MIDNIGHT STROLL

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.

French New Wave

So I dig the French a lot, right?

They've got a pretty good track record. The French Revolution was cool enough to get a musical with Wolverine in it. James Baldwin seemed to have a pretty alright time over there when America was starting to be a real bother what with the homophobia and racism. Overall, France has a lot going for it.

I have decided to make a French New Wave-style film to express my love for the beautiful French people and their innovative films.

Here's a vision board!

Experimental Films

Two scientists, right? They're sitting in their lab and they got all the gear. They got the flasks, they got the lab coats, they got the goggles, they got the beakers, they got the test tubes, they got the petri dishes, they got a lot of stuff in general is what I'm saying. One scientists says to the other, whilst pouring some purple stuff into some green stuff, "Hey, you like doing experiments, right?" His science buddy, she's roasting some funky dead organism over a bunsen burner for some wild science reason when she looks up at her comrade. "Yeah, I love doing experiments. You get to do all this new stuff that ain't not never been done before, right? Only thing 'bout it is that I ain't found no good use for my film degree." And her pal, he lights up. Literally, his dumb lab coat sleeve catches on the bunsen burner cause he gets so excited. So now he's burning to death cause these couple morons didn't keep a fire extinguisher or one of those retarded blankets to save the poor guy with. But his friend, suddenly she gets an idea. She fumbles around in her Science Bag for her video camera which she keeps with her just in case the need arises and starts filming her friend burning to death. So later, after the guy scientist is dead, she takes her footage to the editing program she's got on her computer and she slows the footage down x1.5, she puts a funky filter over it, and she puts some homemade vaporware film. Later she becomes an Oscar winner and her friend's ashes aren't even collected. Pretty wicked, right?

So that's kind of what experimental films mean to me. Abstract and up for interpretation and something that someone could make-up on the spot like I did with this concept but at the same time pretty cool. Cause not everyone could just think of something like that, right? A scientist burning to death in slow motion with Macintosh Pro playing in the background? That sounds experimental to me. Like someone was making this and was thinking "I don't know what's gonna happen!"

Pbbth,