- I don't normally say this about my work
but I'm obsessed with this video.
- Yeah, it's beautiful.
- Like, it like,
It's so beautiful and she just
looks insane, like, I love it
(upbeat music)
- [Gaby] What do Ariana
Grande, Demi Lovato,
and Nicki Minaj all have in common
besides dominating the pop charts?
They all love working with music
video director Hannah Lux Davis.
While there's no shortage of
female performing artists,
there's a serious lack of
women in behind-the-scenes
leadership roles, both
in film and in music.
But even with the numbers
stacked against them,
female music video directors
and the artists who hire them
are tackling this chasm of representation
one project at a time.
(engine revs)
Hannah let me shadow her
for a day to get a glimpse
in to her process and what
it is about her methods
that's made her the go-to director
for some of the most
powerful names in pop.
Her workday starts at seven a.m.
at the same exclusive
L.A. gym that Nick Jonas
and Sylvester Stallone go to.
- [Gaby] So what are you aiming to today?
- I think today, it
looks like it's back day.
I dunno, I think we're doing a pulling.
- Okay.
- [Both] Let's do it.
- [Gaby] As a music video director,
it's merely impossible for
Hannah to predict exactly
how any given workday will go.
Between Treatments, location
scouts, shoots, and edits,
her job could have her glued to a computer
or spending her entire day on her feet.
Plus, Hannah was also recently tapped
to direct her first documentary.
An intimate and revealing
look at the making
of Demi Lovato's sixth studio album.
For Hannah, starting every
morning at the gym gives her
at least one constant, consistent thing.
- Something I also think of when I'm here,
sometimes is work, can be,
like so, so, so, so hard.
- Specifically the Demi doc,
when I was thinking this,
I was like, this is the hardest thing
I've ever done in my entire life.
And so it makes every workout easier.
You know what I mean?
- This is so much easier than doing it.
- Yeah, than doing work.
(upbeat music)
The best part about working
out is the shake afterwards.
Work out for the shake
- Cool.
- Cool. Time to go home.
- You met Demi here, right?
- I met Demi here, yeah,
oh I didn't meet her here.
I worked with her once before.
I'd done Cool for the
Summer, I saw her here,
and I was like, oh, I wonder
if she's gonna remember me.
- Even though you directed
that entire music video.
- 'Cause you never know.
And so then we started boxing together
and then we maintained
a bit of a relationship
which led to other
work, and, the Demi doc.
- Right, the Demi doc,
let's not play that down
'cause that's a huge feat.
Well thanks for letting me in
on in this part of the day.
- Yeah did you have fun?
- Where do we go next?
- I have a lot of stuff
to sort of catch up on.
I have VFX notes to do for a Halsey video.
And I'm, so we'll be looking at that today
and I have to do a Treatment
update for Ann-Marie
and then we have to put a budget
together for a Riddleworth video.
- Cool, that's a lot of stuff.
- Yeah, and I still don't
know if I'm scouting today.
- Yeah, well we'll see what happens.
- Yeah, hopefully we can
have a lot of fun though.
- Cool.
- [Both] Cheers.
- [Gaby] As the faces of pop music change
and gain more independent
creative control,
the more important
female directors become.
Pop music has a history of
commodifying young women's bodies
and music videos and play a
huge part in that narrative.
So it makes sense that
today's outspoken feminist
pop stars would appreciate Hannah's eye.
With Hannah, they know
they own their sexuality,
their bodies, and their art.
- I grew up in the heyday of music videos.
I would race home from
school and watch TRL,
like I was, that was me as a kid.
- Making a video, probably.
- Making a video, oh my God,
it's so cool now to go back
and look at those making the videos,
like on YouTube.
- As a professional.
That will be like, this was a mess.
- I'm like, you had two
days, aren't you lucky?
So I was obsessed with the
Britney, Christina, Avril,
*NYSNC, Backstreet Boys, pop music videos.
When there was a big
budget, I was into it.
They just looked so fun
and still to this day,
I'm actually watching dance music videos,
like Britney's Slave 4 U.
I love to make women to just feel like,
I'm not gonna be like, hey let's make
a really sexy setup for you
and put you in something sexy.
It's really like, how do
they feel, like I want them
to feel confident and look
like they're having fun.
