Made on Daisie: HER

It's been a little while since we announced are winning Wonder Women teams, and we're at an exciting point where we're starting to see the finished products of these amazing ideas. First to completion is HER, the music video for Daisie creator, Emma Bradley's, debut single.

Incase you missed it, our Wonder Woman opportunity was a call to all our amazing female identifying talent to explore the theme of 'Wonder' with six hand chosen projects ultimately winning funding!

We got a chance to catch up with Olivia O'Hara (@olivia) and Emma Bradley (@emma), the director and artist behind HER, to chat with them about the process of how they took their project from ideation to completion.

Who are you and what do you do?

O: Hey, I’m Olivia. I’m a director.

E: I’m Emma and I’m a singer-songwriter. I also study Philosophy at Bristol University.

Where are you from?

O: NYC, baby!

E: London, born and raised.

How did you come up with the idea for the music video/what was the inspiration behind it?

O: Over summer 2019 I’d been chewing on some fun visual ideas I wanted to try, but hadn’t yet had projects with enough creative freedom to put them into motion. I wanted to shoot an interpretive dance, which I’d never done, and I wanted to shoot super wide, which I’d never done, and I wanted to see a long white dress walking around the grunge of the city, which was something nobody was doing. It was a very selfishly ideated project. Luckily, all of those things worked with the song and with the story that we crafted.

E: I’ve always dreamed about making a music video that felt like a little film. As an artist, making music will always be my main passion and priority, but telling the story of a song through visuals and cinematography is something that just totally fascinates me. I’ve always been certain that I want any video I put out to not just accompany a song, but to heighten each element of it; conceptually, visually, down to the smallest detail. I feel inspired by music videos constantly; I love seeing videos that are shot and constructed like actual films, I find it breathes a new purpose into the music. When Olivia reached out and we started talking through our visions for the video, I knew very quickly that this project could tick all of those creative boxes for me.

Can you explain a bit more about the project (how you got it from ideation to production)?

O: We were fully prepared to either kick the music video into gear or push it back to the idea shelf based on how the interest level from other Daisie users manifested. We needed crew, and we needed a budget, but the rest of the variables were things we could control. Emma and I locked our story down, scouted locations, prepped visuals and concepts for everything we could, outlined our schedule, went over logistics and over them again. Then we set up all that information on a Daisie project board, threw the net out to invite collaborators, and waited to see who bit. Once we had a solid team, and a go-ahead, we moved everything onto Slack and worked for six weeks to prepare for the shoot weekend.

E: It all started with a DM from Olivia on Daisie. I was in Toronto and we jumped onto a video call shortly after to discuss everything. We both loved the concept to death, but we were fully aware that we couldn’t bring it to life without things like a budget and a strong team around us. When we posted our project onto to Daisie and other users started engaging with it and getting as excited about it as we were, that was incredible to see. Our whole team, bar me, was based in NYC; so being a British artist making my first video across the world was a pretty surreal thing. This was definitely the best professional experience I’ve had - I feel nothing but intense gratitude and overwhelming amounts of love when I think about it.

Which creators have been the main collaborators/how did you find them if not Daisie?

O: Emma has obviously been my main partner in crime. I had been aware of her work since the early Daisie100 days, and when “Her” dropped this summer I had a listen and reached out. The other third of my brain is our cinematographer Demi Waldron, who I’ve worked with since we were college babies.

Our team for this was small, so everyone played a role in holding up the globe. The team-sourcing effort itself was very hybrid…our choreographer and dancer Molly Null was recommended to me through Instagram DMs. I cold-messaged our key costumer Clarisse Provido on Daisie. The entire costumes squad actually came on board that way.

E: Well, Olivia of course was my main collaborator on this. She really is a force of nature, so it was an honour to make art with her. We connected on Daisie, which is also where we found our head costumer Clarisse Provido. Clarisse did all of the embellishments on my costume amongst other things; she did such a beautiful job. I was obsessed with her work on the costume. Another significant collaborator on the video was our DP Demi Waldron. Olivia had worked with her previously, so that’s how that came about. She’s a total pro and shot some absolute cinematic magic. We found our dancer and choreographer Molly Null through a reply to an instagram story, which is insane to me. Molly is one of a kind, the way she was able to convey the emotion of my words and my music through movement simply astounds me. We were a small, strong team - I feel so privileged and blessed to have had the opportunity to work with these women, truly.

Have you had any meetings outside of Daisie?

O: Yes. We sewed costumes in my kitchen, did dance rehearsals on my roof… It felt more like an intercontinental commune than a music video shoot.

E: Yes! Of course, we all worked together in person on the actual shoot days, but outside we also had many other meetings. Olivia was in London the week before the shoot to do a fitting with me, the same day as the WW event. I learnt the choreo for the video on Olivia’s roof with Molly, a lot of sewing and camera prep happened in her kitchen over a meatball dinner, and we also had multiple bagel stops whilst we were shooting (I mean, obviously).

How has Daisie helped you with this project?

O: Daisie’s been our financier and our megaphone, so to speak, so we’re very grateful for their support. The app itself also made it easier for me to search for available artists living in NYC. If not for the ability to house our project brief on the web platform, I’d still be in prep mode, looking for costumers.

E: This video simply would not have been possible without Daisie. They funded the project and supported us throughout the process: right from the lead up to the video shoot all the way to now. The project was truly born through and on Daisie.

Where do you believe there is room for improvement in the music industry/film industry?

O: Entertainment is becoming a more joyous place to work, so I’m excited about that already! Beyond that – mainstream visual storytelling has begun to feel a little fast-food-y lately. I’d like to see a sense of wonder and freshness come back to our screens. I’m figuring out how to do my part.

E: I’d love to be able to listen to big mainstream radio stations and hear a more diverse range of music. I think sometimes there is a tendency to focus on one type of music or one type of sound. A lot of mainstream pop music seems to be written in a very similar way; I’d love to see more breakout artists like Billie Eilish who are really revolutionising the industry. Music is such an expansive and subjective artform, I don’t feel as if anything should fit neatly into boxes. I always start my writing process with a completely open mind; I don’t want my music to fit perfectly into any given genre. For me, making music that feels authentic, original and soulful - that’s what it’s all about.

Do you have any advice for people looking to do the same kind of work?

O: Have a creative routine. Work with people who push you to be better, and who love learning. Don’t take all your advice from the internet.

E: Be unapologetic with your art. Give it absolutely everything you’ve got and don’t be afraid to work hard for what you want. Don’t take any opportunity or day or minute for granted. But also - be kind to yourself, expressing yourself through art can be difficult and terrifying; but it will always be worth it.