Creative Director: Rukus ft. Fatimat Following You Music Video

Rukus a talented artist/rapper who I worked with on a previous project (Myoa ft. Rukus - Christmas Wish) contacted me regarding being a creative director and styling his music video Following You ft. his then girlfriend now fiance Fatimat.

This was an extremely exciting project to be part of as it doubled up as a surprise engagement by the end of the shoot day! Picture this, a full on production, hair, make up, wardrobe stylist, basically receiving superstar treatment for the day while shooting what you thought was "just a music video", first set, second set, third set, then cut to the final set - the party scene; while the cameras are still rolling your mum, dad, bro and friends from out of town "randomly appear" on set! You're left perplexed and before you can get your inspector gadget on Rukus gets down on one knee and pops the question!

Surpriiiiiise!! lol

she had literally NO IDEA. Mission Accomplished.

Let's rewind it back and get into the concept for the music video.

Rukus provided current visual references that gave a nod to the 90's and expressed this as the direction he'd like to go in. Expanding on this

I presented the idea to have scenes shot in "His" and "Her" styled bedrooms which to me was a constant feature of the 90's. Think Brandy, Monica, it was a theme back then to shoot videos in a bedroom like setting, whilst singing your heart out.

We decided on this concept, with the two meeting at a house party earlier (another 90's constant), being in their prospective rooms singing about each other, with an all white dream like sequence scene signifying "unity" to top it off.

Sounds easy enough right, however early on we identified the challenge we had was flipping a regular bedroom twice over to give 2 different looks and vibes to represent "His" bedroom and "Her" bedroom.

We made it work. I teamed up with Stephanie the set designer for the project and together we hunted down items to add character to each room setting creating a different design feel and vibe.
"His" bedroom we went for minimalism, hunter green. Her bedroom more eclectic/boho gypsy decor, orange.

The original bedroom setting we worked with to transform.

Details matter to add extra character and lifting of a set

Her bedroom: colourful, gypsy vibes

Styled looks were kept in the 90's theme.

For Rukus' first look we went for a printed short sleeve shirt in neutral colours, black jeans and black sneakers. Fatimat a cropped top and cheked pants (very Moesha) with styling choice to hair being slicked down and a curly attachment.

Second look "unity scene" was a "dreamlike" scene, white was opted for here as the choice of background along with white items of clothing to be consistent with the feeling of being on cloud 9.

I wanted to add extra styling elements with Fatimat to lift the styling and scene a little more by

incorporating worded hair pins that spoke to the scene; words such as 'Dream' 'Feelings' 'Love' and so on were used. Hair pins were a key 90's feature hence why I decided to incorporate these into the styling also.

This went really well with the slicked back and wavy ponytail hair look she had for this scene, and of course staying true to the 90's we made sure to get the baby hairs popping here.