Feels Good... to be Hood!

The night we found out about the video assignment, Adelyn and I began planning our masterpiece. We immediately came up with several ideas, most of them pertaining to the 1970’s and 1980’s and life in New York City. We had initially considered making a pseudo-documentary based in 1970’s with the setting of a delicatessen, but we later scrapped the idea due to time restraints and whether or not we would get permission to film there. After discussing a few more potential plots, I remembered that Adelyn’s brother is an up-and-coming hip-hop artist. I asked her if it would be okay for us to incorporate his music for a mock music video based in the 1980’s with the backdrop of New York City.

Our music video, tentatively titled “Feels Good… to be Hood” showcases the stardom of Mad Mookie and two of his ardent fans in the streets of the city. Inspired by several Run DMC, LL Cool J, Pete Rock and CL Smooth rap videos, we tried to capture the “tough” image of hip-hop artists and their suburban fans who attempt to replicate what it is to be inner-city teenagers. In terms of cinematography, I played around quite a bit with angles and close-ups to provide the viewers with the feel of music videos from the past. We used parallel editing to show separate events going on in different places at the same time.

In our music video, we did not want to focus solely on the music, but convey a story with the three characters and their circumstances. If Final Cut Express was a bit more cooperative in lab, maybe we would have more time to change the colors and use effects that were prevalent in the 1980’s. However, being on a tight schedule allowed us to stay on top of this project and give it our best possible shot. I am very impressed with the work we have done in that the music video does have a cheesy, mock feel to it. With the help of Adelyn’s bother and our friend Jonathan Toro, we managed to have our characters look somewhat believable. Who knows? Maybe this will be Korona’s (Mad Mookie) big break!