"Music Videos Are Dead?”
Not on our watch!
Videographer Luke Flegg unpacks the lights, chaos & action of working with Ren & keeping music videos alive!
With the decline of music videos in mainstream culture, visual storytellers are being forced to reinvent their stage. But despite the changing tides, hope is here. A creative undercurrent is pulsing with raw energy and fearless experimentation.
And Ren at Dead Wax is a prime[al] example!
A hybrid experience that fused gritty live performance with cinematic narrative, all set in a hot, hopeful Brighton club. Part gig, part fever dream, equal parts chaos, theatre, and catharsis! It’s a loud reminder that the music video isn’t dead. It’s just evolving.
At the heart of this evolution is filmmaker and Passionworks Productions Director Luke Flegg. Luke is a long-time collaborator of Rens and we’re grateful to him for talking candidly about their decade-long creative partnership, the making of Dead Wax, and why fighting for the future of meaningful music video production still matters.
We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did…As someone who binged music videos like most people binge boxsets, the idea that the golden era is over hits like a gut punch.
How did your collaboration with Ren begin?
I’ve known Ren a very long time. We used to live together in Brighton for a good couple of years. We’ve known each other a bit before that too, so yeah, over ten years ago now.
Back then, he wasn’t as famous or well-recognised as he is now. He had kind of risen and fallen, he’d started taking off literally in his teens with Trick the Fox, that was before I knew him. Around that time, he also began a health journey that’s been part of his whole story. He got Lyme disease, which was misdiagnosed as ME while we were living together.
So I started helping with videos for him back then. He was dating Bibi and we filmed Crutch with Tom which remains one of the music videos that hits me the hardest because it was such a time of raw emotion. We were all living together, and Crutch was about living with and loving someone with a complex and sometimes intense and confusing chronic health struggle. I deeply cared about them both.
People might just watch that and think it’s a cool music video, but for me, it’s like opening someone’s personal diary.
I helped with that and other videos, and then when The Big Push started with Romain and Glen, I was shooting a bunch of that, even when I’d moved to London, I came back to Brighton to film.
So yeah, Murderer, Animal Flow, Chalk Outlines with Chinchilla, Dead Wax and some live performance one-shots. A lot of history!
What was the original concept for Dead Wax, and how did it evolve?
So the Dead Wax shoot came out of the Secret Garden Party gig. I was lead video on that. It was a huge deal for Ren, he’d been building up to that headline gig for ages. It’s a well loved festival and his performance was complex with props, theatre, timed sequences, surprise appearances…so much went into it!
There were a few technical hiccups, but overall it was well received. People had travelled from all over the world. But then heartbreakingly the audio recording was completely messed up. So all the beautiful visual content we’d hoped to create from that performance just wasn’t usable.
And that really matters… because of Ren’s health, he can’t just do live shows again and again. We needed to create evergreen content from that, to sustain reach and income. So it was a painful setback.
That’s why we decided to re-create a kind of live feel experience at Dead Wax.
What was the creative process in planning the Dead Wax Shoot?
Josh reached out to me with another wild idea that was still half-formed. Often, the seed of the idea comes from Ren, he has a vision or a vibe but it’s not always fully developed. So the rest of us help shape it into a plan.
This time I asked to be more involved in advance. Normally I just show up and shoot, but I do have film training so I see value in preparation. I wanted to dream a little beforehand, help bring in props, and think more about lighting, angles, logistics.
It was still chaotic, of course. Always is with Rens projects. But this time it felt a bit more collaborative from the get-go.
What made the Dead Wax shoot unique?
What was fun about Dead Wax is that it was trying to do something between a live performance and a scripted drama. And I feel like we did pull that off. I was leading most of the narrative storyline pieces. I worked with a great guy who handled the actors and extras really well he was highly experienced. It helped so much not to have to direct actors and do cinematography at the same time. It was great to have support blocking scenes, setting up action, working with the background and foreground action.
