Throughout the years, music videos have been a major marketing and promotional tool for entertainers. In-demand director Oshane “Shane Creative” Junior believes even with the advent of social media, the music video remains relevant.

“Visuals do play a key role in promoting songs. You might hear a song and you may not like it, but when you see the video, there might be something that catch your eye and you play that video on repeat,” Junior explained.

Wikid Media, a company he started three years ago, is responsible for directing videos for dancehall acts, Squash, Daddy1, Chronic Law, Vybz Kartel, Jahvillani, and Quada.

With a number of music video directors in Jamaica, the medium is competitive. Some of the top names in the field include Jay Will (Jason Williams), Gerald “Ras Kassa” Hynes, and Kevin Lee.

Shane Creative, 26, says stepping outside of the box has helped make his work stand out.

“Being creative and doing things outside of the norm have helped to make my work different from others. People are impressed with the work that I do, and they like the fact that I come up with ideas and how I brought out the vision in their videos,” he added.

Prior to directing music videos, Shane Creative was videographer/photographer for dancehall star Popcaan. He also worked with dancer-turned-deejay Chi Ching Ching.

When artistes began contacting him to direct their videos, he could not refuse.

“When the artistes started to call my phone wanting to work with me I felt humbled. It was just overwhelming because I worked hard to get to a level and I was proud of myself,” he said.

Shane Creative’s resume include videos such as Clarks Pon Foot by Jahvillani, World Government by Vybz Kartel, Rich by Daddy1, Beat Dem Bad by Vybz Kartel and Squash, Trending by Squash and We Rise by Nordia Mothersille.

“I give a client what they need and not what they want. However, I do listen to their opinion and try to pool their ideas with mine. But you have some artistes who just want to do the regular things, and I just step away from that,” he said.

Born in Trelawny, Shane Creative grew up in Kingston and attended Excelsior High School and Jamaica College, where he excelled in track and field. Photography, and later videography, caught his eye once he left school.

“I always had a love for film and music videos. There was a music studio in the community where I lived (Grants Pen) and artiste came there and left his video camera by accident. I would play around with it and I fell in love with the camera from then,” he recalled.

The first video Shane Creative directed was by Cutta, a Jamaican artiste based in the United Kingdom.

He is inspired by the work of three famous Americans — music video director Colin Tilley, maverick film director Stanley Kubrick and Academy award-winning director Steven Spielberg.

“Spielberg has a crazy thing for art and he thinks outside of the box and he always dares to be different. Colin Tilley, I like his choice of colour, concepts and set design,” said Shane Creative.