DRAFTING W/ CHARLI XCX

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Charli XCX plays both camera and killer in her new “Camera” music video, which stars French actor Vincent Cassel on a desert film set.

A crashed car smokes in the background as Cassel gets doused in fake blood and repeatedly reshoots a death scene — all while technical mishaps and his own frustration derail production. Directed by Aidan Zamiri, Charli’s longtime collaborator, the black-and-white visual is the fourth cinematic release off the pop star’s new album, Music, Fashion, Film, out this Friday, July 24 — following “Rock Music,” “SS26” and “Wink Wink.”

For DRAFTING, Charli dives into her “Camera” creative process — from early conversations about how she’d appear on screen to the visual references that shaped the final look, offering a glimpse into the collaborative back-and-forth behind the video.

This image of James Dean was a key jumping off point for Aidan and I. He looks so exhausted, so fed up, so over it. It triggered us into thinking about push and pull of emotions when making something — the idea of putting yourself through something uncomfortable in pursuit of art and performance. It’s something that we really connected to. Even though it can feel hard and sometimes humiliating, there’s a burning passion to get to this place where you feel something powerful and indescribable.

Then we had to cast our actor. We knew from the beginning we wanted it to be Vincent, simply because he’s the coolest. We were very excited when he said he was down.

Aidan and I went back and forth about my presence in the video. We knew we wanted me on top of the camera, but in a more “presence,” voyeuristic type way — but without dressing me up as a ghoul. We wanted my position to feel strong, almost like I was actually the camera itself. We sent a bunch of Helmut Newton images back and forth.

As we were shooting a film within a film, we needed to write a scene for Vincent’s character to struggle through. In our head, we were going for some sort of big bombastic action movie — a kind of casino royale or Bourne identity.

Aidan and I waiting for Vincent to call us to talk about the details of the shoot whilst we were on set of my “Wink Wink” music video. Obviously, it doesn’t look like it here, but we’re pretty certain we have magic powers and we cast a spell that made the phone ring exactly when we wanted to.

Aidan positioning Vincent’s character’s crashed car the day before we shot.

All of us on set watching back one of our first rehearsals.