But yeah, working with Ren and his team you always need to be comfortable to just hit the ground running. And it is chaos!
Its like a balance. Its like, I wonder if there could be a little bit more kind of plan in advance, calm, creative thinking time, but I think there would always need to be a degree of just, generative on the spot problem solving and against the clock kind of chaos. So much stuff is just unfolding constantly, even on the day like how are we going to do this sequence and how will that lead into this shot at that moment.
For example, we had this awkward couple at the bar and we were going to come back to them later and the dynamic was going to be very different. She’s some super gorgeous but still like nerdy girl and he’s some dork going on about Warhammer. But then later they were just both in full swing and like sensually dancing and it’s like wow something has shifted and transformed.
There were some really juicy and interesting characters.
Ren’s projects always attract talent, crew and cast alike.
I just want to say as well Dead Wax Brighton were amazing, like all the crazy shit we were getting up to – it was just a really great venue genuinely supporting independent artists as well.
How else do you think Ren draws fans into his world?
It’s not just music videos. There are episodic storylines like Screech’s Tale, online money games, participatory forums. It’s interactive storytelling. You can follow threads, play detective, become part of the experience.
Some might find it heavy, but it’s meant to provoke and awaken people. Ren’s art helps people reconnect with what matters most in their life. His fan community ‘the Rabbit Hole’ is the most tightly knit, deeply supportive group I’ve ever seen. Many of them live with chronic illness.
His music literally helps people stay alive, manage trauma, and feel seen.
That openness to multiple formats, to create, connect, and transform. That’s what makes this work so powerful. And generally, Ren’s creativity is so expansive. His genre range is absurd—no exaggeration. He’s got this whole other unreleased dance music side that I absolutely love and hope comes out someday – I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say on that but yea just watch this space!
What’s your take on the current state of music video production?
I’m really finding my mind right now turning to a burning topic – one that’s nothing new, but I feel like whether its in art, music videos, community organising, democracy, social. The reality is, all of these digital platforms where we consume content and connect with each other are created and run by extremely profit hungry, corporations.
They don’t really care about what we’re doing on their platforms. The mental health of children for example. And the general quality of discourse and connection is just people fighting about politics in the comments sections or spreading hate or misinformation.
But really the platforms only care about these things in so far as – is it going to lead to them making more profit.
And you know, that’s not some theory. It’s an indisputable fact. You just trace where they moneys coming from and how big the sums are and what strategically affects their decisions, how much their dragged around by their shareholders.
And this is a huge theme in a lot of Rens music this aspect of dystopia in how ordinary people – the majority of us – are educating ourselves, connecting with each other, enjoying art and standing up for the things we care about as well.
I would love to see a world in which we are increasingly thinking about how things are monetised and how they are owned and stop falling into traps like oh this is free I will instantly just invest all of my photos, personal data, social relationships and time into this. And actually go Mmm how are they getting money?
Then, do they hold to heart anything that I actually personally care about? Because there are alternative platforms out there for things, different places where we can consume art and so I don’t know, I hope in the bigger picture, longer term we can move towards platforms that artists are getting paid more than 1p for 100 streams of their song.
Yea so that’s not just the business side, its the kind of ethic side and it effects all of us – the movement of money, peoples livelihoods and work. And its such a beautiful thing to enable artists to thrive in their passion and creativity.
I think its a real gift as fans of our favourite artists to think about how they are able to make a livelihood creating the art they love and enjoy.
Thank you to Luke for taking time out to share these insights with us – we hope it’s lit your creative flames!
Luke is a videographer, photographer, and founder of Passionworks Productions. He collaborates with creatives and planet-first brands, producing music videos, branded content, promos, narrative films, and more.
You can find Luke on Instagram and LinkedIn or reach out to him at Passionworks.
Treat yourself to a brief escape and check out the Dead Wax shoot – it’s a ride!
At Griffin King Creative we help film & music creators amplify releases with storytelling, creative campaigns & branding.
