NYDU: From Teenage TikTok to Grown Woman Era
There are two types of social content briefs.
The first is the classic:
“Just a few TikToks and Instagram clips for the new song.”
Quick, basic, formula, in and out.
The second is what happens when that brief lands at WILDEBEEST.
This project with NYDU started life as option one. It did not end that way.
SEE FULL VIDEO BELOW
The brief: social clips for a new release
NYDU came to us with a simple, clear ask:
a studio day to get some social media edits for her new release.
She had reference clips of the usual TikTok style performance content you see on every sound trending under the sun, fast, easy, a bit throwaway.
Nothing wrong with that. But it did not match who she is.
NYDU is not a background noise artist. She is a strong, independent, fiercely expressive woman. The early ideas leaned a bit too close to the teenage, lightweight TikTok world she has already outgrown.
So we listened, we got the intention behind the brief, then we pushed.
Tearing up the template
Instead of treating this as a batch of social posts, we treated it like a music video that just happens to live really well on TikTok, Reels and Instagram.
We kept the core of what she wanted, a performance based visual that feels intimate and direct, but upgraded everything around it:
A full studio booking rather than a quick pop in
A clear visual concept instead of random angles
Proper lighting, colour and pacing so it feels like a music video, not a last minute phone clip
NYDU was very clear that she wanted pinks in the colour palette to hold onto a sense of femininity. Not bubblegum, not childish, but powerful, grown and intentional.
We built that through lighting and styling, soft, warm pinks in the background and lighting, balanced by what she wore and how she moved. The result is bold and fierce without losing the softness that makes her, her.
One take, double speed
The track itself has an emotional weight to it. It did not need a complicated storyline or twenty locations. It needed presence.
Director Curtis set one rule early on:
we do this in one take.
The core of the video is a single camera move, starting close on her face, then slowly pulling out as the performance opens up. It is simple on paper, brutal in reality, because you have nowhere to hide. No cutaway, no backup angle if you lose it halfway.
On top of that, NYDU was five months pregnant at the time and hiding it from everyone, which made holding the performance, the timing and the energy through a one take, double speed run even more intense.
To get that dreamy slow motion feel without losing her connection to the track, we shot the main performance in double speed. That meant:
The song blaring twice as fast in the studio
NYDU performing in time at that speed
Every camera move needing to be locked in and repeatable
When you watch the final cut, her movements feel fluid and slightly slowed, but her lip sync is perfect. That is the payoff of shooting at double speed and nailing it in a single take.
Building the ending in ultra slo mo
To keep the visual from feeling like one long shot and nothing else, we layered in B roll and movement towards the end of the track.
We shot extra details and motion in ultra high frame rate, so they play back in proper slow motion, hair movement, fabric, hands, little moments that show the tension and release in the song.
These cut into the final chorus and tail, giving the video an extra lift without taking away from that core, locked in one take performance.
Feminine, fierce and fully her
Everything about this piece was built around the essence of NYDU as an artist:
Feminine on her own terms
Fierce without pretending to be someone else
Clean and focused so the performance does the talking
We used soft touches of electric and soft pinks and reds in the lighting to balance and contrast against the space, wrapping her in this full body halo of femininity, defiance and strength. The lighting and camera are there to frame that energy, not fight it, so the whole video leans on her presence in that one take.
Social first, not social only
Yes, this lives perfectly on social. It is framed for the feed, cut down cleanly for TikTok and Reels and grabs attention in the first seconds.
But it is also a music video in its own right. It can sit on YouTube, in an EPK, on a website, in a press kit. It does not fall apart when you take it out of the scroll.
That is the whole point of how we approached this:
Start from the brief. Respect it. Then look at how far it can go if you stop thinking in basic TikTok clips and start thinking like an artist who deserves full scale treatment.
For NYDU, that meant one studio, one take, double speed, pink driven lighting and a performance that feels like a statement, not filler between releases.
