Director Elisa Baudoin Goes Full Windows 98 in New Music Video for Maëlle
REVERSE director Elisa Baudoin has helmed the music video for "Tic tac", the new single from French artist Maëlle. A song about desire, attraction, and the charged tension between two people, "Tic tac" marks a bolder, more direct chapter in Maëlle's artistry with Baudoin's visual approach matching that energy beat for beat.
With Baudoin also taking the lead on editing and VFX, the video is a full Windows 98 nostalgia trip. Blue Screen of Death, Explorer windows tiling multiple shots at once, MS Paint canvases, drone crosswalk footage repurposed as desktop wallpaper, the Paris-based director builds a retro aesthetic that feels anything but nostalgic for its own sake. The lo-fi, mixed-media framework becomes an unexpected vehicle for the song's tension and heat.
Baudoin and Maëlle are longtime friends and collaborators, and the creative constraints of the project became its defining quality.
"In music video, budget constraints have always been one of the more interesting creative drivers. We could move fast, try things, throw them away. There's no room for overthinking when you're working like that. The lo-fi texture fast became the point but I really wanted it not to feel like a gimmick and I think you feel that energy in the final cut," explains Elisa Baudoin.
"Elisa keeps pushing herself with every project. The mixed-media approach, the lo-fi textures, the way she finds a visual language that feels completely her own. It's exciting to watch her evolve and push her craft," says Thibaut Estellon, Founder/EP at REVERSE.
"Tic tac" is the latest from Maëlle, winner of The Voice France at 17, the youngest and first female to take the title, with a gold-certified debut album.
CREDITS
Artist: Maëlle
Label: Barclay / Universal Music France
Songwriters: Maëlle, Ehla, Marguerite Thiam
Composers: Maëlle, Nu-Tone, Charlie Trimbur
Arrangements: Simon Gaspar
Production Company: Notorious
Director / DOP: Elisa Baudoin
US Representation: REVERSE
Producer: Loumir Orsoni
Production Manager: Yann Spinec
Choreographer: Jordan Boury
Lighting: Manon Léauté
Wardrobe Stylist: Samantha Gil
Set Design: Arthur Deshayes
Hair: Barthélémy Joris
Make-up: Lorélene Coriton
Make-Up Assist: Emma Surbled
B-Camera: Florent Baudoin
Editor / Visual FX: Elisa Baudoin
Color: Antoine Ravache
Graphic Design: Beyblend
