Bikes, Basketball, Bowties And A Swimming Pool For Good Measure
The Tribe and Big Cats! just released their latest video for the wonderful song Good Life, featuring a verse from Smoke DZA (video is at bottom of post).
I had the amazing opportunity to direct the video, which was an absolute blast because everyone was very cool. Especially rapper Chris because I made him wear a very warm wool blazer on 2 hot summer afternoons.
So for this vid, I again wanted to shoot during the golden hour. It was the end of August so between 5 PM to 8 PM was about all the time we had.
Saleem and I wrote out our grand wish shot list of everything we wanted to see in the video for both days 1 and 2. We took those lists and prioritzed what shots were essential and what shots would be rad if we could have them, but could live without if we had to.The essentials for us were the ones of Chris rapping. We figured if we had that and nothing else, at least we would have some sort of video. Him rapping, people playing basketball, and the camera constantly moving, we hoped it could hold the viewer's attention if that was the only thing we were able to shoot that day. We also had to shoot little Chris' verse, too.2nd tier ideas were shots that matched certain points in the lyrics. For example Chris getting lifted up form the ground, him holding the Jordan's and Spencer and Pete popping out the double d's.3rd tier were shots of the crazy b-ball players.Day 2 was at the pool and I was really excited about the bike shot, so that was the first thing we did. That took a while simply becuase we wanted to get enough stuff to cut to and a steady shot, even thought it's not in the video for that long.
That led us to the backyard where we needed to get the timing of Chris and lil Chris climbing over the fence and Chris's big walk through the back yard just right so we could get him to the diving board on time. Originally, I had wanted to do it all in one take and have him fall in the pool, but finding out I could use a crane (courtesty of Dan Godar) we decided to cut after he gets on the diving board for the aerial shot of him falling in. I originally also wanted the camera to follow him into the water in one take, but we scratched that as we couldn't get a waterproof housing for the 5D.This pool part took a long time to set up and so by the time we shot, light was getting dim. But surpisingly it still showed up, even in the pool which was great since that part was essential to the storyline of Chris emerging from the pool to his friends on the lawn chair, sitting back and enjoying the good life.Saleem was the assistant director and was essential becuase he kept the ball rolling and pushed me from shot to shot. Without him I would have spent way too much time on each shot and would not have been able to get everything done before dark. He also entertained people while I zoned out behind the camera.One thing we talked about afterwards, it would have been a good idea to have a boombox jamming tunes so people waiting around can party while we set up shot.
Besides that, it was a pretty easy shoot that I think anyone could do with enough planning on where the sun is going to be and doing location scouts. Give it a try!
BONUS: Saleem took some amazing still photos. These are all his shots.
And the video:
