Patryk, you're right, these dudes make the Board Bangers look pretty tame! Still this is a smokin' groove and very well done video.
Did you make all the light or did you use some natural light, as well? I saw some nicely placed halos and lots of sun rays. That light contrasted perfectly with the depressing little apartment and also gave the place a hot, stuffy atmosphere. Nice shooting in the way you made the light reflect off of people and objects. The smoke was another interesting tool in this vid. It was easy to think, gunfire, but it also made me think how nothing is ever clear in that life. It's always hazy and day-to-day.
I'm not oblivious to the crime message in this piece. That's one of the things I like about Rap. Along with irresistable rhythym, it tells life like it is. With many people, Rap/Hip Hop are a turnoff because crime always appears to be the message. What I see in this video is a message about making it in a tough world. A world that has lots of crime going on, on the block and in the executive office, thus the key that keeps appearing. Some have the key, some have the brick. Our world.
Thanks again for sharing your work, man.You and your JVC HD110 have a great eye.
Superb shot selection. Not enough shot variation? I liked the very short peek at the "girlfriend". This lent some passing humanity to the nihilist genre, and subsequently made the "effect" of the existentialist-terror even more so. Chilling!
I've got some issue with a slippy bit of non-fat editing-to-the beat in there, that just kinda misses?
Overall? The underlying monotonous, gradual picking up of the "key" and the musical key was holy threatening, being linked to the Groundhog-inevitability of it it all, really got to me. Very sad . . . . true, but sad.
I have to wonder how many people here really pick up on all the little things he says that have banger connections. I'm guessing he's got connections to the 18th street mexicali gang? well done video, but if it were me, I'd have a hard time making it cuz even though it's not my normal view of things I just see this guy and he's so cocky making all these statements and I just wanna punch him in the face. wow, he really gets to me a bit. Anyway, I'd never do it because I'm much too self restrained to start doing that kinda thing. Never the less it evokes a very emotional response in me.
This video is something of a "client cut" as much footage that we shot ended up being unusable because last minute the artist decided that it's not the image he wants to project... All that footage is making its way back int director's cut that should be finished some time next week.
Funy thing Dave is half of these "rappers' all calim that they come from the hood or the mean streets. Most of these videos are shot in the least desirable living conditions (aka projects or trailer homes with mattresses on the floor) meanwhile they are getting paid large and living in huge houses drinking bottles of Dom. Its all an act and a fake. Its their version of "street cred". Its actually comical if you ask me.
Patryck, nice video technically. Content wise, I would have hoped for a better selection but you can only shoot what you can shoot.
Well said, fldave. No worries about Patryk starting to "think" too much. This is the same guy who took ~2,000 still pics, dropped them on a timeline and made a beautiful 4+ minute film that got international acclaim and time on the national news. I know it's been covered here before, but it's still worth mentioning again, because this is how Patryk rolls... watching people all over the globe gobble up stuff that lacks perfect form and just isn't supposed to work, sell, be popular, be accepted, etc. You're in a good space Patryk. Keep it up. I'm watching for the next video.
Of course a "good job " to patrick for his work (and if not for just entertaining working on this stuff at all...but hey, we all work with crap for $).
This group might hold a bit more "cred" (damn, did I just type that garbage?) than the hand gesturing females from 90210 video...but there is a constant theme to this persons video work that kinda rings 'low-budget/cheese" (probably hard for you to tell him that though).
My thoughts: first, lose the cheap fogging (or create a better/more interesting blend). As is it's so overused, this guy must love the 80s (and even back then they used it more creatively).
Work on the surroundings for the videos, that's the weakest point which plays in giving off that amatuer look. The topic of focus is shot well...but his surrounding design is nearly non-existent (there's more to the frame than the main subject). This also relates to the point below.
Hey...did we forget about use of angle? Sometimes utilizing more than a tripod can bring life to music videos (I can't stand "common" music videos as you can see - it's up there with the adult video shit at this point, but hey...it's a job) . Plan for or double-up a shoot with some differing angles and perspectives...they can help egotisical music videos quite a bit (maybe hint this ever so carefully to egotistical directors?0
Whoever mentioned "slippy" editing (matching music) is quite right...although I'll go as far as horrid editing. Shore that shit up if he's going for beatmatching.
"slippy" is a nice way of putting it...I'd use "shoddy" (and then the words "you're fired" would soon follow).
After all this crap, go film a real classical or jazz performance and rewash/rinse your mind (let it soak in some real musicianship in reward for putting up with all this puff-work :) And dat's the str8 truth kickin' mad in your mind! ;)p
hey, I'm not trying to dog patryk, his work is great, i just was going off on a tangent cuz i was suprised how much this guy got under my skin. Anyway, like I said before good video, just irritated me that's all.
Dave, you have me laughing, man. It's clear you're not trying to dog Patryk. I've read enough of your posts over the years here to be sure of that. It's also clear that the protagonist, or antagonist, if you will, did a pretty good job in this video if he got under your skin. That's his job; to be a big, mean dude and to say controversial things. No director would tell him to tone it down, look friendlier, or, do a little Cabbage Patch or Running Man. If he moves a little robotic in this vid, I suspect that because that's all they could do with a guy his size cut like him.
Jaydeee, "crap," "puff-work," are harsh opinions, but it's certainly your right to express them. Meanwhile, PATRYK is growing in the business and gaining experience, while Rap and Hip Hop are crossing all lines of race, ethnicity, zip code, country of origin, etc., selling like crazy, and, honestly, connecting people in society who would never have otherwise gotten connected. It's a changing world, and while PATRYK might not be on the vanguard at this point, I really think he is headed there.
