole job in Toronto once listening to it on repeat. We had a few chats and then I sent him one of the music ideas and the lyrics that came back were just so right. Then a friend of ours, Steve Spiro liked it and decided to release it on his small label. And suddenly we thought to ourselves: wow, is this thing real? Can it become serious?&nbsp;Then we were at a film party and Joe said “What about SUPERMODEL as a name?” and I said 'yes' right away. Two hours later at the same party I was telling people how I’m in a band called Supermodel.&nbsp;But we still have no memory of how we actually met.&nbsp;JC: I think Sing J Lee introduced us….but then, I can't really remember.[imgtoken data:2]&nbsp;Now you’ve made a video for Push, as a directing collaboration. What was the process? Did you come up with the idea together - and did that happen after the song was completed?JC: Emile actually came up with the concept. I thought he was mad. Turns out he is mad. He had the idea of setting the track to a seance, and we just developed the video from there.We both worked on the styling, casting, and storyboarding together - and then the shoot day was unique. I have a different approach to Emile, I like to plan like crazy and then have the space to improvise. Emile, quite rightly, likes to plan and then follow the plan. I can’t blame him. I blame myself.&nbsp;ER: Yes, the song was done, and we knew this was the big one. Co-directing I think was a big interesting event for both of us. I mean Joe is the insane one. It’s like dealing with pure creative chaos to my very intense focus.&nbsp;In music we both occupy a bit of our own space that sometimes intersects. In directing we realized we are very similar in our taste, but we get there in a very different way. I think we learned a lot from each other while seriously putting each other on edge a few times. I think you can definitely feel that in the video and it needed that intensity.It’s a very abstract and dreamlike narrative. How would you explain the story? How does it relate to the song?ER: I had an idea for a bit about a séance after seeing some very old pictures of people with ectoplasm and glowing things. It was all very early manipulation of photography that must have been incredibly hard to pull off. Or was it?&nbsp;&nbsp;[imgtoken data:3]<blockquote>Creating visuals for our own music...&nbsp;makes total sense. We’re building the whole world.</blockquote>But once we started developing a story I think we injected a lot of things for both of us. For me it’s a story about grief. The main character comes to the séance&nbsp;to try to reconnect with her lover that died in an accident that they’ve been in together. And so is everyone else, trying to connect to people that are gone. And then in this ritual she gains a sense of power over her grief, or at least let’s go in some way letting go. The hugging is all of them giving each other comfort.&nbsp;How does it relate to the song? What’s the song about Joe, again?JC: The song is about being stuck. Grief is a pretty apt vehicle to explore stasis. Stuck in a rut, stuck in stasis, stuck in-between places. I think we've all experienced that post-2020.&nbsp;It looks amazing - a big expensive production. So how did you pull it off? Where (and when) did you shoot it? JC : We’ve both been in the industry long enough that all our friends happen to be exceptionally talented. The technical crew on this film is a list of close collaborators, friends and family who all gave their time to help us realize this vision. We were really proud of what we managed to achieve with the resources we have.Which I must also say, shout out to Agile, Arts &amp; Sciences and Rogue (our respective representatives) who got behind the project and helped us realize it, and in the case of Agile Studio and Agile Post, really gave a lot of time and love to finish the project off.&nbsp;ER: It was mostly me telling Joe “watch me make this happen” and then not taking no for an answer from everyone.&nbsp;JC: You took a lot of ‘no’s’ but…I applaud you.[imgtoken data:4]You’re both solo directors, so what was it like to co-direct this? Did you divide responsibility, so Joe in charge of one aspect and Emile another, or just went all-in collab on everything?JC: We did a bit of both. Obviously, our working practices are different, but the reason we collaborate on music is they kind of complement each other. We can both direct, produce, post-produce, write&nbsp;and compose. So for each project, we divide and conquer some elements and collaborate on others. So in the instance of Push, Emile really led the producing, and budgeting. While I&nbsp;swaggered around drinking coffee and dancing with the cast.&nbsp;Co-directing isn't something I've ever thought about. But in the case of creating visuals for our own music with Supermodel, it makes total sense. We’re building the whole world.&nbsp; ER: I agree, I put this whole thing together and it was very nice for Joe to grace us with his presence on the day. In all seriousness it was nice that at least he wasn’t on his phone the whole time.&nbsp;JC: Let's be honest, I make this whole thing look and sound great.&nbsp;&nbsp;ER: You do. The biggest reason I’ve plunged into this with you.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Emile Rafael

