EYL #90 Views From The Six feat. Director X

An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

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All right, guys, welcome back e y l international.

Yes we're back North.

Yes, that's a fact. Game of Thrones. What they say the North.

We say we are that's that's that's the whole city slang now.

So if you don't, yeah, the North North Nets, Stark.

Nets, stark right and John Snow the bass of John Snow.

Shout to John Snow. So yeah, your Lisia. The good thing about your Lisia is that you know it started in Choice basement, Choice living room. We're still here, yeah, right outside, right right outside of New York City, shout out the Greenberg. And now we reached all over the world. It's crazy what you can do with the iPhone. And you know, we have a huge listenership, not only in

The great City of Toronto.

That's a fact. So you know, we made it an initiative this year to try to do more content relative relative to people in other markets, and Toronto is number one on our list. We got a dope event planning for Toronto. Whenever it's quarantine, like you gotta pull up to that you in town. So our guest today was just like a no brainer. He actually commented on my post and I realized that he was following me, and I was like, oh, this is dope. So I hit

Love that video.

He did French Mantana's famous video Drake and Rihanna.

I was about to say you left Rihanna. He did Rihanna's first video Umbrella trying to replay.

Okay, yeah, yeah, that's not good.

Drake hotline blank, That's classic.

One of my son's favorite videos.

Drake started from the bottom.

We can go on yeah a lot.

Hell yeah, f Wright is I mean yeah.

The list goes on, but not only music videos. He also has three movies under his belt across the line. One point in.

Super Fly, Yeah, shout out to love verd love that movie to I love that.

That's his favorite, that's his favorite movie.

Across the line, and.

Okay, yeah, and then also you helped out on one of our favorite all.

Time classic Belly classic.

Yes, that's a classic. That's a classic for sure. So yeah, you know, this is gonna be a dope conversation. We're gonna cover a variety of different topics that we haven't covered before as far as you know, being a director and being on the other side of the camera capturing moments and capturing musicians and talent and actors and things in that age. A lot of time people think they can only make a living and entertainment on one side, being an entertainer, but there's other sides to it. Being a

Happened exactly exactly.

And I think what is magical about this story is like a lot of people think they have to be formally trained, but you're gonna learn today, Like yo, sometimes some things come natural to you and you just got to go with God's bless you with.

Yeah, so before we start, pleasure, thank you, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it for sure. So let's get right into it. So, like I said, I mean, it's crazy because one of my friends shot out to Greg Barnett another ey he hit me up like a couple weeks ago, like, are y'all planning to have any directors on any movie? Directors anything like that. I'm like,

So doing logos?

So I started doing flyers and then I started doing around the city everywhere.

All Right, I have myself. If I go to a party, I find the party promoter, I'd say, who.

Does your flyers? And my line was, who does your flyers? So he sucks something better?

Didn't know who. I'd never seen that. I didn't know if anything's distant the competition.

So that got me going down the path of I want to be a graphic design.

I was going to be a graphic design So there's a.

Part of this where I tell people, especially young people, follow your interests. Well, I was interested in drawing, and then I was interested in hip hop, and then hip hop and drawing got me drawing the flyers for hip hop parties, right, and then I wanted to make those flyers better.

So then I started getting.

Into computer programs so I could print out. So now I'm doing graphic design work. I'm doing stuff. And then I was able to get that program you know, his computers got more and more. My father worked at Teshiba, so I was Eventually I think I got the program. Somehow I started learning the program. So I used to have to go to friends homes to use it. If at first, I have to travel very far to use this program.

But Correll draw is the program.

But I again, I graphic design, the basics of how you work something like that.

I'm still like fifteen sixteen. Then I move out of my home real young and I'm.

At my I'm living in my friend's basement studio. So they're all there making hip hop. They want to be rappers.

I start writing some rhymes for them.

I go to a poetry reading with a friend of mine that reads poetry and at the end say if anyone wants to come.

Up, come up.

I go up and read a rhyme I root for my friend. They say, hey, I like that thing you wrote. Come to another one. So now I'm a graphic designing graphic designer poetry guy.

I'm going, I mean, and this is again follow your interest.

Yeah, everything needs to be a big and if you like depression, now is everything is a master plants and success.

No one's the saying do you like to sing the fucking sin? Do you like to draw and draw?

Do you like the Paint Paint. Who gives a fuck if you're going to be a dud? Like there's this there's this undercurrent of our culture that if you're not if you're doing something to not be the most successful person.

In the world, And what are you doing? Right? You're rapping? Just the rapping. You're not rapping. No, I just like the Red Road. You know, I'm not bad.

Like I doesn't mean I'm trying to you know, maybe I'll do a show like It's whatever, wherever it comes from.

Do what's interesting. Right.

So I'm probably seventeen now, I'm doing graphic design and art, and I'm thinking I'm gonna be a graphic designer when I grow up. That ship before that when I was in when I was in junior high, in the first year high school, I thought I was gonna be a.

Comic book artist. So my common I was comic books, hip hop. You know what I'm saying. Just keep going.

But it's always evolving. There's always art and the expression. So there's a show up here called Rap City.

This is before you.

Guys have rap Sticky and that was our video channel up here, and they do a poetry episode, so that I come in. A bunch of us are reading poems and I real home and as they're doing the show, and I'm looking around the studio and said, I say to the producer, Hey, there's a guy out here named Big C.

Know Big Seed now in the music industry, but Big C was an intern on Much Music.

He was like and he was on the scene, and O was around, and he was working. We thought he was working on Much Music.

And now he's a unit of system, right, so he's doing an internship. But we didn't know that. So everyone thought Bigs he was rich because he went to go inside Much be.

So like so like for us, Much Music, in my mind is like what t r L was for y'all, for us was MTV, So it was MTV.

Yeah, music and TV.

This is the rap city. So I'm looking around.

