Slow Down

Slow Down was a passion project. While in London for other work, we reached out to K.ZIA — an artist based in the city at the time — and asked if we could make a music video for one of her songs. She pointed us to her latest track, and we gave ourselves 48 hours to ideate, plan and shoot it.

The constraints

There were three, and they stacked. Time: the entire project, from first idea to wrap, happened in two days. Budget: there wasn't one. We shot on the gear we'd brought with us plus a couple of small rentals — two lenses and no lighting beyond a 5-in-1 diffuser. And location: we were in a country we didn't know, with no idea where to point the camera.

How we made it work

We worked with what we had and asked for help early. A post on socials found us someone to capture behind-the-scenes and be an extra pair of hands. Our friend Tati Kapaya, a London local, creative-directed and steered us toward the right neighborhoods — that made all the difference. We spent one of our evenings traveling to scout the spots we wanted, so shoot day had as little friction as possible. K.ZIA styled the film and creative-directed alongside us, effectively doubling as crew.

On set

London, one shoot day. The Barbican Centre was one of the key locations. Crew of four: Jazzlyn Victor produced, Tati Kapaya creative-directed, Maurice Victor II directed and shot, and Fran captured BTS and helped as PA. Filmed on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K with DZO Arles primes (50mm and 100mm), edited and graded in DaVinci Resolve.

The result

K.ZIA was happy with it, and every time we've posted about the film it has performed — hundreds of thousands of views across a handful of posts. Slow Down went on to win a Gold Telly Award in the Non-Broadcast: Music Video category. For a film made in 48 hours with no budget, it did exactly what we hoped: proved we could deliver in an international space.

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