Joe Connor

Matouš Marcinko

Alžběta Novosadová

Michal Babinec

Liv Ay

Trim Editing

Noreen Khan

Kristina Tukan

Tereza Kopecka

Phil Noiraude

Matěj Kos

Matěj Bláhovec

Filip Kettner

Jirka Vrana

Daniel Vagenknecht

Arwa Salmanova

Agile Studio

David Horsburgh

Oksana Steblyk

Izaak Buffin

Tom Mangham

Black Kite Studios

Jade Denne

Agile Films

Arts & Sciences

Alexa Haywood at Free Agent UK

Supermodel 'Push' by Joe Connor and Emile Rafael

SUPERMODEL - PUSH (Official Video)

The <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3n1n2G7KP3TmQl3oDjd7Bm?si=ffd1d66e80504889&amp;nd=1" target="_blank">latest episode of The Promonews Podcast</a> has just been released, with&nbsp;David and Rob of Promonews in conversation with one of the UK's leading music video directors - Joe Connor.In a&nbsp;career now spanning more than a decade, Connor&nbsp;has directed videos for an eclectic range of artists, and consistently challenged himself to break new ground - even when working with big names, like Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, and in his latest video for Ellie Goulding.In a wide-ranging conversation he talks about his path to directing, from growing up in Warrington, going to drama school in London - after an accidental interview - and forming his own theatre company; and learning to love film through a job as a cinema projectionist.&nbsp;Then his breakthrough with first promos&nbsp;for the likes of Band of Skulls and Feeder, to his groundbreaking videos for The Maccabees, filming in Myanmar for Elbow, to his poignant video for Coldplay that almost failed to see the light of day.On the Promonews Podcast - produced in association with&nbsp;<a href="https://looptalent.co.uk/" target="_blank">Loop Talent</a> - Joe Connor also explains&nbsp;how he explores the boundaries of technology with his Like A Saviour video for Ellie Goulding, by creating a desert in the virtual production studio. Very Mandalorian.<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/3n1n2G7KP3TmQl3oDjd7Bm?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius:12px" width="100%"></iframe>This is the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/7xlA6GsQtJfhtUsxNYiFYz" target="_blank">The Promonews Podcast: Talking Music Videos</a>. The past year has seen the Podcast interview a range of creatives who are active making music videos right now,&nbsp;including Charlie Sarsfield, Noel Paul and Ali Kurr.&nbsp;Recent interviewees include Aoife McArdle discussing her path from music video director to director and producer on Apple TV+ show&nbsp;Severance; and pioneering music video&nbsp;director Andy Morahan talking about working&nbsp;with Guns 'n Roses, on the 30th anniversary of his legendary video for November Rain.Other Promonews Podcast interviewees in the past year or so include KC Locke, Sam Brown,&nbsp;Rick Joaquim, Milo Blake,&nbsp;Sophia Ray &amp; Mayling Wong, Fred Rowson, Nathan James Tettey,&nbsp;Kasper Haggstrom, Olivia Rose and Sam Davey.• Listen to&nbsp;The Promonews Podcast&nbsp;with Joe Connor on&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3n1n2G7KP3TmQl3oDjd7Bm?si=ffd1d66e80504889&amp;nd=1" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and other platforms.

The Promonews Podcast: new episode with Joe Connor out now!

