Matthew Grass directs a poignant reflection on lost love for UK indie band The Manatees, featuring actor Abigail Lawrie. In the video for Better Way To Think Of It, the director presents the idyllic summer's day out of a young couple, played by Lawrie and Manatees lead singer Jay, where despite their chemistry and mutual attraction, the spark of true romance is elusive. The narrative elements are interwoven into an emotionally-charged performance, all presented in a warmly nostalgic aesthetic punctuated by a summery colour palette and scenic coastal location."Better Way To Think Of It is the summation of 'right place, wrong time'," says Grass. "The song delves into the complexities experienced in a relationship strained by distance. The music video presents the next page of the story. It focuses on the scars left behind from relationships and the dichotomy of the healing process."On one hand we can get caught living in the past and letting it control us; on the other, we find peace with the memories that were created."

Caroline Hajny directs a live reimagining of rising artist Chinchilla's viral hit Little Girl Gone, with an inspired, fantastical aesthetic that blends Tim Burton-esque surreality with a minimalist studio location. Chinchilla take the energetic, unabashed performance seen in the video and repurposes it into something magical - yet still just as powerful."With the live version we wanted to tap into the darker side of the track," says Hajny. "We chose the single take approach to let Chinchilla's incredible voice speak for itself, the opera-style backing vocals playing further into the dangerous, do-not-fuck-with-me atmosphere of the track."

Sarah Dattani Tucker directs an atmospheric video for Puma Blue which sees the artist - real name Jacob Allen - running away from a mysterious force.The gritty monochromatic promo for Dream Of You is captured in a single shot, filmed at dusk, from a low angle body rig attached to Allen as he moves across a beach, attempting to evade this force. And it turns out with good reason: when the silhouetted character finally catches up with him, we realise he is in the unmistakeable clutch of Death. It's a stirring vision, and one that comes with a lot of subtext to unpack. Whilst the details of what are going on are left quite abstract, the overall concept explores acceptance in a beautifully rich way. "Jacob had this idea about running away from Death until Death eventually catches up with him," says Sarah Dattani Tucker. "I wanted to create a visual that evokes a dreaminess in the narrative and the song. The angle, rig and frame-rate we chose to capture the running were all designed to create a sense of lucid dreaming, a consciousness in a dream state, forcing a movement that feels slow and unavailable."The moment the camera spins around Jacob is an exploration of this dreamlike environment, adding unexpected movement in the one shot video to capture the surreal-ness of it - like in Enter The Void when the camera POV almost becomes its own character.""This is one of my favourite videos we’ve ever done," says Allen. "I’m always trying to say more with less, but it’s much harder in practice than in theory. Working with Sarah and her team was such a positive experience, everyone was so sweet to each other during this tempestuous, coastal downpour as we were losing light and Mia Gill chased me up and down the grey dunes as Death."This video hurt a lot. Physically, the rig was heavy enough that I had bruises on my ribs and sides the next day; everyone was shivering and soaked through by the end of the night. But I also experienced a painful loss when I returned home, and seeing the video back for the first time brought me to tears. It was almost too real."

A family day out at the beach and a rock band on an airplane meet in a shocking but awe-inspiring way, in The Reids' ambitious promo for South London experimental rock band Legss. The video for Daddy There's Sand In The Sandwiches is a tour de force of creativity, and despite the budget limitations presents an exciting, character-led narrative with moments of poignancy and introspection. To say much more would give it away, but the textural, monchromatic style and VFX flair create a unique aesthetic reminiscent of midcentury cinema, and the brother directing team's dedication to the concept helps bring to life something that far exceeds the budget. With the plane interiors filmed on a vintage VC-10 aircraft at Brooklands Museum, this is really impressive work to follow up The Reids' fine brace of recent videos with Mura Masa.

Tom Hingston directs a stirring live performance promo for Young Fathers. The director's latest collaboration with the group was launched ahead of the trio’s Glastonbury performance and in support of Amnesty International's Refugee Week. The slick edit intercuts lilting wide shots and frenetic close-ups to create a dynamic and lively vibe, whilst the atmospheric cinematography lends an enigmatic energy to the concept. The full project features tracks I Saw, Rice, and Geronimo - and the full video can be accessed by donating via the Young Fathers' Bandcamp page.