I go yo, and I knew C had got a job at BMG. He stepped up in the world. But what happened to the Big C's job? She goes, Oh, no one's doing that, and I want I want to do it, So okay, next thing, I know, I'm the intern that Much Music, I'm carrying lights and ship.

I'm you know, I'm the Internet much music.

I'm doing Rap City and other show called Soul in the City all that. So now while I'm there, I'm looking at the cameras and the lights and hey, this is interesting, this is creative. Maybe I'll get into like TV or a film. And at the same time, I'm also looking at music videos. This is just when Hike wayiamed to show it up.

So when I go when I would be at.

Home watching Rap City, there'd be these certain videos just didn't look like it just looked better felt specially wu Tan can't be so simple flavoring or remix class And.

Then so Vibe magazine does there's a little one pager on it. So at this time, so now.

I'm doing logos and for my school project, when I decided when I get signed, I want to be a director, and I'm watching Hip's work. I go to school and I make my I do my final year.

A video. I make a music video, so I have my contact. So I take one of my poems that I did with a friend.

And we make a video about it, right, and it's it's actually a story about you know, this kid getting shot at school because they're you know, people are talking ship and whatever. So the misunderstanding of violence, and so now I got so see how it all comes together.

I got my poem, I got my artistic sentence. I got the much music internship.

So I'm able to shoot the performance with one of their EG cameras, one of the cameras they shoot the news with, right, so I have a higher quality performance. I shoot the narrative with a handicap, and then every.

Night for about a week or two, I would go in a bunch of music.

This is before heavy security. They thought I still work there, even though my internship was done. I would go in after hours and work on the machines and.

Put together my ed so you're edit.

I would do it by hand, right, so I'd be watching it. I'd do the lyrics and I would write out and I was so I did down to the frame, the d mark and the outlook, so editors understand the insanity of what this is.

For a full three minute and fifty second piece. Zero zero one dash over to dash one.

Before dash ye, yeah, zero one.

But you know what I'm saying.

All it takes. Because I learned my lessons from doing it. Edit, I'm prepared, and I did one of.

My projects in my internship. This editor who's gonna help me edit this project? I did with him and I just walked in with tapes and he didn't have time and we just kind of so this time I walked in with paper. Yeah, two weeks preparing it, going through the edit session, handle the paper, we assemble it.

I got.

This is back in the days, there was.

No There was no use singing a song and then making a music video where.

You're lip syncing it.

That was impossible unless you have unless you have professional equipment. That could not happen period of a story. If you're gonna edit something together, you guys do two VHS tapes and you played one and you get wired the other and.

You're positing like you know what I'm saying that we can do this.

Crude kind of stuff. But now I'm my thing with the much music people. I got slow motion, I got souls, I'm lip singing shit we all take for granted shit.

We can do on our phone. I needed a full on.

Multimillion dollar edit bay and a multimillion dollar TV station to you know what I'm saying.

Yeah, and so you touch yourself all these skills.

No, I'm in there with the editor. Remember that I'm just an intern. They wouldn't let me breathed.

In that room without someone in there to book over me. Right, So I'm in there with an editor. But I made these relationships, so I had I had my performance shot had a better quality because I made a relationship with the cameraman. I had an edit that was a professional edit because I made a relationship with the editor.

But now I got this piece. So I got this videotape.

At the same time, I was also I printed up screen printed a bunch of T shirts with some of my art.

And of course I had.

A kind of like a four page portfolio of my logos and my flyers.

And just the things I drawn.

So I discovered Hype Williams. I see the article in Vibe magazine. I write Vibe Magazine, I write men about Mimi Belvet.

If you don't know what me me Bell.

Is No, No, I don't know me.

She she manages for Ell. She's one of these producers of hidden figures. Right.

Just so again I tell these kids, people you meet, this is over twenty years ago. People you meet in the game, you're gonna know a good deal of people.

You rubbing Shoulders with right now, you will keep on rebel Shulders with for twenty three years? You know what I'm saying. M Andre Herrel and Russell Simmons, how long have they've been Franis thirty four years?

Yeah, all our relationships exactly.

The sounds this goes.

So now I have the I have a poetry video edited professionally.

It looks like, Hey, this looks like some kid. That's some talent.

I got a T shirt with a screen printed art of mine. I got a little package of my art, and I write a letter, Hey, I want to you know, I want to inter for Hype Williams.

How do I get a hold right? Send this whole package? Don't hear back? Don't hear back.

So then I finally just call because the number is in there. So I call Vibe Magazine and I.

Say, and they I get me me. Okay, if I want to get something to Hype Wiams, who should I send it?

So I knew ian to know back then I shouldn't ask Hype Williams. Though, So she gave me like Akila turner and phone number two their office and hung up on me, not rudely, but.

That is enough I'm lucky.

I got my little So now I got the numbers of the office and the person I'm calling the office, I send them the package, and I actually send to another friend of mine who is working for a director. I can't even remember his name, and she.

Never I didn't know. She didn't send him mind, she didn't show him mine.

So again, don't this this. When you're young, you expect something from your friends. Don't don't don't expect shit from anybody, but don't expect shit from your friends. Don't think that the people you work with are your friends and then therefore should be doing the things you think your friends should do. You'd stop all that shit right now. Save yourself the headaches, save yourself the heartaches. If people are cool with you, because guess what, people who see it, you don't.

Have to be a friend fucking say hey, you got to have a kid come in. That's not People don't do that because they want to be your friend. They do that because kid like you, come work over here. You can help me, you know what I'm saying. So my friend doesn't even which is good.

If I'm learning under that, I know where right, So I can't even remember his name, not to.

Disrespect, but I can't.

Ever remain nameless.

Yeah, but again it's a good lesson in friendship. The girls Incredibles is good, but you can't.

Don't expect your friends to also somehow be your I don't know what, be your parents, be your business manager.