"Music Videos Are Dead?”
Not on our watch!
Videographer Luke Flegg unpacks the lights, chaos & action of working with Ren & keeping music videos alive!
With the decline of music videos in mainstream culture, visual storytellers are being forced to reinvent their stage.
But despite the changing tides, hope is here. A creative undercurrent is pulsing with raw energy and fearless experimentation.
And Ren at Dead Wax is a prime[al] example!
A hybrid experience that fused gritty live performance with cinematic narrative, all set in a hot, hopeful club in Brighton. Part gig, part fever dream. Equal parts chaos, theatre, and catharsis! It’s a loud reminder that the music video isn’t dead. It’s just evolving.
At the heart of this evolution is filmmaker and Passionworks Productions Director Luke Flegg. Luke is a long-time collaborator of Rens and we’re grateful to him for talking candidly about his decade-long creative partnership, the making of Dead Wax, and why fighting for the future of meaningful music video production still matters.
We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did…
How did your collaboration with Ren begin?
I’ve known Ren a very long time. We used to live together in Brighton for a good couple of years. We’ve known each other a bit before that too, so yeah, over ten years ago now.
Back then, he wasn’t as famous or well-recognised as he is now. He had kind of risen and fallen, he’d started taking off literally in his teens with Trick the Fox, that was before I knew him. Around that time, he also began a health journey that’s been part of his whole story. He got Lyme disease, which was misdiagnosed as ME while we were living together.
So I started helping with videos for him back then. He was dating Bibi and we filmed Clutch with Tom, which remains one of the music videos that hits me the hardest because it was such a time of raw emotion. We were all living together, and Clutch was about living with and loving someone with a complex and sometimes intense and confusing chronic health struggle. I deeply cared about them both.
People might just watch that and think it’s a cool music video, but for me, it’s like opening someone’s personal diary.
I helped with that and other videos, and then when The Big Push started with Romain and Glen, I was shooting a bunch of that, even when I’d moved to London, I came back to Brighton to film.
So yeah, Murderer, Animal Flow, Chalk Outlines with Chinchilla, Dead Wax and some live performance one-shots. A lot of history!
What was the original concept for Dead Wax, and how did it evolve?
So the Dead Wax shoot came out of the Secret Garden Party gig. I was lead video on that. It was a huge deal for Ren, he’d been building up to that headline gig for ages. It’s a well loved festival and his performance was complex with props, theatre, timed sequences, surprise appearances…so much went into it!
There were a few technical hiccups, but overall it was well received. People had travelled from all over the world. But then heartbreakingly the audio recording was completely messed up. So all the beautiful visual content we’d hoped to create from that performance just wasn’t usable.
And that really matters… because of Ren’s health, he can’t just do live shows again and again. We needed to create evergreen content from that, to sustain reach and income. So it was a painful setback.
That’s why we decided to re-create a kind of live feel experience at Dead Wax.
What was the creative process in planning the Dead Wax Shoot?
Josh reached out to me with another wild idea that was still half-formed. Often, the seed of the idea comes from Ren, he has a vision or a vibe but it’s not always fully developed. So the rest of us help shape it into a plan.
This time I asked to be more involved in advance. Normally I just show up and shoot, but I do have film training so I see value in preparation. I wanted to dream a little beforehand, help bring in props, and think more about lighting, angles, logistics.
It was still chaotic, of course. Always is with Rens projects. But this time it felt a bit more collaborative from the get-go.
What made the Dead Wax shoot unique?
What was fun about Dead Wax is that it was trying to do something between a live performance and a scripted drama. And I feel like we did pull that off. I was leading most of the narrative storyline pieces. I worked with a great guy who handled the actors and extras really well he was highly experienced. It helped so much not to have to direct actors and do cinematography at the same time. It was great to have support blocking scenes, setting up action, working with the background and foreground action.
