Photo courtesy: Shubham Gosalia

For cinematographer Shubham Gosalia, the road that eventually led to sets with Taylor Swift and Patrick Mahomes started with a weekly ritual: Friday nights at the movies with his parents in Mumbai, in the same seats no matter what was playing. It wasn’t until high school, when a friend asked him to help shoot a short film about a man’s relationship with his cup of tea, that Gosalia began to suspect filmmaking might be more than a habit picked up in a theater seat.

That interest eventually took him thousands of miles from home. Choosing a film school meant a six-month search that moved from Mumbai to Pune, Dubai, London, Miami and Canada before landing him in Los Angeles at the New York Film Academy. It also led him, a few years later, to a chair in a Los Angeles studio that happened to be occupied by Taylor Swift.

Gosalia was accepted into Gold Rising, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ summer fellowship for early career filmmakers, on the strength of a submission he describes as unpolished but sincere, a collage of his work rather than a traditional reel. He recalls a program coordinator later telling him he was chosen because he was eager to learn, even without a finished showreel. The eight-week fellowship put him in rooms with producers from Disney and Marvel, took him to a private screening of “Top Gun: Maverick” at the IMAX headquarters, and got him a seat in the audience at the 2023 Oscars.

At the end of the program, the Academy paired him with a mentor, Jess Hall, the ASC and BSC-recognized cinematographer behind Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Gosalia’s first assignment shadowing Hall arrived with a stack of contracts so heavily redacted that the artist’s name had been scrubbed throughout, save for one unremoved reference to Taylor Swift Productions. Days later, he was on set in Los Angeles, camera assisting a music video shoot with Swift over four days. He recalls introducing himself to her without meaning to, by accidentally bumping her chair before the two had been formally introduced, only realizing who she was afterward. The second production Hall brought him onto was a Super Bowl campaign for Subway featuring Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Those two projects, Gosalia says, reshaped how he thought about a career that, until then, had mostly meant student productions in Los Angeles and India. “It is not even in my dreams, because I don’t know what to dream at that level,” he says of the run of work.

Now splitting his time between Los Angeles and Mumbai, Gosalia has started his own production company, Sure Shot, built around a concern he says is reshaping the industry: the instability of a career built entirely on freelance camera work, as AI tools and tighter budgets change how and where productions get made. Sure Shot is built around story-led commercial work, music videos and podcasts rather than straightforward product shoots. Its first campaign, in production this month, is for a Mumbai-based vegan leather footwear brand that has built a following across the Middle East and London and is now expanding into the United States and Canada.

Gosalia has also spent recent months shooting for the vertical, mobile-first format that has taken over platforms like TikTok, a discipline he describes as fundamentally different from traditional cinematography. Vertical productions move fast, often covering multiple pages of script in a single day across two or three cameras, prioritizing coverage and pace over the composition choices that define feature and music video work.

Gosalia’s most recent on-screen credit remains Diljit Dosanjh’s music video “Saanvle,” shot across a single day on a Beverly Hills property, where he served as cinematographer.

Written in partnership with Tom White

By Ryan Bazinet

Is it better to have loved and lost, or better to never have loved at all? That’s the question asked by “‘Till The Break of Day,” the new single by Colorado band Voltaire’s Ghost. 

The track opens with distorted guitar and piano arpeggios circling two chords in dreamy perpetual motion. Upbeat drums drive the song along, like the forces of life that pull apart the two lovers at the center of the story.

It’s a bittersweet tale. Two lovers going in separate directions, like the wailing guitar solos which pan from left to right. Ruby Juhl’s echo-soaked vocals are alternately delicate and angry as she sings,

The only thing worse than not having met you

Was having met you, baby

The only thing worse than not having loved you

Was having loved you, baby

In the end, all she can do is sigh, over and over, “Hold me ‘till the break of day.”

The love story behind “‘Till The Break of Day” shows a softer side for the band. Previous songs, like “Death Becomes You” and “Spirit Animal,” help explain why their music has been described with terms like Dark Pop and Cosmic Goth. But fans will note that the brooding remains.

Voltaire’s Ghost was created in Grand Junction, Colorado by songwriter and guitarist Magnus, who released a series of singles in the summer of 2023. Those songs caught the attention of Nashville producer Dean Miller (son of Roger Miller, “King of the Road”), who reached out with an offer to record in the “Music City.” 

Realizing he needed a band, Magnus soon connected with drummer Joshua Eggstaff, who was teaching drums at a local music shop and brought a 90s alternative-inspired edge to the band’s rhythms. Next came Ruby Juhl, a singer with a background in musical theater (and a student at the local university). 

Magnus asked Ruby and Josh if they wanted to fly to Nashville to make a record. The result was the five-song EP, NEMESIS, released in 2024. 