I don't know what the fun but they're your friends. Let that be. And my crew we have a thing like you're fired and see you at the barbecue?

Really friends, you.

Know what I'm saying. That didn't work out? What you know? Three your friends? You know what I'm saying.

So because they work it out home, ain't the job for you?

Is that real? Can can your friendship survive that?

So anyways, now I got the package, I said to the hype, I'm calling them and calling them, calling them.

And you versus good.

Around that time, I had a summer job with Cardinal of Fish out He had organized.

This like they had a yeah we had we had this summer.

We had a riot out here, so that you need some ship, so they gave us there.

There's like these jobs in the arts and great lesson and investing in the arts.

You might hear like we're gonna pay a bunch of black kids to make music and all kind d of stuff, and you said, what the fuck? Whathever waste the money?

And no, no, damn your ninety percent of those kids a good kids ended up in the entertainment business, working producing. I'm a director. I became a director. I left town, I came back. I brought millions of dollars to the city.

Cardinal has put the city on the map, you know what I'm saying.

So investing in the arts and investing into your children is a good idea.

They go on to do this work. So I was in a program like that, and Cardinal organized a trip to New York.

So the New York trip was, you know, we'd go see record labels and I get out.

I'm on my hustle. I'm on my hustle. I got my backpack full of work. So we're like, hey, we're gonna go see you know, low records. And we'd be walking and talking to someone out said hey, man, can I show you something? Yeah? Sure, and I'll showing my video. Can I show you something? I show I showed it if I could have n if I saw a moment, I'll show you.

And I'm always surprised that in the years since.

Everyone could have a reel on their phone.

There's maybe I could think of two kids who came up to me and said, look at this on my phone, and one of it was just a few months ago, and one before one before that was years ago.

You know what I'm saying.

Now, I sometimes don't like to put kids on the game because if you weren't doing this and now you heard me do it.

Now you've got some of this should be in me, you know, and.

You gotta you gotta have to work on yourself and work on your own, like really, if you got the hustle to figure.

It out, you know what I'm saying.

Uh, But either way, I would walk in these offices. I have my tape, I had my back, I have everything on me in all time. I could make you a party flower on the spot showing people my work doing the thing.

But now I'm also in New York. I'm calling up pipes office. Have you looked at it? And you looked at it? Have you looked at it? And then one day a call and they say we don't even know who We don't because they say not yet, not yet. Whatever a call to say not yet, not yet, so okay, when you got it, you haven't watched it. Then one day I called They're like, we don't know who, we don't what who?

What what are you talking about?

Oh? Really? Oh cool? So I called it. But hey, what's the address there? You gotta give me address?

Goes?

What what's up?

Yeah, that's what somebody see my tape?

Yeah, if we're the tape, where's the shirt? Where's all that ship? Give it back? So? Hey you got again?

Man, you go with this, go your young energy.

You're too young to know your mistakes. So you just flying from you know what I'm saying.

So I go to the office, one person in the office, and you're someone's watching this.

I'll go.

So it's so it's like the reception is at the death. She's the only one there, Like, yo, you're watching I don't give this is it?

Yeah? The dude, the dude there, Yeah, he's only one in the office. You're watching this. Someone's watching this. Bro.

That's now that's the fact. I mean, that's how. That's the kind of energy that you got to have. Like, yo, it's not you can't take you can't take no fun answer.

You take pride in what you did. I mean, I just want people to see the art.

You look. So he looks at it. It's some emotion and all, and.

Tell you you should wait a minute. Chelsea's coming back someone someone you need to show the producer. So Chelsea shows up again, Chelsea. I just worked with Chelsea the other day because she's working in Atlanta with Toyle Harry.

People you know from yes thirty years the.

Beginning, and then now they all all over the world doing amazing things the world.

Hey up, hey, ask you that a minute.

I need you like the relationships, this is all important. Chelsea looks at it and I say to her, I just I know.

I'm good enough to work for free.

Powerful, that's powerful. Now I don't want that, people say, you say, I know, because a lot of times people don't want to do that either. They don't want to right out the gate. They want to get compensated. It's not wrong being conversated, but sometimes it's like you have to do internships. Sometimes you have to not get conversated at first so you can get compensated on the back end.

And you took it to another level.

You said I'm good enough to work for free, like I'm gonna work for free and I'm good enough to do it.

Let me in, let me in the do it.

What's yeah, yeah you are okay.

Come back in the month. I come back to Toronto and it's like I'm in a small town.

You know.

Now, we gotta put this in context because people they think Toronto is amazing, and it is amazing places. But this is prior to this is Drake and the Overo movement in the Weekend, way.

Prior to this, way before no.

One did that era and we said, we said Carnal, but people don't even know who that is. So Carnal fished out. It was a big deal at that point.

Cardinal like Cardinal's my generation, like the little older generation.

So there's people trying to make music. Things going on a little little trunck, but is still a pipe dream.

Still, it's still it's still rough either way. I come back and it's just it's I'm just like, I gotta go. It doesn't feel like anyone's doing anything. You just know when you get that small town. Yeah, So I leave two weeks early. I come back to New York and Chelsea the day I walked to your God.

Is and how you have to trust your instinct. The day I walk into office was the day Chelsea had quit.

Mm hmm.

So the executive producer, Aquila looks at me and she says that goes, I don't know who you are, what this is. I don't know what's going on because I I thought he's supposed to be an intern, all right, So I.

Just I did a George Constanza. I just showed up the next.

With my time card, black business.

You know, they're making these videos and ships so crazy. They said that, all right, he's here, and then I just showed up and went to work. I'm here, you know what I'm saying. And at that time I just stayed by my aunt and he's flatbush. She literally the only TV with table was the morning in their bedroom.

The the other TV was like an old school.

Like radio air over the air, yeah, turning ob antennas all that.