Following her music videos for All The Good Times and title track Big Time,&nbsp;Kimberly Stuckwisch's short film to accompany Angel Olsen's new album tells the whole story - and features a dynamic performance from the singer-songwriter.The storyline for the short film - also called Big Time -&nbsp;was inspired by a dream Olsen had about time travel shortly after her mother's death. The videos for All The Good Times and Big Time are accommodated within its structure, with their contrasting styles brought together&nbsp;into a coherent whole.[imgtoken data:1]As Olsen's attempt at escape a failing relationship via a road trip hits the buffers, she descends to the dreamworld of a bar where time travel is possible, and time itself is fluid. The linking device is a lightbox she carries around with her. It&nbsp;then becomes the focal point in the third part of the film, for the song Through The Fire.The piece is punctuated throughout by phone conversations and recordings - including a real answerphone message from Olsen's late mother. It's a device through which the director and artist articulate the weight of&nbsp;life's most important relationships. And not for the first time, Angel Olsen carries these emotional issues with a compelling screen performance. She is not only an excellent&nbsp;singer-songwriter - and these three songs are powerful -&nbsp;but also a proper actor.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:2]"When I approached Kimberly Stuckwisch about making these videos, I thought it would be cool to include the storyline of one of the dreams I’d had, and really use it as a way to tell the story of the songs," Olsen explains.&nbsp;"Kimberly&nbsp;added dialogue and events to create a story arc around my dream, to give it a thicker plot, using the music videos within and creating a larger film."The themes of love, loss and processing one's past are aspects that really appealed to Stuckwisch in the preparation and making of the film.[imgtoken data:3]&nbsp;"It's a story that targets deep-rooted complexities," says&nbsp;Stuckwisch.&nbsp;"Such as how our unconscious deals with repressed sexual identity, the hardships of letting go of our past selves in order to step into self-actualization, and the guilt we hold when dealing with loss."For one reason or another, we all have parts of ourselves that we struggle to forgive as well as a part of ourselves we are afraid of exploring or that we think society won’t like—so we push those parts down into our unconscious psyches, into the shadows. This is the story of drowning in those fears before releasing your light."

