Liam Pethick and Nic Minns collaborate to direct a thrillingly energetic promo for the stellar team-up of Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran.The video for Repeat It spans a series of docu-style vignettes and big stage shows, and also incorporating historical footage of the artists to build a celebration of their respective careers and an eventual collaboration.It's a visual that benefits hugely from the long working relationship that Pethick has developed with Ed Sheeran, filming him in numerous situations, over the past few years."The brief from Ed and Martin was simple: start with their reunion in Santiago and trace their lives backwards over the last 10 years until we arrive at where the song first began," he explains. "From the start, Nic and I wanted to reimagine what an archival music video could feel like; not something purely historical, but something alive and intimate. That led us to build the visual language around split screens, archival textures, and tactile flat-lay moments, almost like flicking through a museum of their lives together, while using carefully matched movement and compositions to draw parallels between their worlds and connect the two stories visually."A big part of making it work was leaning into the natural chemistry between the pair. Having worked with Ed for years, there was already a level of trust and understanding there that allowed us to capture moments that felt genuine rather than overly directed."Pulling together a decade of archive was a massive undertaking (combined with flat-lay shoots at the artists’ homes, two intense days filming in Santiago, long editing days, and an all-nighter to deliver the film the day after the show) but it became one of those projects where the chaos, collaboration, and commitment from everyone involved all aligned in the best way possible. Huge credit to Dan Matthews, Lewis Jones, and the wider team for absolutely slogging it out with us on this one."A vibrant, stirring promo for two of the world's biggest music acts, and a great watch.

Olivia Rodrigo has brought esteemed director Cat Solen back to music videos, to work with her creative director Jaime Gerin on a beautifully handcrafted, mixed-media video for ‘the cure’.In fact, the dazzling promo featuring a cardboard hospital and stop-animated wool-yarn brings Solen full circle, to where it all started for her.The video finds Rodrigo in the starched uniform of a mid-century nurse, in the hallways of this old-fashioned hospital. She is in a cycle of unhappiness, experimenting on blackened hearts and enduring spells of unraveling, the wool that issues from her body quaintly yet disturbingly resembling spurts of blood.Blending live action with tactile art direction, stop motion and VFX, this a breathtakingly singular vision, which originated with Gerin's original idea and drawings.The recruitment of Solen, the director of hugely imaginative yet sensitive videos for the likes of Bright Eyes and CSS in the Noughties, and more recently for Tierra Whack - often incorporating animation with live action in the process - is a something of a masterstroke. As a result, the video feels like a breath of fresh air for Olivia Rodrigo."When asked if I wanted to work with Olivia, I probably said 'of course!' before they finished the sentence," says Cat Solen. "What I couldn't have anticipated was how immediately I connected to Jaime's concept and boards."I'd started my career with a fully embroidered stop-motion video for Bright Eyes in 2002, and here I was, nearly 25 years later, being asked to pick up thread and yarn again for a gorgeous, heartbreaking mixed-media concept for one of the biggest pop stars in the world."One of my favorite things about directing is collaborating with a writer on a concept that sounds impossibly surreal, and Jaime's was full of that. When I met her, I immediately thought she was fantastic, funny, and sharp. The video was complicated - which made it challenging - but working with Jaime made it fun and exciting the whole way through.”A real feat of traditional handcraft meeting contemporary technology, and totally absorbing throughout.

Lillie Eiger directs a stripped-back and intense performance promo for rising pop star Chloe Qisha. The visual for Surprise, Surprise is shot in lingering takes, and the camera effectively takes the role of the boy that she is addressing in the song.It starts with Chloe in close, as if they are in intimate conversation. As her frustration grows, she moves further from the camera. Then as the track progresses, frantic movement and an inspired move from monochrome to colour matches the build in momentum.Eiger has directed several Chloe videos - including for Sex, Drugs & Existential Dread - as well as working with her as creative director. This is an absorbing, no-frills addition to a growing body of work.

Ruben Do Valle reunites with Bárbara Bandeira for a strikingly cinematic vision where the Portuguese pop singer explores her roots and takes part in a spectacular ceremony - to become un-wedded.Following the director's video for Marcha, which focusses upon the tension between tradition and change in modern Portugal, his film for Mau Olhado addresses new themes - superstition, fate, obsession and the impossibility of emotional closure - through a symbolic narrative and highly impressive visual setpieces.Bárbara Bandeira's performance of Mau Olhado (which translates as Evil Eye) again explores the clash between old and new, as a 1930s car brings her to a old-world university and within the scope of her lover. Bandeira brings pop star charisma to the piece with a dance routine interrupting the narrative.The climactic 'unwedding' ritual is almost Bergmanesque in its drama and setting: a priest-like figure, played by veteran actor José Raposo, officiates at a ceremony amid a crowd of robed onlookers on black rocks on the Portuguese coastline, establishing a highly dramatic atmosphere.Shot on 35mm film, in locations such as the Bugio lighthouse and the historic University of Coimbra, the narrative blends religious and folkloric imagery with a raw, tactile visual language. It juxtaposes isolation, ritual and Portuguese cultural identity with a contemporary pop sensibility. Very striking and impressive work indeed.