Yes, CBS in the kitchen, so like uncomfortable. So there's no there's no getting lost in TV. There's no getting lost in technology. I touched their computer once and like, you know, I'm doing all this stuff they don't want to do.

My mother's best friend she's like, yo, don't ever touch the computer again.

So they don't want me on the computer. They don't want me. Actually there's TV there. Just you can sleep here. I'm in a little room. Also, make your guest room a little uncomfortable. Don't make lavish guest.

Rooms when you when young hip hop boys, because your homeboys are gonna think that's their room.

So I'm staying in an uncomfortable guest bedroom and nothing to do when I get home. So I just spent all my time in office. And then I look around the office say, oh, your tapes, because.

Would be okay, go get again the stacking of knowledge. I was an intern at Much Music and National TV station. They had a tape library system like.

An old school one, like when you go to the old school library, go to finish. But Big Dog that was the name. Come Big Dog Films. At Big Dog.

The tapes are all in a box in the corner and they go find the Wu Tang video and you just go searching like a fucking scavenger.

And all this time, and then.

They came in the office one day and there's suddenly the all the tapes are on shelves with stickers on them. And I had a little thing, Oh, if you're looking for a tape. Now what you do is you look up and then this.

Card has the code.

So a ditchy beta is a cl a half inches and three quarters tape as that.

So I had all the codes and ability the fuck is this kid?

They'd go, they leave and come back and all the furniture be rearranged because the way they used to have it is that the.

Door would open and people will.

Go in, but the desk was here, So here's the door and here's the desk, and people would just walk by the desk.

So one day they came and the desk was here and here's the door. So now you walked in and met a receptives and there's chairs. You feel me, I constantly do, constantly doing shit like this. I didn't ask anybody. They would just come in and some new shit that happened to office play was better.

Yeah yeah yeah, So in.

This now I begin.

Then I meet Hype and I'm always drawing and I'm always doing and they see my drawings and then eventually I'm getting frustrated. I'm paying you know, on PA on sets, and then they say we want no more interns. Because at the same time, if I was with Hype, until two three o'clock in the morning working on something. I'm not showing up.

Yeah, how how was that first interaction when you when you finally met him, like you had been trying to get him?

I think because people might not know who Hype william is, because we got a lot of young people that listen to that true.

Very true. This generation is different.

Williams is, like I guess you could call him the godfather of the million dollar budget videos, like the Once upon a Time music video. Music video is still important, but music videos but.

Very every very every important everything.

In the in the nineties and the early two thousands, and Hype Williams was he was it. He was. He was the go to guy for any of those bad boy videos, not jay Z first one that.

The average hip hop person said, there's a director.

You know the directors name.

Yeah, yeah, director, like the Spike Lee of music videos.

Yeah yeah, Like when you saw a Spike Lee joint, you knew it it was Spike Lee. When you saw Hype Williams Villia video, you knew it was it because it looked different and it looked like nothing else. It was high production, it was it was a movie.

I remember, I think it was a movie.

It was artistic, it was beautiful, but it's still true to the culture.

I think. I think it was nas or Diddy, one of these guys, and they was like, you know, a hype. He he would do a video on the projects and make you think it was rome. Like the way he put it together. It just looked so intriguing to people, and it was just like amazing, like the cinepography of it. It was just like, Yo, this is the most amazing place in the world and they could be like the gutter.

Yeah.

He I feel like he's the reason they made that that they used to have that show.

Making a video on MTV.

It was like because you had to see the behind the scenes of what he was actually doing to put out these masterpieces.

Yeah, and again he's a cool dude from Queens and he was really what hip hop.

He really was the culture it all came together is real art now we get it with the Kanye's.

And the Virgil is like artists, you know what I mean. Yeah, and he was that. He's in that zone.

So you know, well he came in with days like, oh it's get built kid, You're a genius. So I know everyone wants is they got the Hey kid, you're a genius, but a lot of us don't.

So building building relationship builds. Finally say start drawing storyboards. So now I'm not interuring anymore. I'm drawing storyboards. Now I'm getting paid. Now I can buy a little watch, Now I can buy a little clothes. You know what I'm saying. I was able to leave my aunt's house. I got an apartment now and well, you know, sharing a room.

So the storyboard is like the treatment for the video.

No, the storyboards is drawing it out. It's part of the sales pitch and what we're gonna shoot.

Okay, so that goes, That goes helps it helps people understand what.

It's gonna be.

That goes back to your I'm thinking like pre previous knowledge now, like when you were doing comic books.

It's kind of prepared you for this moment completely.

It all comes together, got right, And this is before Like you could have just get on the computer and whip up a treatment the way you get a pitch deck in a second.

To do something like a normal pitch deck that you get on the thing and get a PDF, you'd have to print it out.

You have to cost hundreds of dollars because commercials did that. When you did in those days, when you did a commercial treatment, you did the thing and then you printed it and sent it to the client. It will cost hundreds of dollars to do these things. So and that's just the print that the writer.

Is very expensive.

But anyways, so back then the treatment was just a written document.

You got a typed out page and imagine it.

So the treatment for people that might not know the treatment, correct me if I'm wrong, It is like it is the step by step of what actually happens. Like I wake up, I brush my teeth, I go to It's like it's like you're writing out play by play what's gonna visually be seen.

It's video.

It's the script. I feel like the script.

Yeah, yeah, a script, but not really.

Wroteatment.

You're making a client understand what the video I want to make for you? Is this right? And whichever way you explain.

So in those days, now a treatment has pictures and all this ship with the technology.

Back then you faxed them printed out. That was what you got. You got a paper with.

Words on it in a fast mate.

And then I came on.

So now you got a storyboard, you got pictures, someone drew pictures.

Oh, this is what it's gonna bean.

And then as then you sometimes need the storyboards to explain to the crew, this is what we're doing, this is what happens there. You know what I mean, big production, big movies, they storyboard out action scenes.

