Art Director Youjia Qian teams up with Burna Boy on new music video

Having always been an avid reading, inspiration often struck Youjia Qian when she was flipping through the pages of a magazine. With each advertisement and image, she would wonder how it was put together, from the clothes the model was wearing to the color scheme in the photos. As a child, she felt a need to do the same, and has since become a celebrated art director and stylist.

“I think the most interesting thing about being an art director is communicating with others to help them to express various ideas. I think each job seems to be an adventure with my vision,” she said.

Qian has impressed audiences around the world. She has put her touch on viral music videos for popular artists like Roy Woods, DeathByRomy, and Gab3, and worked on commercial campaigns for world renowned companies such as Barneys New York. Her original artistic eye has made her in demand all over the world, from her home country of China and abroad.

“I think my style of art direction should be young, modern and contemporary to appeal to more young people to generate artistic form of resonance,” she said.

This past May one of Qian’s latest projects premiered on YouTube. The “Devil in California” music video by the award-winning artist Burna Boy was published by WMG (on behalf of Atlantic Records); BMG Rights Management and 2 Music Copyright Associations. Qian, who had heard of Burna Boy after he won the MTV Africa Music Award, was excited to collaborate with the artist. She came on board with the recommendation of Gab3, having created several successful videos for him, and his recommendation proved to be quite fruitful as the video has amassed hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube alone.

“I am very happy that everyone likes my work. I also hope that I can work with a variety of artists in the future. At the same time, since I have tried the method of cutting a lot of shots together for the first time in music video, I feel that everyone was happy with the result. I hope more people can see my work in the future,” said Qian.

There are a lot of outdoor scenes in the music video, and Qian chose to cut the different lenses together to explain the California feeling of the whole song. There are also many of Burna Boy’s own friends featured in the video, making the whole process of shooting very pleasant and natural for Qian, as everyone shared her vision.

She tried to make the tone of the whole song match the song “Devil in California”. To do this, she carefully planned out the transitions between each scene, and wanted various filters over the lenses. The effect is magical.

“The whole process of shooting was very pleasant, especially when shooting a lot of outdoor scenes, there have been a lot of new inspirations, and everyone is very friendly, and I learned a lot during the whole shooting process,” she said.

Shooting “Devil in California” was an amazing experience for Qian, who loves what she does. Each and every project she takes on allows her to live her childhood dream, and she couldn’t be more grateful. For those looking to follow in her footsteps, she encourages to never give up, and of course, read.

“I think the most important thing is to read more, to listen more and to learn more so that you know that the things made by you are unique with your own style. Only learning could enrich your inner world. At the same time, you should surround yourself with friends sharing the same mind as you to have mutual connection and learning,” she advised.

Watch “Devil in California” here.

Written by Sara Fowler