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Maëlle 'Tic Tac' by Elisa Baudoin

Rob Ulitski - 23rd Apr 2026

Paris-based director Elisa Baudoin directs an effervescent promo for French pop star Maëlle - packed with Y2K nostalgia energy. 

The video for Tic Tac - a song about desire, attraction, and the charged tension between two people - marks a bolder, more direct chapter in the career of Maëlle, winner of The Voice France aged 17 and a pop star in France ever since. And Baudoin's visual approach matches that energy beat for beat.

It's a full Windows 98 nostalgia trip. Blue Screen of Death, Explorer windows tiling multiple shots at once, MS Paint canvases, drone crosswalk footage repurposed as desktop wallpaper... The Paris-based director builds a retro aesthetic that feels anything but nostalgic for its own sake.

It's a hyper-vibrant fever dream of floating windows and textural cityscapes, blurring our reality and online lives with editorial flair. The lo-fi, mixed-media framework becomes an unexpected vehicle for the song's tension and heat.

Baudoin and Maëlle are longtime friends and collaborators, and with Baudoin also taking the lead on editing and VFX, she says that the creative constraints of the project became its defining quality.

"In music video, budget constraints have always been one of the more interesting creative drivers," explains Elisa Baudoin. "We could move fast, try things, throw them away. There's no room for overthinking when you're working like that.

"The lo-fi texture fast became the point but I really wanted it not to feel like a gimmick and I think you feel that energy in the final cut,"

Rob Ulitski - 23rd Apr 2026

Tags

  • Director's notes
  • New Director
  • Pop
  • Performance
  • IPhone
  • Lo-fi
  • Windows 98
  • Y2K
  • Nostalgia

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Elisa Baudoin
Producer
Loumir Orsoni
Production Company
Notorious Vision
Production Company
Executive Producer
Loumir Orsoni
Executive Producer
Thibaut Estellon
Production Manager
Yann Spinec

Camera

Director of Photography
Elisa Baudoin
B-Camera Operator
Florent Baudoin

Lighting/Grip

Gaffer
Manon Léauté

Art

Production designer
Arthur Deshayes

Wardrobe

Stylist
Samantha Gil
Hair
Barthélémy Joris
Make-up
Lorélene Coriton
Make Up Assist
Emma Surbled

Choreography

Choreographer
Jordan Boury

Editorial

Editor
Elisa Baudoin

Grading

Colourist
Antoine Ravache (paris)

Agent

Director's Representation
Director's Representation
Notorious

Commission

Commissioner
Elouann Kermel
Label
Barclay
Label
Universal Music France

Rob Ulitski - 23rd Apr 2026

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