It's like, this is just how a production warns. So I'm a storyboard artist, right, and I'm always with him.

Now, I'm with him going you know, I'm with him when he's working on stuff, when he's colored correct, I'm just with him, soaking up knowledge, soaking up knowledge, cerking up knowledge. But when I used to run packages, I used to run we used to work a lot with Deaf Jam, used to I used to run packages of the deaf Jam, Rockefeller and bad Boy.

All the time. So there's people who know me as got to run the package.

And just but that beauty of the music industries that the interns become, the soon to become that if you don't.

Want to get paid, you don't want to. If you are like I don't get paid, I'm not coming in. I mean, you get everyone's on a different path.

But in those days, the way you got him was saying, I'm working for free.

And now you're in and they see that you're good, and then up you go, up, you go up.

You so again, a whole bunch of my friends that are still in the game, that are still working in the music video on the label side, do the hiring of the directors were interns together?

You know what I'm saying.

That's that's that's that's the story, Puffy Andre Herrell, that's the story. Uh we just I spoke to Charry Bryant, same thing. She was an intern at Rockefeller. Yeah, they interned, and now she's the head of co head of rock Nation. And like you said, Kenny Burns intern like people don't even they don't really understand internships and the value of them and the value of, like you said, being able to work for free and then grind your way all

It is. In the films side.

I get asked a lot still, but the way I get asked is is what I feel is lacking.

But either way, so now, uh running backages of doing storyboards and and over at Death Jam, they.

Have uh mega Cormega Cormega.

Yeah, I was coming back to Toronto videos.

Okay, so that's another key.

I've come back to Toronto and again back to your friends. People know you one way, so they knew me as a guy who drew and did poetry. And I come back like, hey, I'm directing now I'm working with hypelans.

Like sounds good.

This is the other guy's high.

And I was really again thinking, in my younger mind, you know me, you should because people know you, don't mean they're gonna do shift you because they're your friends, don't mean they're gonna do shit. Ain't no, ain't no reason for no one to shifting. You know what I'm saying, to get bitter and angry and how could they kid? And again, the way the universe works, if I had done work with them, I would have felt beholden to them because my old loyalty thing right would have what.

I was expecting for them.

I would have done you know what I mean, Hey, I know you Let me help you save all that, save all that.

So no one in my hometown wants to give me a shot. Cool. I don't owe nobody nothing either, and no one can say shift to me. So, uh, finally someone gives me a break. I code at something with a guy and I make my first video.

And for my first video, I go and talk to a couple of street men trying to do the management team and they go and uh, you know, I gassed them up and we do another. They do every one of their videos.

So I got two videos. Showed those two videos that I did in Toronto.

To Steve Carr, who was one of the directors at Big Dog Films. He makes a call on my behalf, this is what you want to happen, right. He makes a call over a big label says, this kid's really talented.

She can't join. He gives me.

So I get the Tracy Lee Buster Rhymes pired MC video This remixed song so way to Court?

Where did Cormega come into play?

This comes later?

Okay, I got it back up with this.

So I do this video.

Mark Pitts is for by Storm Records again. Just saw him on the side of Usher.

Everyone's big manager, usher manager.

Usher managers, not that and not that everyone you need is gonna be around, but a hell a lot of people you needed to be around a lot of me. So Mark Pitts gives me this shot, they believe, and I shoot this video. It's a white background video, and then I sucked it off.

It's good enough to be like a video on TV like no one, but it wasn't great one.

No one watched that video was like who did this? And I was devastated. After I did it, I went home devastated. I fucked it up.

I know I did all this and I'm gonna be sucky. I'm gonna be shitting whatever.

And I was able to call Hype and Alan Ferguson, and Alan Ferguson.

Was a DP.

He married Slag and Hype is Hype and Hype Hype gave me a big pep talk. Adam gave me a.

Lot of technical stuff, which was helpful, but Hype gave me the pep talk that that feeling that you suck you gotta fight.

That feeling that you're not good enough. You need to fight that right, and then you know again.

The philosophy of music music video it needs to be about something. I didn't quite understand that at the time, but he needs to be about something, okay, And then from that I go to the bookstore and start because before I was hanging with hype and wasn't really studying, kind of like what I said about the editor when I wasn't prepared.

And then the next time I said, okay, now I see the mistake. Let me go get it right. So I looked at it said okay, standing beside hype is not This is helpful, but that's not learning. And you know, and you have that as a director, A bunch of your friends are like, they came and they see you doing it. They're like, I could this looks like you said, no, motherfucker, you can't. But what they say that you're paying for my you're paying for the ten thousand hours. You're not paying for my time.

You're paying for the time took this like this, you know to them, you know that the same yeah, yeah, ten thousand hours.

Yeah. So I had not studied.

So in this suppressed hey, I go to the bookstore and buy books about filmmaking like this, I've got everything, hair make, I buy everything everything. Because the beauty of growing up or group, yeah, growing up as a director around Hype is that he knew every department.

So to me, that's what a director meant. You know every department. Hype.

We walk in and talk to the makeup and then he talked to the hair and have detailed conversations with them, then walk over here and talk to the art department, and then talk to the VP. In every single department. He's having intricate, knowledgeable conversations.

About their department.

So I said, okay, that's what I need to do. So I got a book on hair and makeup. I got a books on like I got all these books and I start.

Reading it and reading it. You're reading it, and then Cormega now is going to go do this little back. Then you pay some money for a promo thing. So like, hey, Cormega wants to do this promo thing. We don't got a lot of money. X you want to do it?

Somehow I get it because again, I have relationship a death cham. I've been running packages and I directed a few things and say, okay, the pennies that they got, but I got this shot to shoot this thing for Cormega.

And his idea was.

Kind of whatever with the relationships, but we're gonna make a scene from where visually I was gonna make it is he wanted to do this interrogation scene from Scarface.