Now, Voltaire’s Ghost is ready to release a new full-length record, Black Petals Fallen. Produced by Magnus, Black Petals Fallen was recorded locally in Colorado. The band then sent the tracks off to Grammy-nominated engineer Joe Ayoub of LA’s Cherokee Studios for mixing. Drew Levine mastered the album.

Black Petals Fallen is available now on vinyl via the band’s official website. Four singles including “‘Till The Break of Day” are available on streaming platforms. The full album will be released for streaming soon.

In the arc of the band, “‘Till The Break of Day” is a full circle moment. The song was originally released as a guitar-and-voice demo back in 2023, before Magnus had assembled the full band. With the latest single, Voltaire’s Ghost has brought the vision to fruition.

Magnus says, “With the new recording, the song just came to life. The demo I released was a sketch. The new version is like a beautiful painting with really vibrant and emotional colors.”

Upcoming visuals include a music video for “‘Till The Break of Day” directed by Luke Ostermiller (who recently directed the super spooky video for “Black Petals Fallen.”) The band is also planning a short film for upcoming single, “The Ballad of Colleen Gray.”

“‘Till The Break of Day” is out now with promotional support from Starlight PR. Follow Voltaire’s Ghost at the links below.

Official Website

Spotify

YouTube

Instagram

TikTok

Apple Music

Written in partnership with Tom White

What do Chinese electronic brands, US film study, and the LA production industry have in common? Dante Jiayu Liu. 

Some commercials capture public attention long after the ad ends. Sometimes they use popular music or trending design to spark visual appeal. 

Staying power and influence may be the goal of commercial directors, and they are two pillars of Dante Jiayu Liu’s work as a commercial and creative director. 

The award-winning director works with global brands, particularly consumer electronics and technology companies, reimagining their identity, values, and image for Western audiences. 

Experiencing Chinese and American Culture

Liu spent his childhood in China and grew up with Chinese culture all around. He came to the US for high school and received a Western education as an adult.

The perspective Liu gained from dual cultural immersion is integral to his work now. Experiencing youth in the US and China means he was, in his words, “bathed in the pop culture.” 

He says, “I loved talking to people from different countries, and that helped me really understand that the United States is a place where culture merges. We have to be able to listen to other people and really understand the differences between our own originality.”

Listening is the first step in his process, but once Liu hears the message, he must convey it digitally through art and film.

Studying visual art in college helped him understand the practical elements of conveying cultural differences into a similar language. Merging Chinese brands with American culture is not without its struggles for Liu.

His Philosophy: Sharing Culture through Communication

The Chinese and US markets are two different markets rooted in two different cultures, creating a barrier to connection for Liu. His role often involves introducing consumer electronics to US consumers, while the tech makers are Chinese.

He says, “To [the makers], it’s hard for them to speak in a language that will sell their product to American people. Despite that, we live in a modern global world; cultural differences can sometimes become very sensitive in terms of how we convince other people or how we go about the way we live our lives.”

Liu’s task is to understand the branding of the Chinese business and carry it across the cultural divide to reach American audiences for the Chinese electronic business’s benefit.

He notes that many companies try to save on budget by lowering production costs and moving production to their home country or other countries where production is less costly.

Liu tells clients that budget is not the biggest concern. In his professional experience, to sell a product to a different culture, you meet them where they are. 

He explains, “We need to understand and respect the culture, make the commercial on their domestic soil, in their own language, and really become friends with the culture, respect the culture.”

Each time Liu transports productions, he creates jobs in LA film production for local assistants, creatives, videographers, and more. 

If listening is his first step, communicating is his next, and his work shows how communication matters to his practice as a filmmaker and cultural explorer. 

Shokz x HYROX

Art and communication are evident in Liu’s work, but technology, specifically AI, also shapes his style. 

He directed a collaboration commercial campaign between Shokz, a bone-conduction headphone brand, and HYROX, a global fitness race. Liu’s Shokz x HYROX collaboration commercial won the Telly “Silver Winner in Generative AI-Branding” Award in 2026. 

This was not Liu’s first time working with Shokz. He directed a release campaign for Shokz’s flagship product, OpenFit2, in 2025. Later in 2026, he directed another campaign for Shokz’s OpenMeet in Los Angeles.

Liu repeatedly works with brands to bring their identity to Western audiences. In Shokz’s case, the company’s audiences are European and American, so he communicates the identity for two cross-cultural markets.

Dante Jiayu Liu’s Practice: Film, Tech, and Communication

Liu’s long-term ambition is to carry his cross-cultural advertising experience into narrative filmmaking. 

He has seen some success in film with Grandma’s House, a 2020 short film he directed, which later screened at a variety of film festivals, including the 15th FIRST International Film Festival. The film was a finalist at the USA Film Festival.

Listening is Dante Jiayu Liu’s first step to creating stories that audiences of different cultures can enjoy and share, and with his command of technology, communicating across cultures through media appears within his grasp. 

Written in partnership with Tom White