The creative camera choices behind one of the year's biggest music videos

Since it was released two months ago, Olivia Rodrigo's music video for the song "drop dead" has already garnered 42 million views. There are probably a lot of reasons it's been so popular: it's the lead single for a very popular artist's new album, was shot on location in Versailles and clips from it have been popular on social media sites like Instagram. But the aesthetic of the video probably helps too; it has a dreamy, old-school look to it that taps directly into 90s VHS nostalgia.

While that's well-trodden ground for modern music videos, the effect is very convincing... because it's real. A recent video from the YouTube channel Frame Set goes deep on how the video, directed by Petra Collins, was shot, in a wide-ranging interview with its cinematographer, Todd Banhazl.

The video obviously covers the mix of cameras used, going into why the crew chose to use BetaCam, VHS and MiniDV, and the different situations where they needed to go with one over the other. There are plenty of interesting details in it for camera nerds, but it also doesn't slack on discussing craft; a lot of the video is focused on the interesting lighting setups needed to film in a historic building with limited control while using cameras with very low sensitivity.

It also touches on other technical aspects, like the difficulties of editing interlaced footage that will eventually be shown using a platform designed for progressive video, and deeper topics like the rise of the lo-fi aesthetic in the age of AI-generated imagery. Even if you're not into music videos or Olivia Rodrigo's brand of pop-rock singer-songwriting, the interview is well worth a watch just to see a clearly talented creative talk about their process.