And I feel like if they're
having a good time on set
and they feel really
comfortable in their own skin,
and put them in an environment
to really let them shine.
- [Gaby] At MTV's own Video Music Awards,
only 11 women have been
nominated in the best direction
category over the show's
33 years in existence.
Only three women have ever won.
That lack of recognition
for female directors,
due in part to a lack of
opportunities in the first place,
seems to reflect biases people have
about women and leadership roles.
But the thing about biases is,
they're rooted in prejudice, not truth.
In order for Hannah to be
securing video after video
with the biggest names in pop,
she's gotta be able to deliver
both in vision and execution.
Which means leading teams in all aspects
of the video making process.
- Okay, so we're gonna go over
some of the Halsey post-process.
- Awesome.
This is for Alone?
- Yeah, this is for Alone featuring
Big Sean and Stefflon Don.
Right now we're looking at
beauty effects, color notes,
and just sort of like
doing some final touches
before we deliver in a day or so.
- Cool.
- So yeah, let's have a seat.
- So when you do this,
do you just go frame by frame,
- Yeah.
- By frame?
How long does that process usually take?
- It depends on the video,
but usually a little while,
I mean, let's say at least an hour
to sorta go through everything.
It's crazy how your focus can shift
to notice one thing at a time.
For example when I'm editing,
I don't really pay
attention to any of that,
I just edit for story,
and edit for the song,
and edit for performance
and those sorts of things.
And then when I'm coloring,
I'm just looking at like,
where is the focus and how,
what colors are making what pop out,
and the sort of overall
feeling is like a painting,
and then when I get in to
the effects and beauty now,
it's like I'm not even paying
attention to the edit anymore,
it's like you're just focusing
on the frame by frame by frame.
- So when you were putting
this video together,
it's meant to be a continuation of all
the Romeo and Juliet stuff,
- Yeah, Exactly.
- From all these videos.
So this is like the fourth one.
So it was Now or Never, Sorry,
then Bad at Love, and
then there's this one.
So she was the co-director on this one.
- Cool.
So we just wanted to continue
the story of what happens
when she came back to the kingdom
and so it was her idea
to make it as if
she comes back and it's
a celebration of death.
So everybody's celebrating the loss
of everybody who died in Now or Never.
I have been wanting to work
with Halsey for a long time.
Ashley is incredible.
And so the commissioner at Capitol
thought we would be a good
fit in working together so
she set us up on a phone
call, and so we got to talking
to sort of vibe each other
out and see creatively
how we were gonna get along
and all that good stuff.
And then from there, I
put together a Treatment
based on our conversation,
which was really led by Ashley.
She, this is like her Baby, it's her,
it's her story that she's telling
and I'm just somebody
to help her execute it.
And so from there I put
together the Treatment,
which is a visual representation
of what we're shooting.
- Yeah, what goes into that?
- So this sort of what
a Treatment looks like
and it's just a beautiful laid out PDF
with titles and obviously text explaining
what everything is, and imagery.
For Halsey, her character
Luna, we wanted to do something
that was really different for
her, and Maeve, her stylist,
she's been working with her
for a couple of years now.
She designed that sort of
bedazzled Swarovski
crystal body suit for her.
- Amazing.
A little Britney-leaning
- Yeah, exactly.
We were kinda going for
that Britney Toxic moment.
Yeah, so were able to
sort of pull that off
and she looks stunning.
- Do you remember your first music video
that you ever watched?
- The first music video that
really made an impact on me
was Sound Garden, Black Hole Sun.
It's a rock video, and it's
just totally twisted and surreal
and they're grilling
Barbies on the barbecue
and their faces are melting off
and I guess I remember
seeing that as a kid
and be like, this is so fucking twisted.
I was just infatuated with the idea
of that creative freedom.
I mean, when I was in film
school, I knew I wanted
to make music videos instead
of doing a short film.
So my first, I would say ten or so videos
were all like rock, pop-rock, metal.
I cut everything myself and
I colored everything myself.
And now it's nice that I have a team
that can help support me.
- Growing up, did you
have music video directors
that you looked up to?
- Yeah, there were a few.
Floria Sigismondi, she is
a really great director.
She directed videos like
Marilyn Manson Beautiful People
which is another, like, less fueled one.
But I think I just really like,
- All your influences are so dark.
