olza, as the sleeping peacock and the video’s namesake, awakens both herself and the viewer to something deeper and headier. As organic and naturally flowing as the visuals look, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the filmmaking process reflects this, with the shoot being arranged and developed over a long timespan in gradual pieces before a weekend shoot to bring it all together. Director Liam Harrington talked through the process of making this video, and the artistic workflow, saying:

“Having collaborated with Olivia (olza) before, I knew I wanted to be a part of her first visual piece. Taking on the roles of director, producer and editor was a long but rewarding process. The first treatment came together in August 2024 – I remember putting so much care into that document because I knew it had to excite the crew I dreamed of working with. By March 2025 we were on set, splitting the shoot across two very different environments: one day at Filmworx Studios (in Maidstone), the other out at Lysterfield Lake. That mix of a controlled studio space and expansive natural landscape gave us both contrast and texture, which carried through into the final edit. Now, after more than a year of development, it feels surreal to finally share the finished video in September 2025.”

Refrains of olza howling “You locked it up” are remedied by the affirmations to “Rebirth, renew”, with the song taking seeming inspiration from the mantra like unpacking of emotional rawness and seeking closure and empowerment by artists like Björk and FKA twigs. In the video we see armour worn but no longer needed, shielding from battles long ago fought. The water and its rippling reflection seem to symbolise hope, restoration and renewal. Capturing and creating this clear-eyed visual effect was the work of cinematographer Indigo Tait-Atkin who adds: 

“I really wanted olza as a performer to remain as a defined focal point amongst all the lucid chaos – serving as the visual anchor in the kind of erratic light soup (served up masterfully by gaffer Corey Clements. Thank you Corey!) that’s swarming all around her. The lenses we used were the Dulens APO Primes. They’re affordable full frame lenses, sharp (thank you 1st AC Chavi!), but still with a bit of character in the bloomy highlights and occasionally hectic rainbow flares. The rippling effect we achieved by placing a mirror just under the surface of the lake – angling the mirror and olza slightly towards each other so we could capture the reflection, moving it gently to create movement across the lake’s surface. The idea is to make it feel like we’re staring up through the water, and originally we planned to immerse the entire setup in some sort of painful weighted underwater housing scenario… but I thought up a cheaper cheat that also kept my in-camera trick kink happy.”

The makeup art of this music video is beautifully soft, and complements the bright orange boldness of olza’s hair and the sharper elements of the cinematography with minimal grace. In tandem with softer elements, the metallic styling with the chrome nails stands out, drawing the attention of the viewer from the jump as olza’s fingers dance over the water. Makeup artist Molly Athanatos had this say about the process:

“We always knew that we wanted to have this really intense silver, purple and taupe blown out look around the eyes with the intense contrasting lips and hardware that we glued down, but we experimented with more ways that we could push this further; whether that be white eyelashes, contacts and really harsh lines around her contours. In the end we stripped it back to be really soft, blended and feminine, with the fake piercings adding the contrast and tying into the styling. I absolutely loved that we let the makeup remain soft as everything else in this video was so intense. I felt like, being about this inner push and pull of one’s psyche, it felt really right having the makeup reflect this contrast and be this very ethereal and soft feel with subtle additions of the harshness that’s reflected around Liv (olza) in a lot of the shots.”

Resurrection and rebirth figure greatly into the themes of ‘sleeping peacock’ and this is perhaps best realised through the costuming. From battle-weary armour with metallic spikes transitioning into a bulbous grey whole body dress then again into a strappy brown leather bodice and finally re-emerging confidently in a black leather two-piece dress, olza looks spectacular and every element is immaculately conceived. The costuming is the comprehensive work of Daisy Thornley, who drew from a plethora of sources to bring the artist properly to the foreground. Daisy shared a bit about her stylistic choices and process of sourcing, saying:

“All the looks sought to be a visual extension of self for olza. The song itself being such an intimate form of self-expression, we used costumes to help embody the feeling and story of the song. The spectrum between the literal armour to the grey organically shaped gown symbolises the duality of self and depth to olza as an artist. In terms of sourcing, I looked through the graduate pages for Australian fashion universities to find designers such as @abbeyhdesign. Social media is obviously a huge resource. I follow a huge range of designers that inspire me. I often save and tag designers in a spread sheet for future projects. I then did some research and found what I thought best suits the project, then reached out directly. I am immensely grateful for the designers whose talent and generosity made this art possible.”

Peacock feathers tend to symbolise good luck and divine protection. The eyes of the feather watching over restful sprites and warding away restless spirits. Giving a carefully considered and watchful eye is the choreography by olza, as the audience follows every jutted hand movement and propulsive thrust towards the light and something greater. With an influence from ballroom culture and voguing, this seemingly reflects olza making her mark on stage channeling abundance and vitality. Olivia went a bit further in on this:

“I drew a lot of inspiration from free-flow movement, voguing, and waacking. Since most of my costumes restricted slight movement through the legs, I focused on creating striking motions with my upper body and arms. For me, this became an interpretation of waacking—less about sharp, rapid gestures and more about fluid, unbroken, continuous flow. Leading up to the production, I sketched out some loose choreography to guide me and to give Liam a sense of how the movement might look. But once we began filming, I abandoned most of what I had planned and leaned into improvisation instead. I let the music guide me, experimenting with the tension between elongated, slow motions and abrupt, unconventional ones. It was a vulnerable experience, as I’m not a trained dancer, but there was something euphoric and liberating about surrendering to the music and allowing it to shape the poses and movements that emerged.”

The physicality and movement required from olza for ‘sleepingpeacock’ extends further than dancing and choreography, and into stunt work. Artist olza worked with stunt person Eddy Buckle to bring the opening floating scene to life. olza described the process of preparing for stunts, and collaborating with Eddy on this process:

“The opening scene was very much thought out on the day. Eddy being a scout, he brought his kayak and rope to ensure the rope was attached to the kayak, so that when Eddy was assisting with kicking the mattress further out to the centre of the lake, Thomas, 1st AD, was able to do most of the work on the kayak. To stabilise the mattress against the winds, Eddy hid behind the mattress and Thomas moved out of shot with the rope still intact to get the shot that we needed, which came out perfectly. Under the cold weather conditions, Liv, Thomas and Eddy very much braved it and soldiered through for an incredible product so the cold wind and freezing water was worth it!”

Another wonderful thing to note about peacock feathers is that they don’t fade or lose their shine, covered fully in crystal-like structures, reflecting light which creates the bold colours they’re known for. The whole crew, from costuming to stunt work crystallise together and have got olza covered on this, reflecting the very best the industry has to offer. This is rather exceptional work, and if these visuals are any indication, olza and co will be around for a long while with the sheer level of talent involved.

Here is the official video for “sleepingpeacock“

Music Video Credits

Director & Edit: Liam Harrington. Cinematographer: Indigo Tait-Atkin. Performance: Olivia Mclean. 1st Assistant Director; Thomas Athan. Production Assistant: Charlie McCosh. Production Assistant: Claire Riverland. 1st Assistant Camera: Chavi Levine. 2nd Assistant Camera: Miri Wilson. BTS Photographer: Tom Gilfillan. Gaffer: Corey Clement. Best Person: Riley Lewis. Costume Designer: Daisy Thornley. Makeup Artist: Molly Athanatos. Set decorator: Kirsty Wilson. Stunts: Eddy Buckle. Caterer: Nick Vargas. Graphics: Jericho Marcel. Colour: Indigo Tait-Atkin.