I wanted to look like the interrogation screen scene from Clockers.

If you remember that, that's one of the best movies.

That's one of his favorite movies time when.

It interrogated, everyone's kind of glowing group, right glowing. Yeah, Malik say E shot that, and again Hype worked with Elik, so I have this relationship. I call him Aleak and said, how did you do that? And he gave me some point. So now I got technical knowledge. We got their scene.

I'm gonna shoot the Cormega scene. And the lesson is you give thro the clive, give the client what they asked for, but make it new.

So I made the mine. So I shoot that scene.

But I also did, all right, give me half a record, and I'm gonna shoot. I'm gonna shoot a little music video. So I got I shoot his commercial. But then I shoot a little music video and I'm jel it and and I'm now as I'm doing it, I remember I looked at it like, well, scrim that light I stopped. I go, oh fuck, I said that super technical thing. And I'm right that all that reading had seeped into

I'd finally understood it, and that then I finally made something I liked. I made something good. I had my knowledge. I was on my way.

The preparing, the studying, the opportunity, all the things. Take something that's given to me, you can get something that I can work with. These were the beginning steps of me really knowing and learning. So it's not just enough to be around when you get hired.

You got to do good work. You got to constantly working to improve. And that those were that was the knowledge based.

So from there I was constantly pulling references, studying this, studying that, studying other directors.

So just there's a constant watch the people. You want to achieve a level of success as or whatever it is, it's your marker, like that person. I want to get to that level and working the rech that level.

Yeah you said you said that. I've heard you say this before.

Like a good director can see when a director has not made a good product right that there are certain things that a good director will know, uh visually when they look at at the product. What are some of those things that you see right away? It's like, you know what, they didn't take time to do this, or it's lacking this. What are some of those things I can tell.

I can tell how intelligent director is by give me three music videos.

I don know if you're intelligent, I don't know if you can tell a story. I can tell your visual uh visual talent. A lot of stuff I can tell just on the way they did the Rectorence.

So as far as on the business side, so the budget, right, this is something I was always interested especially I don't know what the budgets are now, but that's a question. But before that, so when it was million dollar, this is nothing that young people might not know. There used to be like a million dollar movie videos and they was like spinning like that was like the I think hype had like the first million dollar was it with did he on the on the hypnotize? Was that hypnotized?

That was a million I think buster rhymes.

Rhymes yeah, But did he had the million dollar joint hypnotize and all that. So where do budgets come from. Does that come out of the artist's pocket or are the label fronting net definitely get into the recoup thing.

But infamouspectively they sold CDs, so you know it's it's it's kind of fucked up record companies. They invest in you, but they want on them. Well it is obvious they invest but they want the money back. They want their money back on the investment. But you are the investment, so you don't see money till they get their money back. But of course, the way these big corporations.

Do accounting is they never make money back. Like Star Wars by their account has never made money. Star Wars that's never made money, right, you know what I'm saying. You never get No, you don't get no matter how many records you sell, you just never psen. But you have to recoup it.

So those million dollar budgets, that's your money essentially, right. I mean, like if your ship flops, they're not going to chase you down, like take your house at home, you know what I'm saying, Like make you work for the rest they take. They bite the bullet if it doesn't work out. But if shit works.

Out, they want their money back.

Yeah.

So at this time are you are you feeling pressure to make sure that this product takes off.

Or you just like, you know what, I'm gonna do my best work.

Yeah, the pressure is in, like I got to show up for them, the pressures that I got to do good work for me because I'm competing as other directors.

So directors are already in their own competition, you know what I mean.

So in their like now there's Hike Williams, Paul Hunter, Chris Robinson, Liberal X, Benny Boom, Eric White, Dave Myers, you know what I'm saying.

Forgot that.

See at the bottom of those screens fat cats, and there's tons of people. So you were all in those battles together and everyone kind of had like, you know, me and Chris Robinson was that. That was the back and forth, hi wayns All Hunter, that was.

The back and fort. You know, everyone had their their back.

And forth that they did, and that's the competition. Because look, man, if you in those days, if you did a shitty video for a hit record, you could live off that. You're gonna get a bunch more work. But eventually people are gonna see that your videos all.

Suck and you're gonna die off. The key is to do good work, even for bad songs.

And then when you get a good song and you do good work, that boom hit song dope video off. So record you got it bad with a massive video off.

So let me ask you this because it's interesting as far as like making the comparison between music and movies. So the all right, so you hype Williams, you guys at you know, you have your own company, right, So if somebody wants to commission you did he wants to commission you for a video, right, and it's a million dollar budget back, then how does that work? They give you a million dollars and then you have to break it down and actually pay item by item and do it or so you're okay.

So the way it works is king again, listen to the average way. So you guys have a.

Record together and you're signed to a record label and they're gonna do a big, big record. We're gonna pay a million dollars for a million dollars, they probably know who they're want.

But let's say they're bidding it when you did the job. So let's say they go to the top three year. They take your record and they send it to the top three directors in the game.

We got a million dollars the video, y'all right on it. So the top three directors all.

Write a treatment.

Oh, you're gonna wake up in the morning, You're gonna brush your teeth.

And then there's like two girls that come in.

You know what I'm saying, whatever, don't forget the fireworks, Yeah.

Fireworks and girls the cars.

So three treatments you get, and you're gonna read those treatments and you say, who's the director.

Okay, Hype Williams and he wants to do this, Uh, Paul Hunter, he wants to do that. So and so.

So there's these things come in and you have to decide between the level.

Of director and their idea is their idea or so? But either way, you finally pick one person, Okay, we want to do this treatment.

That treatment has now become a contract. You said, I'm getting this, I'm gonna wake up in the morning, and then the girls and the thing, and then the ferrari and the but.

That's ilegally minded, okay, and then you get your contract. In the contract. Even in the contract says, we own up. This is a work for hire. Don't ask us for money later, we own this, We own.

