videoTom Grennan 'Here' by Sayna FardaraghiThe full spectrum of human emotion is on display in a small photobooth, in Sayna Fardaraghi's evocative promo for Tom Grennan. The video for Grennan's Here sees the pop star as a DIY handyman, fixing and sorting out an aging photobooth, as a variety of different characters enter and exit, each with their own stories and purpose.There are romantic couples, friends, strangers, self-conscious prom queens, robbers... each taking centre stage in their own stylised vignettes. With energy and emotion packed into the concept - all tied together by several quickfire montages of still images, which expand upon the characters - this is an impressive debut pop video by Sayna Fardaraghi, who recently signed to Forever."I've always wanted to create an intimate connection between complete strangers through shared memories, moments and experiences," says Fardaraghi. "A photobooth became the perfect microcosm for that for me. It's something so simple yet so effective and hasn't been often explored cinematically."The photobooth in the music video is a room that experiences the good, the vulnerable, and sometimes the bad. It's that ephemeral moment that we've all had at some point in our lives, and bringing that to the screen accompanied by Tom's incredible song, his energy and the array of featured talent has been a pleasure to work with. "I couldn't have asked for a better array of talent and crew to bring this to life. It brought so many folks together and was packed with beautiful on-camera surprises."When I spoke to Tom we discussed how it should be a range of scenarios and emotions that are more real than fictional, exploring more dark moments and not just all light and frivolous. I went through the scenarios I had in mind and made sure they're all at some point relatable and 'real life' than pure fiction and otherworldly."One of my favourite parts came when discussing the development of the peak of the song with my DOP Charlie Knight. We spoke about how integral the photobooth flash needed to be, and went through a series of tests with different bulbs to find the perfect one - I mean perfect colour, brightness intensity, flash size, etc. My goodness was it so worth it! "The trickiest part was the peak of the song and aligning the images as closely as possible. If you freeze on the hands you'll find that the next frame matches it as closely as possible, but still shows a different moment frozen in time. This took a long while to perfect, but truly has paid off and is such an integral part of the music video. Big thanks to Toby Heard our editor who was a dream to work with!"
Rob Ulitski - 7th Feb 2023