ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / COMPOSITING

This is the first video Joe Baughman and I did with Matisyahu. So the first time we met him in person we were frantically putting together thousands of dollars worth of camera on a street in downtown Chicago in the middle of a weekday, when all the business people were crashing by us, headed to lunch. We had several extras we had acquired through Craigslist and other means that we also had to corral in the midst of this chaos. Fortunately Matis was (and remains) wonderful to work with and easy-going.

Random Notes:

• While shooting Matis out on the little boat for the shot at 3:07, the lake was so violent that even swimming wasn’t permitted that day. The filming of that shot was a mixture of hilarious physical comedy as we realized how impossible physics-wise it is for a human body to balance, standing on a tiny boat in rough waters and swinging a giant flag at the same time, while also being completely terrifying as I tried to formulate my explanation for any inquiries into how I contributed to the violent, nautical death of an international superstar.
• YouTube commentators love the fact that he nearly bashes Chicago pedestrians in the face (particularly at 1:22). But yeah, that happened a few times. And it was glorious…
• Skip to 2:24 if you are looking for inspiration for the next cover of your potentially bestselling harlequin romance novel.
• The Chicago shoot marked the first (and hopefully only time) where an extra approached me and asked me seductively if there was any way she could get a “featured extra” spot in the video. It was as uncomfortable as it sounds. I laughed nervously and pretended like I had some assistant directing to do as I quietly muttered nonsense under my breath, implying that quiet, self narration always accompanies my actions when I’m off to perform important duties. She ended up not being in the final cut at all.