- A strong visual.
But then she also would do something
like a Christina Aguilera
Fighter video and I just liked
that she was doing things
that were so different.
Obviously, she stuck out to
me 'cause she was a female,
but I was like, oh there's
a female doing this.
Sophie Miller was another one.
She did all of Gwen
Stefani's music videos.
- Hannah's journey to becoming a director
is anything but typical.
After working as a PA,
she went to makeup school
because she felt doing
makeup would afford her
better opportunities to
see what happens on sets
while giving her a chance to be creative
and meet people at the same time.
- When I was doing makeup,
I was also editing for other directors.
So through editing and makeup,
and I know it's random.
- So many skills.
- This is random.
And so I was doing makeup and editing
and so I was meeting commissioners
of labels, record labels
and they were starting to get
familiar with me and my name
and what I did from there,
one of them luckily,
took a chance on me and I was able to do
the Lil Wayne video with
Drake and Future for Love Me.
- Sup y'all.
Tunechi right here.
Right now you are on the
set of my video, Love Me.
We're in L.A. it was shot by
the beautiful Hannah Lux right there.
She got a crazy, creative mind frame.
- It feels like now there's
very much a cohesive look
to your work, whereas Love
Me, it felt like the beginning
of that, buy you've
evolved so much since then.
When did you start to figure that out?
- I think back then in the
beginning of my career,
I was doing what I thought
was right, and I was like,
oh this is what it's supposed to be,
this is what it's supposed to look like.
And as I progressed through
my career, I'm like,
oh this is me, this what I think is cool,
this is what I like.
And I was able to sort of
trust my own instincts.
- Was there something in particular
that sparked that change?
- I think the first video
of trusting my own eye,
and sort of defining my
own look was Bang Bang.
I think it was really in my wheelhouse
of what I loved to watch.
- [Gaby] Bang Bang is kind of
like the Christina Aguilera,
Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink Lady
Marmalade video of its time.
A gang of musical superstars fully leaning
into their big personalities
and feminine energy.
To date, Bang Bang has over
one billion views on YouTube.
After that, Hannah zeroed
in on a signature style
that casts women in the
best light possible,
literally and figuratively.
The stars of Hannah's videos
are beautiful, powerful,
confident, and definitely sex positive.
- What I love about working with Ariana
is that we are so hands-on together.
We're just texting and
talking the whole process.
She'll come in for the
weekend and then we'll edit
in the edit bay for like,
it's just me and her.
And it's like, it's so
fun just to work together,
and she's just, she knows what she wants,
she knows what she likes.
She's really in tune with herself .
- Does it mean anything
in particular to be
a female music director working
with these female pop stars?
- I mean, I just think, it's
just a really empowering thing
for all parties involved
and it is cool to see
a female's perspective sort of filling in
to where the guys were always typically.
I have really, feel like I
have a good knack for just,
finally, like, oh they
look so good right now.
And just kind of finding those
angles and those moments and
when all those things come
together with the lighting
and the styling and the
situation you put them in.
- Yeah, I guess because it's also like,
the goal in the back of
your mind is to emulate
these iconic Britney, Christina moments,
or at least what it made
you feel like watching that.
- Yeah.
- Then you're watching them
through the eyes of a young female fan.
- Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
It's not like you can set out and be like,
we're gonna go make something iconic.
You can't do that but I definitely
can look at it and like,
how does this feel, how
does this make you feel,
what's the moment we're trying to say,
like what's the impact we're
trying to have right now.
I think, I think Bang Bang was a moment,
I think 23 was a moment,
and Ariana Grande's Side
to Side was a moment.
- What do you think is
the most rewarding part
about doing this job for you?
- I just love music videos so much.
So it is kind of a dream that I'm working
with this new crop of pop girls.
So what I'm about to show
you is what I used to do
when I was a lot lot younger,
like 10, 12 years ago.
And I would download music
videos and re-cut them together
instead of like going out on
the weekends, I would like,
- You would do this.
- I would do this.
This was my fun.
So, here this is.
It's called Britney,
Christina, and Kelly Oh My.
(both laugh)
(pop music)
(chatter)
(pop music continues)
- Wow.
- It's amazing.
- I gotta have a little
Lindsay Lohan in there.
So yeah.
- It's amazing.
(futuristic music)
