Just Doin' It Music Video

Here's the latest music video I directed for hip-hop artist Billy Drease Williams for a track off his latest album Good Morning Amy.
Check it out.



Below is an interview I gave about the video.

Q: What were some of the challenges with the shoot/edit?

Dom: We had about 20 people or so in and out of the studio all day. This includes some of the most talented kids I've seen, dancers, models, martial artists, a skateboarder, Carma, etc. etc. etc., all of whom basically needed their own lighting set-up for wide, medium, and CU shots (this is without including the nucleus of the entire project, Mr. Drease Williams). Keeping the flow going for the entire day was a challenge but, with the team we assembled, everything went rather smoothly.

Some of the special treatments and techniques utilized in this video are top secret and some we didn't anticipate. We weren't sure, for the snow shots, whether we were going to go with real flakes or CGI, so we shot for both and waited to see how each of them looked in the video. In the end, with the highly stylized look of the black and white with these almost foreign, nowhereville backdrops, we ended up going with the CGI. It just fit the look better.

Another special treatment the video received was the use of Billy Drease Williams' artwork. Billy Drease Williams is known for being a man with many talents, illustration being one of them, as seen in his previous video, "Get Free." We wanted to spice the "Just Doin' It" video with that talent. Another thing we agreed on was using original illustration instead of a font for the clips with text, partially to keep things original and partially to drive graphic designers insane if they tried to figure out what font we used in the video.

Q: What can viewers expect when they see the video?

Dom: Viewers can expect to watch an entirely unique, highly stylized video that continually tries to top itself all the way throughout the experience. There's rarely a moment where this video does the traditional: hook image, verse image, chorus image, verse image, chorus image, chorus image. We continually try to give you something new to look at. This is also one of those projects where we tried to make it so that if you paused the video at any moment you would have a memorable still. We were very conscious of that while making the video. Also, everyone you'll see in the video are real people who are just doin' it. Aside from the main man who is just doin' it, we have other artists from the area like Heidi Maria, Deuce Ellis and others. Viewers can also expect a dancing panda, so top that.

Q: What is your favorite scene in the video and why?

Dom: With this video, I had a dream shot that I wasn't entirely sure whether or not we could pull off, and when we did, it instantly became my favorite. The shot was to take the image printed on the album itself and bring it to life. Out of all the highly stylized shots in the video, this one would be the most stylized and the most difficult. Nevertheless, with a couple sleepless, coffee fueled nights, we managed to pull it off and ended up making it the final image of the video as beat fades out.

Thanks Suzanne.

Robot Teachers for a Brighter Tomorrow

“I worry that if kids grow up being taught by robots and viewing technology as the instructor,” said Mitchel Resnick, head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “they will see it as the master.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html

These words from Mitchel Resnick, a man who can't help but obey the commands of his master, anyone with a yardstick or piece of chalk.

Shortly after Mr. Resnick's comments the article goes on to mention "most computer scientists reply that they have neither the intention, nor the ability, to replace human teachers," which is a relief, because if all computer scientists said that I would have no hope for the future.

As I've mentioned before, I have a top ten list of jobs I think would be better suited for robots, "teacher" being one of them.

It's not that I don't admire good teachers, it's that I abhor lazy, ill tempered, opinionated teachers who become easily distracted from the subject they're teaching in order to go on tirades about some social political commentary they practiced the night before for their cat.

In other, less grimly mocking, words, some humans are better suited to act as an experienced adviser to train and counsel young people and some let their emotions and personal agenda get in the way.

Teaching is about coming across with the data and being able to recognise those who are having difficulty absorbing or computing this data. The robots mentioned in this article are in the early stages of pattern recognition technology that would make sure even the slightest flicker of doubt or confusion in someone's face will not go unaddressed.

Misanthropy aside, robots top humans in the ability to: store more information, retrieve that information faster, stick to the facts, not have emotions, recognise confusion faster, develop better teaching techniques, not choose favorites, not intentionally or unintentionally judge a child based on religion, race, who their parents are, etc.

If we had better teachers, perhaps we'd have less morons out there. Robot teachers are the key to a brighter future.