Project timeline: 2022 · video publication year. Published as a retrospective on 23 October 2026.
Shisha and Chill takes this look back to a video published in 2022. Brandon Baine is the artist, I directed, and Arian Romal is credited for music and production. Revisiting the project matters to me because my work did not begin with the newer titles people may recognise from the website today.
Each artist brings a different presence, and I want to be able to respond to that. A director can have preferences without making every performance look interchangeable. What I am interested in is the point where the track and the person suggest a visual attitude that feels particular to them.
The people within the picture
A performer does not need to be constantly moving to command attention. Presence can come from timing, stillness or the way someone relates to the camera. The director needs to recognise what is useful in that presence and build around it. Asking every artist to perform in the same way would make the work less specific.
For me, the question is how the images can support the artist without becoming predictable. Familiarity has a place in a music video, particularly when an audience returns to it, but a familiar structure still needs choices that belong to this particular performance. A coherent attitude is stronger than a series of disconnected attempts at impact.
The music is already offering energy and rhythm. I want the visual work to understand that offer rather than compete with it at every moment. Sometimes a cut can reinforce a change; sometimes holding the image can make the performer feel more assured. Neither approach is automatically right without reference to the song.
The producer's contribution is also part of that relationship. A video is made within a collaboration that has its own practical and creative needs. I want the account of my directing work to recognise the people who make the track and the production possible, instead of making the whole project sound like a single-person achievement.
Looking back across several years of music-video work, I see the value of learning how much an image needs to do. There is a temptation to keep adding visual information, especially when the form is short. I am increasingly interested in whether the information strengthens the identity or simply fills the screen.
I want this earlier work to have its place in the journal because it is part of the development, not simply a title to list. Looking back gives me a reason to ask what I keep learning: how to make a performer feel at home in a visual idea and how to know when an image is doing enough.
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