Who is Loraine ffrench?

I was sitting here after cold calling a bunch of Record Companies spreading the word of my directing and F2R, that I felt after selling myself all day lol, that I needed to remember why exactly i'm pushing so hard 6 years on...



I'm not entirely sure why I got into music videos! I was very much music orientated infront of the camera: playing the Cello, Saxaphone and Singing which was my passion! Somehow when I went to University to study performing arts, I left with a degree in Media Production and Video Production! I'm not sure what made me switch, i think it was the realisation that I was'nt going to get anywhere singing....but then it begs the question whatever made me think I would make it as a music video director! I had no prior experience with film, or paid any attention to how things were filmed, i didnt know any well known directors! Lol! When I think about it, I do wonder what on earth I was thinking! :-)

Most of what I know now, I learned from being on the job! One of my most iconic music videos so far is: Panjabi Hit Squad's 'Deewana'
Alyssia ft Panjabi Hit Squad 'Deewana' from Miss L Director on Vimeo.

Iconic because, this is where i stepped away from being 'safe'. Quite a lot of my videos before were story orientated, where I portrayed the lyrics rather than the music. In this particular music video, I was all about creating images, gorgeous, breathtaking and beautiful images. The one thing though when you take risks, it can be very stressful, which is why sometimes directors stray away from shooting ideas, simply because it's just too much work when you don't have the budget. This shoot started at like 5am in the morning, but i did'nt turnover till 2pm and had to be out by 7pm, giving me like 5 hours to shoot my entire video!! The pool took forever to build and fill, it was predicted 2hours and it ended up taking 6hrs! It was a tough time, but managed to pull the video together and it looks great! It's so crazy, cause whenever i'm talking with my friend and make up artist Nibras, we always joke about my one 'Diva' moment, which I also had on this shoot lol!!


My next favorite video i've directed so far would have to be Fstreet 'Hypnotise',

Director Edit: F Street 'Hypnotise' from FFRENCHY Film/TV/Promo Director on Vimeo.

The interesting thing about this video is that I spent two days shooting it, i'm generally quite a fast shooter, I know exactly what I want and I only shoot one master. But for this video I felt like I had to get everything, shoot everything and not miss a single thing! I did in fact, Produce, Direct and Edit this video, like I do on the majority of my videos. I remember when I first heard the track, the idea just came in my head immediately, I was so excited! Quite hilarious when I think back to that moment, I was really excited, and the boys are uber talented! The only thing though, it would have been nice to have a bigger budget and to shoot it on film, and of course for it to get onto tv! This video in some respects feels like an anti-climax, a lot of stress for it to get no where!! You live and you learn!

Last year, I got really bored of shooting manufactured videos lol! So I put out postings to shoot some indie music videos for free! When I came across the track 'emotionless' by Khashassi,
Khashassi 'Emotionless' from FFRENCHY Film/TV/Promo Director on Vimeo.

This was another video that I saw as soon as I heard it. The song is so intense and when I heard it I was like, i need to have the artist on the floor, at night consumed by emotion that she can't continue anymore. The use of the yellow paint was because I like things to look pretty and beautiful, I felt that red paint would have been too 'horrific' looking, so that's why I went for yellow. One of my producer friends Maxine said I should have kept the whole video with her on the floor, but I guess it's that fear that people may not get it and get you, and so that's why I inter-cut the floor scenes with other performance setups to be 'safe'. Slowly i'm getting to that point where i'm starting to feel more confident about my 'left field' ideas lol!

In my bid to be a versatile director and less manufactured, I ended 2009 with this:

Loraine ffrench Music Video Showreel from FFRENCHY Film/TV/Promo Director on Vimeo.


Coming into 2010 bright and early, I shot a music video for an artist called Claire managed by Rontom (who's produced tracks for Sugarbabes and All Saints), all I can say is, this was an experience and I will never ever co-direct a music video ever again lol!!

Ok, i think i've brought you up to speed, we're now March 2010 and although i'm still not where I want to be shooting 50K music videos every week :-), I would'nt want to change the past 6 years for anything. Ive learned so much, done so much and I know I have a lot more to give.

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