This if they basically it says, and they're like if we discover any galaxy in the universe and they like hip hop, don't ask this for money. Literally, that's the music. That's the music, music industry contract.

There's no situation which you get fucked, the more money whatever, so you and then they give you like if you have the money, you do it.

You get another bid, you finish it, and then they give your other bid, and that's how it goes. That is how a music video gets made.

So now, all right, so we talked about the era of the million dollar videos. But I'm interested to notice because it's like back then, I guess the goal was to be on BT on TRL one O six in part and now you know, you know, I hate to reference the kid, but it is what it is, you know, with the with the Takashi situation and yet.

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As you know, even before you got arrested with gumbolling all of those videos and they was like doing crazy numbers on YouTube. Now YouTube is the thing right where it's like now you just the goal is to get one hundred million views of fifty million views on YouTube.

I mean, if you now when you make a video, you making it goes out. Look at the end of the day, Yeah, Drake could make a video.

With his cell phone. But Drake ain't going to make a video with your cell phone. Drake wants to trailer. Drake won strength. He wants the people. If you want to hire me for these people. So this is my life. So yeah, I don't do cell phone videos. Feel me. When I pulled up, I'm doing a production.

There's trailers, and there's trucks, and there's lights, and there's unions, and there's food, and there's rules, and.

It's gonna cost you hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Right terror Swift wants a trailer and her makeup artist and her stylist and raver.

They're not doing it with a cell phone. She wants to look great. She wants to the fucking guy who just shot the lorial commercial.

That's the DP she wants to shoot her video. Well, guess what, he don't shoot on cell phones, you know what I'm saying. So as much as the technology is great that you can go and do something great and creative with you and your friends, but at the end of the day, the reality is the talent. You know, the cream rises to the top, and as it keeps on rising, so do the prices.

Right, So if you want that work that looks great. Maybe you got lucky in your homeway. Around the way is the next, you know, meet next type, the next he's gonna he's you You.

It just so happens your homeboy has a career in filmmaking and he's super talented, gives you something great, that's amazing.

But that's a rare I've seen a lot of these videos, you know.

Yeah, gum cameras.

Speaking speaking of the of the Drake video at the end of Life is good, there's like a play.

On on on on.

You know, he's directing it and you're kind of working.

For him, and that's something that that you kind of stresses, well, the difference between working for the artists and working with the artist.

You won't you want to talk about that because I know you highlight that a lot.

Yeah, look, man, it's it's a bit of semantics, but it's good to understand.

Yeah, we're working with one another, but in reality, you need to know who you're working for and who you're working with it.

Yeah, Drake is working with Drake is working with me.

I'm working for Drake, I'm making his product. I'm getting after I'm done. He takes it and goes with it, you know what I'm saying.

And yeah, in a proper work, it's a banter. We go back and forth, and it is. It is a collaborative thing.

Well, there are people who do forget in these creative things that get so caught up and.

Making it theirs.

They forget who hired, they forget who they're working for. Yes, we're collaborating, but my art director isn't working with me.

He's collaborating with me, but he's working for me.

So just to double back. So all right, So even now today, mid six figures is still a price target that major artists would pay for a music video still to this day, like it hasn't dropped to the point where it's like ten thousand dollars fifteen, Like Drake is still gonna paying his label. Whoever, Look what these videos do.

Look, life is good. That video sing for a moment? What would that song?

What would have happened if that record was just it was just like your video cars and girls and stuff. You feel me as opposed to just a little bit of a just a little bit of fun. Because this is entertainment, It is the entertainment business.

You got you and your girls in the cars. Yeah, you're living in your fantasy, but are you entertaining me? Are you putting work in.

It's like going to a show and the guys out there doing is fucking performing, and you're like, this guy ain't working, He's just kind of going through the motions as opposed to someone who's they're working, and then you're like, fuck, puts on a show. Entertaining the job is entertained. So yeah, no matter what, when you spend you better be.

Trying to entertain. That's the key, key, key. But at some point, entertaining people cost fucking money. So I got an idea. I'm in a garbage truck and then I work in a fast food place and them all right, well we got a vacation. I gotta rent that. If you want that big idea, you gotta pay the big money. That's just the way it is. And there's certain artists.

That they when you're generating undred millions of news two hundred million, five hundred million views, you can afford it. And it's a good investment because you know what I'm saying, that was a great investment on the future's part. There's a great investment on this part.

To make a video that big. So, like I said, bro, it's there's, there's, there's always gonna be the top level. And at the top level again, Taylor Swift ain't doing your cell phone video some kid around the way.

So let me ask you this because because it's also the climate has changed to where you know, it's a lot of independent artists, probably way more independent artists now than there were years ago in the nineties or two thousands. So for an independent from the artists standpoint right, independent artists not signed to a label. I'm trying to get

Talent, find the most talented friend, or find the most talented person that can work in your budget. Look at the work and say what I want you know, look at look at look at their work and say whatever I want my work to look at this way, we do the best you can with the money you got and entertain The key has got to be that are you entertained is your video you're trying to entertain?

Are you putting your absolute most effort into entertain with them money that you got because these videos mean something back in back in the day, Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson. There's a certain caliber director they work.

With, a certain caliber, certain budget rings like it says something, how you visually got it to the world.

And then as you make more money, you.

Should be investing into your advertising. It's not a mistake that the super Bowl.

You know, technically they can.

Do it with their cell phone, but the competition is entertainment. During the super Bowl, you better be bringing with your fucking commercial. Well, you better be bringing it with your fucking video.

You're in the.

Fucking you're show business. You're in the entertainment industry. That doesn't stop.

There isn't you know what I'm saying. Yeah, you got to put this effort in and like I.

Said, when you get when you can invest more money. And it makes sense because I have people come to you know, you know I can handle that one hundred, bro, you know I mean two hundred I got that.