United States

Abel Ryan

Kimberly Stuckwisch

Brianna Goldberg

Ian Blair

Invisible Inc

Joel Gill

Justin Hamilton

Christian Stavros

Alec Schiff

Jose Espinoza

Tyler Osika

Norrie Palmer

Monika Felice Smith

Leticia Llesmin

Ellis Bahl

Matt Mitchener

Good Boy Wally

Kaitlyn Battistelli

Johnny Chew

Ethos Studio

Indie

Singer-songwriter

Angel Olsen 'Big Time' (short film) by Kimberly Stuckwisch

Angel Olsen - Big Time Film

We spoke to Joe Connor about how he came to work with Japanese superstar Hikaru Utada, how they bonded over their&nbsp;shared love of the works of Carl Jung - and why he flooded the music video shoot for Bad Mode.Joe Connor has worked with numerous big artists - The Rolling Stones, Rag 'N Bone Man, Biffy Clyro, Mumford &amp; Sons, to name a few. But it still came as something as a surprise that Connor's latest video is for a Japanese pop legend.Hikaru Utada certainly has that status, the American-Japanese singer-songwriter being a huge star in Japan since the Nineties. But she indeed turned to Connor to help launch her latest album Bad Mode with the video for the album's title track. The result is a sumptuous performance video&nbsp;with a surprising twist.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In one of several performance set-ups, a&nbsp;reflective Hikaru contemplates a new love affair while she sits&nbsp;waiting&nbsp;in a taxi rank&nbsp;- which is then flooded, and transformed into a pool, seemingly when the fishtank in the office overflows.[vidtoken data:0]With cinematography by Alex Jamin, and production design by Luke Moran-Morris, the look of the video is as glamourous&nbsp;as befits an artist of this stature. But Moran-Morris's production design&nbsp;is also ingenious: he built the main set on stilts above an underwater tank, then lowered the set into the water tank at a studio in Basildon during the shoot.So we spoke to Joe Connor about the project, and how he ended up in Essex with a Japanese pop queen...&nbsp;How did the project start? Were you surprised to be asked to write a treatment for a top Japanese artist?This particular&nbsp;project came about in a very strange and unusual way. I was contacted almost out of the blue by a representative for Hikaru who wanted to know more about my process, how I work with an artist. We struck up a really good relationship and before you know it, half of Tokyo was flying out to an underwater tank in Basildon.[imgtoken data:1]Even though I hadn't worked with Hikaru before I knew she had worked with Rina [Yang, the DoP] and I'd actually randomly recommended a friend of mine to Rina, to be a lighting designer of Hikaru's tour a few years ago. So&nbsp;there were some strange connections. It must be fate.&nbsp;<blockquote>I wrote the idea thinking the room was purgatory - an inner space where the main character is stuck.&nbsp;</blockquote>How did you come up with your idea? And how does it relate to the song, Bad Mode? What sort of references did you include in your treatment?This is the first time I've written&nbsp;an idea for a track without knowing the meaning of the lyrics. I'm a lyric-focused director, not in the sense of replicating the exact meaning, but in looking behind them and finding the emotional state of the artist writing them. It was almost impossible to do that process on this, as the translation into English doesn't quite work. There are Japanese slang terms that are only really understood by those that know.[imgtoken data:2]That being said, I got a very deep feeling of someone caught in limbo, held in a space unable to move or progress forward. That feeling formed the basis of the idea; waiting for a taxi that never comes, and waiting so long the room floods. I wrote the idea thinking the room was purgatory - an inner space where the main character is stuck.When I pitched it to Hikaru I thought she'd laugh me out the room.&nbsp;But it turns out we both have the same Jung books on our respective bedside table. Once you know someone is a fan of Jung you can move ideas into a dream space without fear that it'll be too 'out there'.Hikaru is an amazingly perceptive person and we resonated really well. My interpretation of the track captured how she felt when she was writing it, and once we had that understanding it all just fell into place.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:3] Was there much communication with the artist ahead of the shoot? Did they have requests or requirements about how they wanted to video to look and how they wanted to be filmed?I had a lot of chats with Hikaru but they were more focussed around how the video needed to feel, rather then specifics regarding looks or filming style. I knew I wanted to push this video and be a bit looser with the operation then I'm used too.I love focussed and composed photography but it felt like this one was crying out for Dutch framing, handheld camerawork, and a bit more looseness. It was unusual territory for me&nbsp;but my DoP Alex Jamin, brought so much to the party that it kept me from wanting to nail everything down. It was a very free and alive project in that sense.[imgtoken data:4]<blockquote>Luke Moran Morris... really brought some A-grade execution to this project.</blockquote>Where (and when) did you shoot the video? Flooding a set is always going to be a tricky business - how did you achieve it?I knew I wanted to build the set on a water tank. I've shot at Basildon for The Maccabees and more recently with Biffy Clyro, so I know the limitations of that facility. Writing ideas for specfifc&nbsp;locations is always helpful - it allows me to know what I can achieve and still surprise people with a bit of a creative twist.I must say that working out the set, how to build it on stilts, how to light it, how to lower it was all down to the genius of Luke Moran Morris and his team. He really brought some A-grade execution to this project.&nbsp;&nbsp;[imgtoken data:5]We then shot the&nbsp;dry section&nbsp;of the video before lunch, then lowered the set over lunch and while we were shooting the other set-ups (they were partly in there to give me that buffer while the set was sunk, allowing me to keep shooting without losing time) and then once the set was submerged we shot the second half of the video.The main challenge was containing the potential for chaos. A project like this can easily spiral as water starts to flood the set. So my main consideration was keeping the focus, keeping it fun and getting what we needed in the time we had.&nbsp;• Joe Connor is based at <a href="https://www.roguefilms.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rogue Films</a>, and represented by Alexa Haywood at <a href="https://www.freeagent.uk.com/" target="_blank">Free Agent UK</a> for music videos.&nbsp;More work <a href="https://www.roguefilms.co.uk/directors-roster/joe-connor" target="_blank">here</a>.

Joe Connor on Hikaru Utada's Bad Mode: 'I had a feeling of someone caught in limbo.'

