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:
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: