The first music video Doctor Dior shot was for ‘No Stress’ by Skepta x L3 x Michael Phantom, gaining over 450k views on GRMdaily and showing from the jump he was destined for the big league. With proven versatility in pre and post-production, Dior has worked with the likes of Slawn, Motherlan, Mowalola, Odunsi The Engine, Boo Johnson and Blanco. Jamaican-born and Bristol-raised, Dior is the man behind Wire Studios: a platform filled with an array of films. Many labels can be given to him: videographer, designer, fashion initiator, model, artist (the latest addition), proving his creativity is limitless. With every artistic expression he uses to channel his imagination, his execution is always of the highest quality. Dior’s creative journey is inspiring, to say the least, and a testimony to his likable character. But this is just the start, and he’s destined for greatness in years to come.
Read about his inspirations, hometown, the story behind filming Skepta’s music video and much more below. If it's your first time hearing about him, you can be certain it will not be your last.
What is Wire Studios?
Wire Studios is my brand. It covers my designs and my videography and if I do any projects I post it through wire studios.
What’s the mission statement for Wire Studios?
My original mission statement was to digitise imagination. So people come to me with ideas and no matter what it is, I will try to digitise and make them in a virtual form. It's a platform for myself but in the future, I want to make a team out of it. You know how AWGE has its own team, with videographers, designers, and other creatives, that’s what Wire Studios will be.
How did you get into filmography?
My mum moved to Canada and she sold her house so I was homeless, basically. She said I could either move away really far or I could stay here. I had nowhere to stay so I was sofa surfing. With my last £20 I went to cash converters. I saw a camera that was like £20. I just bought the camera and I’d never been into filming my entire life, like never.
I’d say I was about nineteen. I bought that camera but I had nothing else. I started filming stuff, like random shit from when I was homeless. I didn’t have anything to edit with, I never owned a laptop and I’d never touched editing software. I’d go to parties and film them. If there was a fight on the street I’d film that. I’d film everything. Then I started directing more, I realised I knew what looked cool and what didn’t. After two years of filming that, I started saving. I put down a deposit for a house and bought a laptop on finance straight away. I started editing all the videos from when I was homeless, I made an Instagram which was Wire Studios, put them on there and within the first week I had different brands hit me up. Boohoo wanted to collab with me and then literally the week after that I was on one of their biggest campaigns, shooting on three different sets with the same £20 camera.
What was the camera?
JVC 4HD from cash converters.
It's a camcorder?
Yeah. So if you go on my Instagram and you go right down to the bottom, I shot all that on there. Lockdown came when I got my laptop, and I did nothing else but watch editing videos. It's all I cared about. I just loved it. I knew what I wanted things to look like and so I just wanted to know how I could make it happen.
Do you have any advice for people that want to start filming but money is tight?
Save up the £2 you might be spending on Rizzla or the £30 you might be spending on an eighth and hunt for cameras. Just do your best with that. It doesn't matter about the equipment or how good it is. You can shoot on a Sony Ericsson and someone’s going to think it's amazing. You just got to work with what you’ve got.
And you grew up in Bristol — what’s your experience of growing up there?
Growing up in Bristol has been…ok. I'm not gonna lie, I don't really rate Bristol. My friends are cool but the place itself is just so small-town-vibe. I’ve always known that I’ve been destined for a little bit more than that, do you know what I’m saying? Especially being from Jamaica. Jamaica is a place where people are so outgoing and everyone is a character. And if you’re not, no one will listen to you. You’ve gotta have something about you or you’re boring, innit. So growing up in a place like Bristol where everyone is trying to do the same shit and most people are still living at their mums’ cribs…it kinda taught me what I didn’t want.
How do you think growing up there shaped you?
It’s made me more aware of racism. I have a friend who came from Zimbabwe when he was nine years old and he didn’t know what racism really was because he was always around black people. When he came here people were bare racist to him. He was like ‘why are they calling me this and that’, and then he started to get it. Whereas me, I’ve been here since I was one year old. I came from Jamaica when I was one so people have always been racist toward me. It's like if I said to you, you were fat but you didn't know what fat meant then it's cool. But if you know what it means then it's like shit, you’re trying to use that word to hurt me. Besides bad things, I grew up with a really good friendship group and we used to do crazy shit together, we were tight.
How would you describe your films?
I’d say I have a mix but I started off with a choppy and rough style. It was very free. There were no strict guidelines whatsoever apart from just trying and make it look as cold as possible. Sometimes I look back on those videos and think they’re some of the coldest videos I’ve done.
Would you say it’s more refined now?
Yeah. I get a lot of influence from music and when I start to listen to different music, it affects my view in a different way. I’ve started listening to jazz and old-school RnB like I did when I was a kid. I started listening to that more and it helped; it helped guide me into a way of thinking. I always want to keep my old style and my old pace in there but I want to go a little bit cleaner. I think it gives off a more high-production look and that’s where the money is. People kept looking at my page and saying like ‘I love your video style, VHS stuff is hard’ and I was thinking that's not really my style, that's just what I have and I’m just making videos. So when people started saying that, I was thinking people only hit me up because I do VHS videos and I want people to see that I can do other stuff.
You’ve shot music videos. Do you feel like you are limited to certain genres within that or do you feel like you could have anyone hit you up and make a cool video?
Yeah, anyone. As long as they’re not a dickhead.
What about a metal band for example?
Hundred-percent. I’ve always wanted to do that. Not specifically a video for a metal band but I’ve always wanted to make a video to rock music. I just feel like the pace would match my style.
You’ve listed music as an inspiration, what else makes you inspired?
I get a lot of inspiration from being Jamaican. Being from that side of the world, we have a lot of influence from American culture. My sisters used to be really into that that 2004-2010 era, like Solidier Boy and those videos. I get inspiration from grime, you know channel AKA. And now I’ve started to shoot videos, it kinda had that rough street style that I’d seen when I was younger. Then just mix it with whatever the f**k is on my mind. I got a lot of inspiration from Dexter Navy, who shoots all of A$AP Rocky’s videos. I take a lot of inspiration from Christopher Doyle, a cinematographer and he works with another guy I take inspiration from a director, called Wong Kar-Wai. They’re just cold. When I first started filming I took a lot of inspiration from Lone Wolf…hard. Any BBK cipher video.
Is there anyone you want to work with?
Off the bat, I want to work with Lancey Foux. I want to work with Skepta again. I want to work with my boys more, Motherlan. Zaccv, he’s the coldest. I’ve got a music video with Zac. Nike, I want to do something for them.
How did you meet the Motherlan boys?
I was supposed to shoot a music video for my friend BUT my friend cancelled on me. I was stranded in London and my mate messaged me saying that I could go to his friend's house and chill there and get a coach the next morning. He gave me some random address and I pulled up to a house in Dalston, East London. I went in there and Slawn was sellotaped up, completely, like arms and legs and they were shooting videos and it flowed. I got out my camera and started filming. It was gang from then on. I didn't even leave the next day. I’m pretty sure I stayed there for like two weeks. They were chill, we went to bare parties and were vibing. There was one bed in there, a couple of sofas, and like ten/fifteen guys. I shut down the Skepta video in those two weeks. Slawn, literally on the first day, was like this is my guy, he’s gang and it was just like that.
What was it like shooting your first music video and it being one for Skepta?
It was unreal, to the point where I remember thinking to myself, ‘Why don’t I feel nervous?’ And I think it was because it was so surreal, I couldn’t believe it. He put on his Instagram that he wanted someone to shoot a music video for him that day. Slawn saw it and was spamming the comments with ‘Dior, Dior.’ But I just thought it was not gonna happen. Slawn ran upstairs and was like ‘Dior, Skepta rang me! I think he wants to shoot the video’. We were gassed. He was ringing him back and he wasn’t answering and we were all stressed. It got to like 8 o’clock and Skepta rang back and was like, ‘Im coming yours in half an hour, let's shoot this music video.’ My camera was dead, I went and charged it quickly and went out with my friend and literally ran around the block in Dalston looking for spots. Then they pulled up with twenty man, we ended up having an afterparty and he bought everyone McDonald’s. I edited it in like five/six days then went back there and linked up with Skepta, Lancey Foux, Slawn and everyone. Skepta wanted to see the video, we basically finalised it together. I finished the video there and then and sent it off. It was out on GRMDaily the next day.
That’s crazy. That video came out two years ago, how do you feel when you look back at it?
It’s so hard knowing that's my first music video and knowing that I can do so much better and it's still cold. It's not even my favourite video, it's just a hard video.
What’s your absolute dream, the ‘I made it’ moment?
It’s a good question. For now I can just picture me doing skits, like short films. Nike do a lot of campaigns where it’ll be six minutes of really meaningful content and it has this powerful message and you almost wish it was a movie. I kinda see myself doing stuff like that. The ‘I made it’ moment is having a lot of money in my bank account because I’ve been doing that. Like someone seeing that work and being like it's so amazing we want to pay you.
Finally, I know you’ve started making music. Let the people know about that.
I’ve got three songs to be released pretty soon. Yeah, I hopped in the booth and started working. No one’s really seen it yet but I’ve got some videos that I’m planning too.
Words Poppy Warren (@poppy__warren)
Photography Poppy Warren (@poppy__warren)
Colour Grading Doctor Dior (doctor.dior)
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