Interview Lahore Born Music Video Director – Nialish Jay (JayFilms)

Over the past year, we’ve managed to interview singers, producers and lyricists. But there is another individual who has increasingly become a crucial element in the overall team behind a song – the video director.

In this day and age, music videos form a massive part behind the promotional campaign of a track. We’ve started to see a trend that if a song doesn’t have a music video, it will, more often than not, get overlooked. The music video has so much power that, if shot well, it can elevate a track’s popularity, and on the flipside, hinder the track’s success if a sub par video is created. This is all totally independent of the quality of the track itself.

It’s one thing to shoot and edit a music video. It’s another thing to create one that is quality and leaves a lasting impression. One video director has been doing just that, creating music videos with fresh concepts and quality visuals. His name is Nialish Jay , more commonly known by his company name – Jay Films. His work, over the years, has caught the eye of many industry heavyweights, namely Ibrar Ul Haq and Suman Sheikh !

Jayfilms , your company, is making a big stamp in the Panjabi Music Industry. Has it always been part of your plan to penetrate this scene?

Foraying into music video production was a way to progress towards the eventual plan to move into feature film direction. I approach each music video as though it’s the process of creating a short film. It’s a good way to hone your craft as a storyteller, because you only have a matter of minutes in which to tell an entire narrative. I got great opportunities in a very short space of time and initially started off collaborating with Pakistani artists at home,

I’ve always wanted to give something back to Panjabi culture in general. It’s my identity – it’s who I am. Being a Lahore born Panjabi, it was a priority to support the Lahori Panjabi scene on a global scale – not just restricting to the Pakistani . It’s always great when people from Pakistan, Canada, USA, Australia and so on, appreciate something that is essentially homegrown in the Lahore. Beyond that, for me, it’s all about the end product. It’s about making the kind of videos that I would want to watch. I wouldn’t say I had a specific plan to penetrate a particular scene – I just had a clear objective that the work would be of the best possible quality, and that it would be watched and appreciated by as many people as possible, I guess. If a result of that is making an impact on the industry, then that’s a great thing.

Good visuals have now become just as important to the success of a track, as well as the actual track. Visuals can really make or break a track’s success. How much importance should artists be putting on good quality visuals?

It might sound like a strange thing for a video director to say, but I actually think it’s unfortunate that good visuals determine the success of the track in some instances. As a fan of Panjabi music, I feel the audio should be judged on its own merits. In many cases, a poor video actually reduces the credibility of an otherwise great song. Nowadays, what we’re seeing is that even good visuals are being overlooked, and the so called success of a track is being measured by how many YouTube views and hits the video has, which is quite crazy. It’s an unfortunate situation and personally I hope this damaging trend passes at some point, because so much good music is being disposed of, simply because it hasn’t been given the glossy PR packaging of other songs. I always try to ensure that the videos I’m going to make, at the very least, do justice to the song, and beyond that, actually makes the audience like the song even more.

In relation to your question, when it’s decided that a song should have a video, then absolutely, the artist should invest all the time and all the resources possible in making sure that the director can do their job to their fullest potential. We shouldn’t just reduce the art form to a formality, simply because it’s now expected that song should have a video. Also, it’s important to favour quality over quantity, as well. In years to come, only good quality work will stand the test of time.