Meet the brains behind some top Nigerian music videos

Music videos are a medium for artistes to showcase their other talents aside from their voices; like looks, dance steps and acting skills. Overtime, video directors have become more creative, artistic and less generic. This development has invariably catapulted some artistes and songs to success. A song that became successful as audio might not necessarily […]

Music videos are a medium for artistes to showcase their other talents aside from their voices; like looks, dance steps and acting skills. Overtime, video directors have become more creative, artistic and less generic.
This development has invariably catapulted some artistes and songs to success. A song that became successful as audio might not necessarily enjoy as much goodwill if the corresponding video is not up to par.
Nigerian music video directors are pushing the limits and getting better – and more expensive – as they strive to express their personal, distinctive and creative vision.
The role of the music video director is given more and more credence as some have been able to carve a niche for themselves and their names have become synonymous with great videos.
The director conceives a video’s artistic and dramatic aspects, while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. Most of them have contributed in helping our artistes enter into the Western music world. Hence every video uploaded either on You Tube, any other social media forum and television is judged by the creativity and amount of work put in by the director. This has made them to become household names.  Daily Trust Saturday presents some of them:
Moe Musa
Tiwa Savage’s controversial ‘Wanted’ video received a lot of positive and negative reviews, but one thing worth noting is director Moe Musa’s attempt to recreate  Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ video where Tiwa gives a solo performance in only one costume on about three sets.
Musa worked with minimal props but concentrated on the lighting effect, camera movement and angles. He also proved he can work with props and bring out an artiste’s acting skills as he directed a full drama in Patoranking’s ‘Girlie O’ video.
Earlier in his career, Musa had directed Wizkid’s ‘Azonto’ video where he displayed his eskills for a dance video. He is fast becoming one of the most sought after video directors in the industry.
Born in Nigeria and raised in London, he has a degree in Media Technology from Thames Valley University.
His breakthrough video for the song ‘Antenna’ by Fuse ODG brought him international attention. He has since done a host of videos for some of the biggest artistes in Africa, including Davido’s ‘Skelewu,’ Timaya’s ‘Ukwu,’ Sarkodie’s ‘Down on One’ and most recently for multi- award winning artiste Tuface’s ‘Diaspora Woman.’
His videos have been featured on MTV Base, BET, Channel O, TraceTV and several Nigerian music channels.
Clarence Peters
He is another force to reckon with because of his skills in directing music videos. One of such was Davido’s ‘Aye’ where Clarence brought out the acting skills of the artiste (Davido) where he played the role of a peasant farmer who fell in love with a lady above his status. The concept and execution was great. The lighting and props were striking as they clearly fitted in with the environment. The costumes were appropriate as they showcased the culture of the people in the south-west.
In Mo’cheddah’s ‘Destinambari,’ which has a bit of Indian touch, Clarence made use of more colours than his signature black and white. And the lighting which was done to fit in with the time and scene shot is a plus for the video.
However, he still holds sway among his contemporaries in terms of creativity. Some top music videos he has directed include: ‘Irawo’ and ‘Johnny’ among others.
Jude Engees Okoye
One video which showed Okoye’s directing skills was ‘Personally,’ done as tribute to the late pop king, Michael Jackson, whom they said inspired them to dance, sing, and write songs.
Some of the nominations the video received were the 2014 Channel O Music Video awards, 2014 Nigerian Entertainment Awards, and MTV Africa Music Awards 2014. The elder brother to hip-pop/R and B duo P-Square has become synonymous with other videos done by them.
In the videos, he was able to bring out their acting and dancing skills. Other top videos he has done are ‘Taste-the-money’ and ‘Beautiful Onyinye’ (featuring Rick Ross), .
Patrick Ellis
Patrick Ellis brought glamour to Nigerian music videos when he directed Wizkid’s ‘Holla at your boy.’ He made use of bright colours, a group of bubbly teens and was able to recreate an American-high-school-feel. In Eva Alordiah’s ‘Double Double’ video, he proved his ability to work without colours and fewer costumes where he made use of black, dark shades, silhouette and bust shots of Eva who gave a solo performance in over 90 percent of the video.
Ellis is one of the fastest growing music video directors in Nigeria. He has worked with several known artistes.