Roisino directs a colourful and charismatic video for alternative indie-pop artist SOFY. Featuring a tongue-in-cheek montage of cringey rom-com tropes, the video sees SOFY declare love with a boombox, take a romantic bike ride and even hold giant cue cards - like in that Richard Curtis movie - to impress the one she loves. The stylised, summery vibe and graffiti backdrops lean in to the nostalgic tone of the concept, and showcases Roisino's ability to tailor the perfect narrative for a switched-on Gen Z audience.

Sally Potter, one of the UK's most cherished filmmakers, has now made a detour into music, recording her debut studio album called Pink Bikini, to be released on July 14th. And Potter has also directed the music video for the first track released from the album, Black Mascara - featuring the director now, and playing her younger self.The album is described as a semi-autobiographical collection of songs, about growing up female in London in the 1960s. Potter - the director of acclaimed movies such as Orlando and Ginger & Rosa - captures the era with a single set-up in the Black Mascara video: Potter spinning a hula-hoop, facing the old brick wall of a railway arch, joined by two acrobats - adding a touch of Fellini-esque whimsy to the grim, gritty postwar aesthetic - and a second Potter, talking to her 'teenage' self. Potter also appears as the narrator of the song's tale of teenage rebellion and naivety, overlaid across this evocative set-up. And she comments that the making of the video also took her back to her earliest days as a filmmaker.The need to invent and imagine things out of nothing became part of a philosophy that I later named ‘barefoot filmmaking’. "Black Mascara was one of the earliest tracks I wrote for Pink Bikini, an album of songs based on a look back over my shoulder to the despairs and longings of my turbulent teenage years; a time of change: the end of childhood, the beginning of life as an adult."Making the video was a different kind of return. It needed to be made in the way I made films when I first started out as a teenager. Back then I had no money, training or equipment. The need to invent and imagine things out of nothing became part of a philosophy that I later named ‘barefoot filmmaking’. It meant working with minimal means, borrowing gear and working with the goodwill and energy of a few beloved friends and co-conspirators. Under those circumstances, the propelling idea was everything."For the video I split myself into three; a narrator who looked out at the viewer through the lens; a second self, singing to another self who – for no apparent reason – is facing a wall whilst spinning a hula hoop around her waist. Circles within circles."I filmed myself singing to camera, using my iPhone, against a homemade blue screen. Then I searched for a location in which it might be possible to shoot at night without any additional light. I found a murky archway under a railway, the stained brickwork probably unchanged since my teenage years. And finally, some acrobats, echoing the circular nature of it all – spinning, flipping, then as now."The great Robbie Ryan stepped in to shoot, a skeleton Adventure Pictures team with a tiny crew of recent NFTS graduates generously did everything else on the night and the spirit of the shoot was joyfully consistent with Barefoot filmmaking and a feeling of beginning."

Peter Haueis directs an offbeat black and white film for German cinematic music project The Offline, imbued with the experimental spirit of New Wave and No Wave cinema. Haueis helms an absorbing piece of purist old school cinema - with elements of absurd humour, film noir, and silent comedy - for the jazzy instrumental La Mission Commence, set on a deserted beach. Felix Müller - the composer and photographer behind The Offline - lands ashore and begins to get in the mood to be creative. But he's dogged by an annoying trilby-wearing nemesis, who appears in the dunes to dog his every move. Müller conceived the idea for The Offline, updating film score music of the 60s and 70s, whilst travelling on Atlantic coastline in the south of France with his film camera, capturing beach life on film. He returned to Hamburg and began started writing songs as the sonic counterpart to the analogue visuals.“Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, and I always wanted to make an album in the film score direction," Müller has said. "I wrote about 30 demos, kicked half of it and stuck to the ones that felt right in the dramaturgical structure of the ‘movie'. Interestingly the main theme was set really early on while writing the album, which made the writing process much easier.”In effect, Müller has composed a soundtrack for a movie that was never made. And now he and Haueis have starting making that movie...