Music Videos I directed for people other than my boyfriend.
For me, shooting music videos is 10,000,000% an act of love. It’s truly not worth the money because I get so involved that I LOSE FUCKING SLEEP. I’m up til 5am for WEEKS just thinking about everything that could go wrong and I spend days researching creative techniques and stressing aboout lighting set ups.
Whenever an artist trusts me with creating the visuals for their song, I take it seriously. As a musician who wasn’t properly portrayed in music videos (at no fault of the directors) I understand the importance of being, well, immortalized.. properly.
I turn everything down. $10,000 budget but I don’t love the song? Nah. 1,000,000 followers but I don’t relate to the artist? Pass. Sorry. Oh you want a bunch of half naked girls in your video? Maybe someone else can shoot it… here’s some phone numbers.
I only work with people whose music holds a special place in my heart and I wanted to make a post to shine a light on some incredible songs… and the work I put into them.
Brandon Hart - Dreams
Brandon has been Tom’s best friend for 10 years. He was there EVERY TIME Tom needed a friend, a place to crash or a couple bucks for smokes. Without him I might not have Tom today. So a couple years ago when he was feeling a bit down about his music career I told Tom.. “If he comes to LA I will work for a solid week for him for free.”
So he did… And he showed up with their mutual bestie Dex as surprise. I love this video, and the song completely tears me up, because it was about EXACTLY what we were going through…. leaving behind our old lives and building our new ones, closer and closer to our dreams.
Chuxx Morris - Wicked Ways
Charles stepped in when I needed a guitar player to fill out my band for a cross Canada tour with All Time Low. He was great vibes the entire time, and we didn’t have time to rehearse before we left so we had to plug in all our gear and figure out the songs in a moving RV. Every fucking time we switched a lane, we’d have to reach out to stop pedal boards and amps from crashing to their doom, without missing a beat or a word.
When he sent me this song I KNEW i had to be a part of the video. We drove out to an abandoned town and spent the whole day fucking around in dilapidated buildings full of asbestos and looking for cool shots - my favorite type of video shoot - completely Run n Gun.
Stalgia - BDY
Stalgia signed to the same record label that signed me and I fell in looooove with their music and wanted to help. I saw a girl that I wanted to succeed and I wanted to do anything that I could to help it happen - even if it meant spending the entire budget they gave me on the actual music video. Who needs to eat?
Fun fact: the “underwater” shots were shot in a fish tank in my front yard on a busy intersection in South Central, LOL. We heated up pot after pot of water on my stove for hours to fill up the 80 gallon tank so she wouldn’t freeze to death.
Anyways, I hope you found a new artist that you love - let me know what you think in the comments below!
-Nova