Video: If You Wanna

Rollerskating music video featuring musician & producer J.Lamotta.

During our first video collaboration, Berlin-based singer / songwriter / musician / producer Autumn Alajem revealed that she’d been a three-time rollerskating champion back home in Israel. So of course, I told her, that had to be our next video together.

Shot mostly on an iPhone.

Directed, edited & colour graded by Ray Wassef
Cameras – Agatha Cantril and Ray Wassef
Wardrobe – Stephanie Dorothea Prestel
Production Assistant – Yael Choen
Additional Post Production Work – Peta Ridley


1. Visual Research

The idea was to develop a lower-energy version of the visual techniques in roller skating videos, which would better suit the gentler aesthetic of Autumn’s song:

This song, Autumn told me, is her having a conversation with her love – as in, with the emotion itself. As we discussed modes of expression through colour, movement, and location, I compiled visual references:

Almost Famous (dir. Cameron Crowe, 2000)
The Virgin Suicides (dir. Sofia Coppola, 1999)

2. Test Footage

‘If You Wanna’ represents a few firsts for me: my first skating video; my first time recruiting a director of photography (who could also skate); and my first time shooting on an iPhone. Our tests were as much of the phone camera itself as of our movement and communication:

3. Location Scouting

The photographs of Matthias Heiderich were a huge inspiration for finding bright colours and hypnotic shapes amidst Germany’s grimy urban landscape:

Several train trips scouting Berlin’s most colourful subway stations – and noting which times of day which stations were at their least populated:

4. Final Video

Throw in some singing-directly-to-camera shots, and we have all the elements of the final music video: