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,"

A Y2K-fired performance promo for UK girl group STARLINGS - directed by bandmembers Pixie-Fleur Middleton and Gaby Farrenkothen. The video for Kairos features nostalgic elements inspired by the Frutiger Metro aesthetic, and dazzling Y2K imagery inspired by the renaissance of the Nintendo DS and Just Dance. Blending lo-fi footage with fun choreography and console overlays, it's a great introduction to the group, with plenty of fun visual moments.

Archie Erskine directs a vibrant lo-fi promo for self-produced songstress Ledbyher. The video for Big Wish features a blend of Y2K aesthetics and strong, textural overlays, creating a charming and anachronistic style. An impressive, understated feat, it's a perfect match to the track and a testament to creative experimentation. It's hard work to create era-specific visuals, and Erskine has knocked it out the park with this one."At the heart of the concept is a younger version of Ledbyher flicking through TV channels, only to see her older self living out a series of 'big wishes' - visions of possible futures filled with both triumph and tension," explains Erskine."For this piece, I knew we had to lean into nostalgia to really capture the emotion we were after. So we drew inspiration from early 2000s aesthetics, using specific lenses, costumes, color palettes, and a mix of camera formats to transport viewers back in time."Of course, everything truly came together in the edit. From day one, I had a clear vision of how the timeline needed to flow: fast-paced but intentional, cinematic yet grounded. We layered in tasteful visual effects from 2D and 3D animations, to time-warping transitions, A.I.-driven set extensions, and many more that add to the most important part to me… world building. The result is a video that lives in its own universe."BIG WISH is a special project - not just because of the creative freedom, but because of the trust LedbyHer placed in me to bring her vision to life. The video premiered on my own platform, GlobalNotLocal, which continues to be a home for boundary-pushing work."