LOTIC - EMERGENCY

Directed and edited by me, shot by my go-to Berlin cinematographer Elias CJ Köhler, released 2021.  Lotic grew up in Houston and moved to Berlin, where we connected.  A fan of how I depicted her home town in Beyoncé “No Angel,” we always talked about working together.  Music videos took too much time, often had too much red tape, and offered too little compensation, so I had taken a break from them.  But when Lotic asked if I would direct a video for her new album “Water,” I accepted.

For “Emergency,” we travelled to a well-worn palace in Poland that - in the Nazi era - was a training center for elite pilots.  The “dungeon” dance scene was shot in a room that used to house pressure chambers, preparing pilots for flight.  Another skeleton crew shoot, but without much time - luckily, choreographer Kiani Del Valle was on board, so our dancers were incredible - as was the styling and location.  Everyone slept on couches surrounded by spiders, and Elias and 1st AC Ciro J Kavouras really pushed themselves to make it happen.  The goat shot was in the morning right before departing.

IGGY AZALEA- MO BOUNCE

I directed, shot and edited this in Hong Kong. It was a guerrilla shoot, no permits, two vans - one with our 4 person skeleton crew and the other with Iggy, her stylist, and her dancers. Iggy’s direct collaboration and trust (and a light footprint) gave us both time and the ability to improvise, a method labels are usually too risk-adverse to greenlight yet one that allows magic to find you.

VOGUE MAGAZINE PARIS FASHION WEEK WITH ABWOA ABOAH

Guerilla shoot with amazing models, on the go improv, and a full day morning to night running around the city.  Really, that’s all you need!

BOYS NOIZE- MAYDAY (SNOWDEN OST) 

The first music video released with an Oliver Stone film since NBK.  I wrote, “directed,” and edited this, with VFX work from Sus Boy, after pitching the idea to Oliver Stone’s team.  Spoiler, but all of the security cam footage was “stolen” from wifi cameras around the world that left their stream passwords as the default.  

The video premiered on 4Chan’s 404 page - this was pre-Trump election, so 4Chan hadn’t yet fully transitioned to a right wing troll factory from it’s previous Anonymous-driven, privacy-focused activism.  It’s not the first time something I created was “officially” streamed on 4Chan, but that’s a whole other story from a time long ago…

(Source: vimeo.com)

BEYONCE- NO ANGEL

Not bad for my second real music video, after Diplo gave me my break with “Express Yourself” ft. Nicky Da B (RIP).  I’ll never forget when Diplo called me to say that Beyoncé wanted my number (???) Surreal. 

I directed and edited.  Skeleton crew, lots of time, full improv with full trust. That’s how you make this kind of video.  The rest of the team - Shomi Patwary, Thuan Tran, Ben Solomon - all have notable film careers now, having gone full-on into the industry.  I continued following various paths of film, audio, and writing.

(Source: vimeo.com)

“ENTER THE VOID” IN TEXTE ZUR KUNST “POLARITIES” ISSUE

A 2016 conversation between myself and writer Roy Scranton that touches on violence, hyperreality, climate change, identity and other subjects that would define the years to come.

I also made the collages the accompanied the interview.

https://www.textezurkunst.de/101/enter-void-en/

BROOKE CANDY- A STUDY IN DUALITY (DIRECTED W/ BROOKE CANDY)

DIPLO- EXPRESS YOURSELF

Directed and edited by myself in New Orleans, with Shomi Patwary and Thuan Tran who I would later shoot “No Angel” with. I met Diplo through my years DJing and making music, and because my day job was in video, he asked me if I could direct a music video for his new song “Express Yourself,” with New Orleans bounce rapper Nicky Da B.  

The video was significant for a few reasons - it was a turning point in Diplo’s career, the handstand twerking shot in the thumbnail became a meme and made twerking a talk-show subject, and it featured a queer rapper in a time long before this was normalized or widely accepted.

The video also launched my own directing career, and set the template for the location based, improvised, stylized documentary music videos I would continue to make.

Nicky Da B would tragically pass away less than 3 years later.

DKNY SS15

I directed and edited all of the video for the 9 panel LED array, and then unexpectedly ended up creating the intro music for the show.

I met rapper and model Chynna Rogers on this shoot, and we had stayed in touch since.  She died in 2020, and is deeply missed.

AZEALIA BANKS - “YUNG RAPUNXEL” LIVE @ GLASTONBURY 2013

Around this time, I was working for partners Greg Selkoe and Pharrell Williams at the cable channel start-up KarmaloopTV, creating all of the pitch materials and presenting them at meetings with Comcast execs.  

Simultaneously, my video directing career was taking off, as well as my music career.  I had produced “Yung Rapunxel” for Azealia Banks, and managed to take enough time off to join her for a UK tour, including Glastonbury.  I worked on the live set, adding hardstyle extended mixes, live drum pad sections, and ambient interludes.  

For “Yung Rapunxel,” above, I started with a Shepard Tone, an auditory illusion that is perceived as infinitely rising in pitch. The sensation is a disorienting one, an ascent with no end that eventually feels maddening, unsustainable. It captures how I felt in this period.

In the end, Comcast chose Diddy’s Revolt, and KarmaloopTV parent company Karmaloop would file for bankruptcy in 2015. I had seen and experienced too much too quickly, and moved to Berlin soon after.