Hikaru-Utada-'Bad-Mode'-by-Joe-Connor

Hikaru Utada 'Bad Mode' by Joe Connor

It's eleven years since Sam Brown's first video for Adele. Finally, we have his second, and it was worth the wait.It was Brown's iconic video for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw" target="_blank">Rolling In The Deep</a> that kickstarted Adele's ascent to superstardom, of course. Now for Oh My God he has supercharged the elements that made that video a slow-burning masterpiece.[imgtoken data:1]Once again, a performance by Adele - now mature, so much more self-confident - is framed within a series of vignettes that represent the elements of the song. But this time these individual parts of the vision are brought together, all appearing&nbsp;within&nbsp;a single extraordinary camera movement.With the beautifully choreographed flow of characters and objects, the repetition of individuals on screen - primarily&nbsp;Adele herself - Brown has employed motion control camerawork at a level of sophistication and complexity that has been rarely achieved.But if this video is driven by it's concept, it never loses sight of the primary purpose - display the star quality of Adele. This is a stunning, virtuoso combination of&nbsp;artist performance with filmmaking skill and invention.

Sam Brown

Imperial Woodpecker

Nkem Egbuchiri

Bryan Younce

Polly Ruskin

Roman Vasyanov

Megan Lawson

Nu California

Jamie Mizrahi

Sami Knight

Anthony Nguyen

Natasha Newman-Thomas

Jenni Clark

Sam Ostrove

Cabin Edit

Electric Theatre Collective

Phil Lee

Untold Studios

Taylor James

Kimmie Kyees

Adele 'Oh My God' by Sam Brown

Adele - Oh My God (Official Video)

Joe Connor shares his powerful video for Celeste's Hear My Voice, the soundtrack of upcoming Netflix release The Trial of the Chicago 7.&nbsp;The video interweaves&nbsp;poignant moments from Aaron Sorkin's&nbsp;film - which centres upon countercultural protests in Chicago in 1968, and seven defendants accused of conspiracy by the federal government - and a handful of stunning performance vignettes.&nbsp;Celeste has tremendous&nbsp;presence on-screen, bringing a warmth and vulnerability to her performance as she traverses an empty courthouse. The use of lingering shots and crossfades allows viewers to reflect on the themes present in the concept, and strikes a perfect balance between snapshots of the film and shots of the artist.&nbsp;

MrMr

Kate Taylor

Alexa Haywood

Wayne Bentley

Aaron Reid

Brendan Harvey

Loren Filis

Damien Ansell

Semera Khan

Andrew Bainbridge

Alternative R&B

Soul

Celeste 'Hear My Voice' by Joe Connor

Celeste-'Hear-My-Voice'-by-Joe-Connor

Channel 4&#39;s work in challenging perceptions of&nbsp;disability, most notably with their coverage of the 2012&nbsp;Paralympics, reaches a new landmark with Born Risky - a new brand campaign dedicated on changing attitudes towards the disabled &ndash; and this trailblazing and spectacular video directed by Saam Farahmand.&nbsp;Step forward Viktoria Modesta, who has been billed as the world&#39;s first bionic pop artist in the brouhaha surrounding&nbsp;Saam&#39;s video for Prototype - previewed in a 40 second commercial in the final ad break of&nbsp;The&nbsp;X Factor Final&nbsp;last Sunday. And although it&#39;s likely&nbsp;the video cost much less to make than the cost of buying that super-premium ad slot&nbsp;(an estimated &pound;200K) Saam has propelled this unknown artist into a high end pop video worthy of Madonna or Lady Gaga.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In&nbsp;a Thirties-style dictatorship, Viktoria becomes the fulcrum of dissent, because of her talent and non-conformism - of which her disability symbolises. Her lower left leg is missing, so she wears a series of intriguing prosthetic limbs (designed by&nbsp;Sophie de Oliveria Barata) and radiates those elements of rebellion and sexuality&nbsp;that marks her out as a potential icon. And that&#39;s before a mesmerizing puppet-dance routine with her cone-shaped limb wielded like a super-stiletto.Arguably there is a paradox here &ndash; the artist&#39;s physical difference is celebrated at least as much as her talent - but there&#39;s&nbsp;no question Saam has now achieved what he has long threatened: made a really outstanding pure pop video.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Saam Farahmand