2Road! Excellent! - Esp on the crossing continents thing.
I got a "wake-up" to RAP when The Black Eyed Peas did Wembley this last week. One piece was written especially for the theme/message of the London "Live Earth" concert. Very moving indeed.
"The Black Eyed Peas did Wembley this last week. One piece was written especially for the theme/message of the London "Live Earth" concert."
Funnily enough it had the precise opposite effect on me. I found I had to concentrate all my effort on deciphering what was being said and eventually mentally switched off. Hence the message was totally lost on me.
To be fair, it isn't just rap that has this effect on me. I don't "get" poetry for precisely the same reason.
Grazie, the Black Eyed Peas are great. will.i.am and company have fans worldwide. It's hard to argue with music that stirs people like that.
Tim, Literal Thinking versus Lateral Thinking is a scale that most people tip towards the Literal side on. You can practice Lateral Thinking though. You can start by renaming everyday things in your mind. Don't call it what it is, call it what it does. That's a good start.
(edit) or call things what they used to be. Lateral Thinking: "My car was almost on "E" so I had to stop and got some "dead dinosaur."
Do that kind of thinking enough and the abstractness of poetry will become clearer and more enjoyable. Literal thinking is tough to beat down, though. My brother is a Literal thinker and I cannot tolerate watching a movie with him. Zero imagination, and starts with, "that doesn't make sense," before the story has even started to unfold.
Grazie & 2Road
"Literal Thinking versus Lateral Thinking"
I nearly expanded my original comment about poetry and rap but considered I was getting way OT. Anyway, as I have now, I wil :)
I was going to go on to say I only have this problem with rap & poetry (and also the less literal "serious" song lyrics).
Other forms of less literal prose cause me no such problem. This caused me to think it may be something to do with poetry/rap/lyrics having a "beat" and thus enforcing a limit upon the time available for the mind to "process" information or concepts before the next one came along. If this were the case, it would suggest my mind is either slow to interpret or makes so many interpretations it fails to make a decision before it's time to move on.
However this doesn't ring entirely true as I do not have the same problem as 2Road's brother when it comes to films (which of course does require interpretation in real-time). It's usually me, rather than my poetry loving wife, who is happy to live with all sorts of seemingly non-nonsensical stuff in a film, trusting that it will (or maybe won't) make some sort of sense or provoke some sort of thought/reaction/sentiment in due course.
On the other hand, I suspect that you are both generally right about me being a very literal thinker. I'm one of these people who will read manuals and examine all, the possible ways of making a cut before actually getting around to filming anything.
Yet on the guitar I'm a busker rather than a technician.
Guess we all sit somewhere between the two extremes.
I like the suggestion for practicing Lateral Thought though. I'll try it as I drive my collection of neutrons, protons and electrons and managing to avoid any dark matter (something which I rarely give any thought to)
Pat, I'm curious if you're getting these jobs through the same connection? Do these groups talk to each other and recommend you? They obviously have good taste in their selection of video guys if not in music. But hey, "you got to get that money."
"I'll try it as I drive my collection of neutrons, protons and electrons and managing to avoid any dark matter (something which I rarely give any thought to)"
That's it. Lateral "thinking."
Leave a space between yours and the perfectly lined row of parked cars on your office lot and when someone says why did you leave that space, say you decided to let it live. When your incandescent bulb goes, think that it lived its whole lighted-life for that dramatic flash. Soon nothing will be but so ordinary, and you might even put some lyrics to your furious fretwork that'll leave them with even bigger smiles. Enjoy thinking laterally and remember that thought is non-linear, too.
Unfortunately, the theme of the video is the same as most of the other rap vids out there: the "singer" is always vainly talking and posing for the camera. I am sorry to say, this video joins the many others that cannot get out of the same mold.
There used to be a point to music videos, but for the last 10 years or so, we the viewer, have been subjected to the same dumbed down over-and-over crap.
Nonetheless, the camera work and colors were great.
I think such strong opinions on both sides show some merit to the music. I didn't use to be fun but i realized extreme amount of spirit and energy behind the music, movement, performers, since then i keep my mouth shut and go with the flow.
This video was a bit unusual as we got a call to do it 2 days before the shoot. There was not enough money in the budget for anything. So we decided to do it only if the shoot can piggyback on gear from another shoot (the other shoot was one day but we had the gear for whole weekend). So we did best we could with such extreme time pressure. Including some fuck-ups such as not knowing that the baseball field with gorgeoues lighting all over kills its light at 11pm so we had to impovise and try to do "something" with smoke.
Sure there's merit to this music and it's not nearly as polarizing as some people and a lot of the media would have us think. I like it when people in positions of power at corporate events decide to do a skit, or spoof some form of entertainment, how often they choose Rap music to do it. I have seen that spirit and energy you describe really take them over. Quite interesting to watch. One manager said to me after one of those skits, "I was really loose up there. That felt great!"
I feel like I have harped on it, but I really have enjoyed the videos you have posted here Patryk and I'll be checking your website to see some more. I'm hoping you get to work with some big name Hip Hop artists in the future. With your connections in NY, Miami and LA, that could happen sooner, than later. All the best, with everything. Take care.
>>With your connections in NY, Miami and LA, that could happen sooner, than later<<
2road: Oh come on, let's talk turkey for a sec. It's also just another music video and more basic "rap" for that matter (sub-par rap to add - far from "memorable").
Something with some substance and meaning might be a better move from time to time (even if it didn't pay as well...if at all). It just makes it all real.
This stuff? It's far from "real" these days (not to mention - it's rather dated material).
You encourage Pat down this road, and I''d encourage him to hopefully aim to veer far from it one day. What's next....aother reality TV show?