But yeah, working with Ren and his team you always need to be comfortable to just hit the ground running. And it is chaos!
Its like a balance. Its like, I wonder if there could be a little bit more kind of plan in advance, calm, creative thinking time, but I think there would always need to be a degree of just, generative on the spot problem solving and against the clock kind of chaos. So much stuff is just unfolding constantly, even on the day like how are we going to do this sequence and how will that lead into this shot at that moment.
For example, we had this awkward couple at the bar and we were going to come back to them later and the dynamic was going to be very different. She’s some super gorgeous but still like nerdy girl and he’s some dork going on about Warhammer. But then later they were just both in full swing and like sensually dancing and it’s like wow something has shifted and transformed.
There were some really juicy and interesting characters.
Ren’s projects always attract talent, crew and cast alike.
I just want to say as well Dead Wax Brighton were amazing, like all the crazy shit we were getting up to – it was just a really great venue genuinely supporting independent artists as well.
How else do you think Ren draws fans into his world?
It’s not just music videos. There are episodic storylines like Screech’s Tale, online money games, participatory forums. It’s interactive storytelling. You can follow threads, play detective, become part of the experience.
Some might find it heavy, but it’s meant to provoke and awaken people. Ren’s art helps people reconnect with what matters most in their life. His fan community ‘the Rabbit Hole’ is the most tightly knit, deeply supportive group I’ve ever seen. Many of them live with chronic illness.
His music literally helps people stay alive, manage trauma, and feel seen.
That openness to multiple formats, to create, connect, and transform. That’s what makes this work so powerful. And generally, Ren’s creativity is so expansive. His genre range is absurd—no exaggeration. He’s got this whole other unreleased dance music side that I absolutely love and hope comes out someday – I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say on that but yea just watch this space!
What’s your take on the current state of music video production?
I’m really finding my mind right now turning to a burning topic – one that’s nothing new, but I feel like whether its in art, music videos, community organising, democracy, social. The reality is, all of these digital platforms where we consume content and connect with each other are created and run by extremely profit hungry, corporations.
They don’t really care about what we’re doing on their platforms. The mental health of children for example. And the general quality of discourse and connection is just people fighting about politics in the comments sections or spreading hate or misinformation.
But really the platforms only care about these things in so far as – is it going to lead to them making more profit.
And you know, that’s not some theory. It’s an indisputable fact. You just trace where they moneys coming from and how big the sums are and what strategically affects their decisions, how much their dragged around by their shareholders.
And this is a huge theme in a lot of Rens music this aspect of dystopia in how ordinary people – the majority of us – are educating ourselves, connecting with each other, enjoying art and standing up for the things we care about as well.
I would love to see a world in which we are increasingly thinking about how things are monetised and how they are owned and stop falling into traps like oh this is free I will instantly just invest all of my photos, personal data, social relationships and time into this. And actually go Mmm how are they getting money?
Then, do they hold to heart anything that I actually personally care about? Because there are alternative platforms out there for things, different places where we can consume art and so I don’t know, I hope in the bigger picture, longer term we can move towards platforms that artists are getting paid more than 1p for 100 streams of their song.
Yea so that’s not just the business side, its the kind of ethic side and it effects all of us – the movement of money, peoples livelihoods and work. And its such a beautiful thing to enable artists to thrive in their passion and creativity.
I think its a real gift as fans of our favourite artists to think about how they are able to make a livelihood creating the art they love and enjoy.
Thank you to Luke for taking time out to share these insights with us – we hope it’s lit your creative flames!
Luke is a videographer, photographer, and founder of Passionworks Productions. He collaborates with creatives and planet-first brands, producing music videos, branded content, promos, narrative films, and more.
You can find Luke on Instagram and LinkedIn or reach out to him at Passionworks.
Treat yourself to a brief escape and check out the Dead Wax shoot – it’s a ride!
At Griffin King Creative we help film & music creators amplify releases with storytelling, creative campaigns & branding.