Kate Hitchings

Florian Hoffmeister

Tim Gibson

Joanna Hir

Jay Revell

David Stevens

The Assembly Rooms

Channel 4

Chris Bovill

Viktoria Modesta ‘Prototype’ by Saam Farahmand

Tom Haines&#39;s film for Jon Hopkins&#39; Collider has a hard act to follow, coming after&nbsp;the epic award-winning&nbsp;video for Hopkins&#39; Open Eye Signal.&nbsp;There&#39;s a similar focus on one individual, and photography once again by the redoubtable Steve Annis - who won the best cinematography award at the UKMVAs in October for his work on Open Eye Signal.&nbsp;Unlike that Aoife McArdle-directed video, this is a far more intense, internalised experience. But it&#39;s just as mesmerizing.A girl&#39;s extreme behaviour at a rave leads to her switching into an alternate reality, alone in an&nbsp;vast derelict industrial&nbsp;space. And in her increasingly frenzied state, this switches to being&nbsp;her main reality.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tom Haines

Connor Hollman

Steve Annis

Dan Sherwen

Final Cut

Aubrey Woodiwiss

Amanda Wass

John Moule

Domino

Dom Gomez

Electronica, Alternative

Jon Hopkins 'Collider' by Tom Haines

Jon Hopkins 'Collider'

Sam Brown marks his return to promo-making - it&#39;s his first since his iconic video for&nbsp;Adele&#39;s Rolling In The Deep - with this beautifully atmospheric promo&nbsp;for Strong by&nbsp;the critically-acclaimed London Grammar.Shot at the 6th Street Viaduct in Los Angeles, the video combines Sam&#39;s love of pyrotechnics set against an emotional tale about a father and his daughter and the &#39;strange and beautiful ritual that connects them together&#39;.

PJ Sodaski

Tom Farley

Charlie Crompton

Sue Yeon Ahn

Autumn Cheyenne Durald

Amanda James

Seamus O'Kane

The Mill

The Director's Bureau

Nash Edgerton

Savannah Young

Pyro Boy

Wally Glenn

OB Management

Ministry of Sound

Caroline Clayton

London Grammar 'Strong' by Sam Brown

London Grammar - 'Strong' - Directed by Sam Brown

Simple, strong, rude idea, ingeniously executed - Saam's promo video for <a href="http://www.2manydjs.com/radio/" target="_blank">Radio Soulwax</a> (Soulwax's 24hour music website-app) is fantastic. 
And, for one reason or another, couldn't help thinking about those <a href="http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/2008/11/ohio-players-album-art.html" target="_blank">Ohio Players album covers</a>...

James W

Andrew Daffy

Mikkel Hansen

Georgia Shelton

Leon Hoser

Abigail Alvarez

Shoreditch Studios

Radio Soulwax 'Machine' by Saam Farahmand

Radio-Soulwax-'Machine'-by-Saam-Farahmand

Ron Scalpello's dramatic and moving film for Mason &amp; Roisin Murphy's Boadicea portrays the tale of a young woman at the end of her tether due to the pressures of modern living. 
"Mason wanted to make a promo that conveyed all the spirit and resolve of a modern day Boadicea," says Ron. "We focussed on a single mother trying to bring up her family in tough times and how the pressures of everyday life can generate aggressive responses. We did not want to hold back and concern ourselves with the do's and don't of what a promo should do but try and make something genuinely affecting and surprising. 
"We cast two brilliant actors. Jennie Jacques (Shank, Desperate Romantics) took the lead role as she has an amazing power to convey deep world weary sadness and strong resolve. Jason Maza (Shifty) plays her wayward boyfriend struggling to cope. It works like a film as we follow our depressed heroine into her dark imagination.
"Shot in one day on the Alexa and Canon 5D in East London, with the new Olympic building over-looking us, we managed to tell a beautiful story with strong central performances. Somewhere between social realism and David Lynch fantasy, we hope the promo strikes a chord and surprises and shock as many people as possible."

Rogue Films

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