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Thursday, January 26, 2017

MIDNIGHT STROLL

Image result for jasper johnson



I've got this friend Jasper Johnson.


← The Man Himself



Extremely talented visual artist, musician, and light designer. Almost all of the music I hear from this guy I love. He's like my muse, this guy.

It just so happens I'm working on a project where I have to make a music video for any song of my choosing. I could very easily pick one of my many adored Young Thug tracks, but I said "naaaah...what this needs is a touch of the Johnson." I selected my favorite song of his "Midnight Stroll" and I've decided to create a video for it.

Right now, I'd like to carve out a path for the project by dissecting a couple favorite music videos of mine that I want to pull energy from to make the best video I can for my buddy.



Let's get started, shall we?




CHUM - EARL SWEATSHIRT  (DIR: HIRO MURAI)

It's pretty appropriate that my first favorite video come from my favorite musician Earl Sweatshirt. Most of Earl's music, especially in recent years, has been steeped in darkness. Depression, moral uncertainty, loss, anger, and all that's negative in the world made beautiful for listening to with his A1 lyrics and beat production. This is definitely his darkest video, and that isn't just attributed to the fact the whole thing is in greyscale. There's a wealth of ominous imagery that create's discomfort and dread in the viewer. In this video which takes you through Earl's lens, even when things seem their most odd and disjointed, it's easy to float through all of it as if nothing at all matters. I found out just as I was making this blog post that the directer for this video Hiro Murai, is the very same Hiro Murai that's directing of my favorite shows right now Atlanta, created by Donald Glover.

Sick. There's no other way to put this video than sick.

90210 - TRAVIS SCOTT (DIR: HYPE WILLIAMS)

So stop-motion is probably the most impressive form of film making in the world, to me at least. The way it's so time consuming and wholly devoted to the stunning visuals means you have to really dedicated to the craft for it. Also you need to not have a high school student's schedule. It pretty much goes without saying I don't believe stop-motion animation is in my near-future but I've got a strong appreciation for it and the feeling is really strong when it comes to the video for 90210 by Travis Scott. There's way too many rap music videos that just don't try to be visually interesting. The formula typically follows as such for the common rap video:

1. Get rapper

2. Get him girls if it's a party banger/niggas with guns if it's drill.
3. Have him hold a stack of money to his ear like it's a phone

4. Shoot him doing rap hands until you've got a 3+ minute video

That's boring. Some will try to innovate occasionally with that formula but it gets stale pretty quickly looking through all the carbon copy videos on Vevo. Videos like 90210 are ambitious enough to attempt to be art. And Hype Williams succeeds in making something really beautiful.









SO EMIR, WHAT'S YOUR IDEA FOR JASPER'S MUSIC VIDEO?



Shadow puppets. That's all I'll say for right now.

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