For Shaun Ross’s newest music video, he’s quite literally having a breakthrough — out of a chrysalis.
Filmed at Popsicle LA, the video features the model-turned-musician emerging from the casing and dancing alongside performers from NoOne Arthouse choreographed by Chris Emile. It’s the perfect set-up for the dreamy track aptly-titled “Chrysalis,” as the video takes us through a kaleidoscope of different colors and various lightings while cutting between scenes of the group dancing and Shaun breaking out of a chrysalis. While this isn’t the model’s first song, it is the first music video he’s ever shot (the video for his other track "Symmetry" was animated), which had its own set of lessons.
“It was scary at first because it was like, I'm coming to a set that's mine. I'm just like, ‘OK, I'm the head honcho here. I'm Beyoncé for a few hours,’” Shaun tells Teen Vogue. "I think the part of it that was really scary is having questions being asked like, ‘Do you like this take?’ But it’s like, I get to be in control, so it was dope.”
As for the inspiration for the song and video? Well, there's a couple. It's of course, about breaking out and shedding whatever's keeping you trapped. But being that the lyrics refer to a chrysalis, Shaun recalls some memorable moments he has had with the flying beauties.
“Do you ever see those little white butterflies? They're always floating around. It's like, I always feel like those butterflies come around at the right time, which is the same analogy of having a breakthrough at the right time,” he says. “They’re not like a Monarch butterfly. They're kinda like the outcast butterfly; low-key-ish. It's like, your wings are not that big. You're not that big, but we see you.”
They used a concoction made of agar-agar powder to create the chrysalis that Shaun comes out of in the music video, which resulted in the stunning visuals. At one point of filming, they put it all over his face and he was unable to breathe, which made for quite the challenge — so they had to poke out holes so he could get his oxygen intake.
And while it was Shaun's first music video, he had a brilliant duo of directors in Anastasia Lebedeva and David Solomini. For years, Shaun loved David’s work but never actually collaborated as Shaun made a name for himself in the fashion world. After about five years of knowing each other, they finally came together for the “Chrysalis” video along with tapping Anastasia for the project, a powerhouse Shaun says when it comes to doing the rigging for the production, moving back and forth with a huge, heavy camera to capture all the dancers’ movements.
In terms of proving himself as a musician, Shaun knows it won't happen overnight.
"It's exciting. It's a process. It's starting all over again," he says. "It's the same thing looking this way and coming into this industry, you just have to work. You have to make people believe."
Check out the video for "Chrysalis" below.
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