I wanted to create an intimate and confronting visual for a while with full creative freedom, and thought about collaborating with some artists. When I reached out to Sterre Nacca and asked her if she needed some visuals for any of her songs, she was immediately interested. The song she sent me immediately spoke to me and I knew what I wanted to create. I felt her words and the meaning of the song and figured out a way to create a visual that would uplift her song while expressing some of my own emotions in this piece too.

The song Oversteken is about Sterre having a hard time finding the ground and being happy with herself. In this visualizer we show the hard confrontation and the struggle that Sterre has with herself. It’s emotional and confrontational. 

My first thoughts were: this is exactly what the song is about, but there’s a new view added to it. Now it’s not only the thoughts in my head, but has a new perspective that makes the song come to life through images – Sterre Nacca

The idea was to create living paintings, crossing a border between art, photography and video. Instead of focusing on telling an ongoing story, each shot did have to be able to function as a separate story and carry emotion.

The mirror scene for instance is one of my favorites. By playing with shards of mirrors, reflections and distortions, you get an abstract view of the self-image. A broken mirror represents an unfinished puzzle, the remnants of what could be.

Shards bring luck – but with a mirror that breaks, the first thoughts will rarely be positive – dare to see further.

Sterre looks at her own distorted reflection, and even though she is looking at herself, is she able to see the full picture? Because you cannot see yourself clearly and as a whole, your self-image is not reliable. This will hold you back from making certain choices and steps. Your biggest obstacle is yourself.

Later on in the video we see Sterre holding on tight to one single shard. If you can’t see the whole picture, you’re not seeing a realistic image. Often we choose a certain part of ourselves to criticize and analyze and therefore forget the other aspects. We hold on to that for so long, even though it torments you.

Due to this new wave of the way we take in content and Sterre being a fairly new artist, we decided to mainly focus on getting the audience to different social media outlets instead of just YouTube. By doing that we had to make a big switch in the way we produce videos and target the audience. Which meant, switching from 16-9 (horizontal) to 9-16 (vertical).

Next to that, I wanted to play around with the durability of the video. By connecting the first and last shot, an infinite loop was formed. This reflects back to real life. You will always run into the same problems if you do nothing. In order to break the cycle, you have to actively work for change.

The whole crew understood my vision perfectly and helped me turn the ideas into the visual you see today. I am incredibly grateful for everyone involved.

The end result is just like the first thought I had when I saw the concept, it makes the song come alive and makes the thoughts in my head come visual. Leanne has a very professional work ethic and delivers quick and thorough. There’s not a thing she doesn’t think about, what makes her a great director. Her female perspective and touch made it easy for me to be vulnerable and be honest about what I think. – Sterre Nacca

Crew & Cast: 

Writer / Creative Director / producer: Leanne Vink
Producer on set: Isabelle Jansen
D.O.P: Thomas Liebe
Gaffer: Jesse Soepnel
1st AC: Leslie Wilkes
2nd AC: Yeshua Tjie
BTS photographer: Yeshua Tjie
Make-up artist: Carmalita’s Art 

Cast: Sterre Nacca & Layla Akalai

Editor: Leanne Vink
Colorist: Thijs Kern

Artwork photography: Leslie Wilkes
Artwork design: Leanne Vink

Artist: Sterre Nacca
Music: CRZE, Dani Nacca
Mix/Master: Martijn Ruytinx