7 days ago

Ariana Grande's Director Is Her Creative Soulmate

Christian Breslauer directed the music videos you have already watched a hundred times. Ariana Grande. SZA's Kill Bill. Lil Nas X's Industry Baby. Doja Cat. Lisa. Roddy Ricch's The Box. If you have loved a music video in the last five years, there is a good chance he made it.

He also never went to film school. His parents couldn't afford to send him, so he worked in restaurants and taught himself the craft one video at a time. Then he heard a song called The Box, wrote a treatment nobody asked him for, said "this is the hit," and it changed his life.

In this conversation I break down with Christian how he shot SZA's Kill Bill in a single 18 hour day with wirework and stunts, the one scene he pitched over lunch that took Lil Nas X from 50 million views to 500 million, the pitch that made Ariana Grande cry and led to Video of the Year at the VMAs, and what it was like shooting Ariana on real film with Steven Spielberg's two time Oscar winning DP. We also get into the parts nobody posts about. Why you have to be your own agent, why he walks onto every set a little scared, why he'd rather have a hundred shots that look thirty percent cool than one perfect one, and why he thinks you have to be a little psychotic to be a creative.

If you're trying to build a career in film or music video without permission or connections, this is the blueprint.

0:00 Cold Open

2:23 Becoming A Dad Changed Everything

6:54 Shooting Ariana Grande On Film

14:03 YUNGBLUD, Ozzy And Sharon On Set

15:44 His Dad Built The Karol G Museum

18:55 Self Taught, No Film School

23:26 Trippie Redd's First 100K Video

24:32 Roddy Ricch's The Box, Nobody Asked

28:04 You Have To Be Your Own Agent

29:53 The Box Dropped, Then Lockdown

37:16 Lil Nas X's Industry Baby Shower Scene