Yeah, But here's the thing, bro, auture doesn't reach.

In his pocket and hand me too. Hundre thousand dollars a record company said, I can make money with Usher. I'm putting up the two hundred for the back end.

How it comes back, you know what I'm saying.

Yeah, So there's got to make sense, Like it's not, because what would happen a lot. There's almost like this secret industry of rich kids making music videos.

Oh yeah, every now and then.

You know what I'm saying, every now and then, just some kid's dad is a billionaire and he was so he's goes.

And so I did want this kid.

Was like this kid's manager, This kid spent on this video, spent more than Rick Ross had on one of his videos.

That I work.

You feel what I'm saying, Yeah, like big money, a big proper production with the trucks and the lights and the profession, like it's a production, and the manager is Jlo's manager, and like the.

Dad had paid all these big dang equals, so the best make.

The best everything.

But the key element in the middle was j Lo doesn't pay everyone to manage her. Jailo has fucking talent, and everyone comes in because they see the potential. Then they invest and then they get it. Back, so people confuse the look for that. They Oh, well, I got the same manager and I got the same hair makeup, I got the same director, I got spending more money, I gotta be a hit.

You know you don't got the talent the sauce and soul separately, SA sauce soul separately.

Yeah, exactly.

So if just now, let's say you you got some money in your pocket and you can afford a big video and a.

Lot of artists.

I see a lot of people pustling thinking if I spend big money, I'll get I'll get the same results because I spent the same money.

And it's no.

You might have the money, but the level of artist you are, you're amount of fans where you're trying to build, it might make sense for you to make a ten thousand dollars so phone video and do your best within.

That money to make a great piece of entertainment. You know what I'm saying. But just go spend one hundreds of thousands of dollars when you don't have when you don't have a fan base for that to make sense.

The way up now, you got your start interning with hype, I'm wondering now are there people that have interned with you that are now out here just crushing it, like killing the game.

As far as the video production, Karina Evans.

Karina directed God's Plan, Koreina directed Nice for What. Koreata is directing episodes of TV shows.

Now she's you know, she's a twenty three year old light skinned black girl. Right at the time that everyone was like, we need more women and more women of color.

And then she did God's Plan video Video of the Year, God's Plan that was that was a tough thing.

Yeah, Video of the Yeah, Nice for What was up there too?

That was tough.

The credits ont is director X presents a Kreina.

Evans film that.

Toronto Connections.

That's tough. So let me ask you this be cuz talking about that and you would seem like making a four minute music video is a lot different than making a movie, right, So how what's the difference between the movie side of things? Because you've you've done you have movies on the ybel as well being a director for a movie as opposed to being a director for a music video.

The amount of days you shooting in this video one, two, maybe three days?

You will be over thirty forty days, fifty maybe one hundred, depending on the type of movie, but on an average like thirty to.

Forty days for a proper Hollywood production invest it.

What's the politics though, because al right, so in like music video, it's like, Okay, Drake wants you reinn, especially now you got your name, they can kind of demand it. I would assume on the Hollywood side it's harder, especially for like New like if you're trying to be do the independent, trying to get funding, and it just seems like that from the outside it's more politics.

Yeah, but look, here's the thing that directings understand. The OSCAR for Best Picture goes to the producer of the movie, you know what I'm saying, not the director.

So what's the difference. What's what's the difference between the producer of the movie and director of the movie.

The producers the one who puts the deal together. The producers the one who can hire, who hires.

The producer can fire you, right, so the producer can fire the director. I felt like they think that was Star Wars, correct.

No, George Lucas. George Lucas directed.

The later the later ones.

I think they try to have somebody else do it, or maybe somebody somebody else did it and the jj Abrams came back and took over.

Are the producer prints it all together?

So can you can? You can you kind of go over the hierarchy and and and and movies? Just like as a producer, it's the director, the casting director, Like, what's the different roles that are on the movie set?

Well, they say, you have, let's say like super Fly, you have a studio, then you have a.

Production company, and then you have the director. So Superfly the producer Joel Silver, he made the Matrix. Yeah, his company talks to my agent, we have this script for Superfly. My agent says, you should have director X look at it.

I read their script.

I thought it was irresponsibly violent, and I told them I didn't want to do it.

One it was irresponsibly violent.

And two it wasn't Superfly in this version there the first version of Superfly that I was sent.

He wasn't trying to get out.

He was just like, all in, just keep trying.

To get in deeper.

I'm moving.

So I'm like and then like irresponsibly by like they're having a shootout on Miami.

Beach, and then like and then and not even I hit them.

Like though, this is why black kids getting shootouts and shopping malls, because movies like this never.

Have consequences, you know what I'm saying, Like they just have.

A shootouts and shop They're just shooting out on ninety each and then never say like yo, lo.

Not even that.

I'm like, are there's no video cameras, there's no surveillance cameras in your.

World, but there's no police.

That's interesting that what Joe Sieguel knows, Joe Silver, Joe Silver, Yeah, Matrix. It's extremely interesting to me that why he wants to do a remake of Superfly because he loves black Boy, he.

Loved those ter.

Well.

But so now okay, So then I find out what.

What had happened was that the script they sent me wasn't actually Superfly, but they got the rights to superflyes, so they just put the name. And I'm like, I'm not I'm not one the level of isolence doing that. Two of this isn't Superfly.

They called me back to.

We want to make the movie you want to make. I said, all right, well we're making Superfly. So if you watch the old Superfly and my Superfly. It's Superflies. All the same characters are back. It's the same story. We move and twist some things around, but the things we move and twist around are still respectful of the original. I treat it like Hoods Shakespeare, right, because I got hired to remake Superfly.

So I'm going to remake it right. And then what we did on the violence side is that we made it a little cartoon. You know, the bad guys were white, they have white guns. It's it's it's an action. It's a Joel Silver action, a Wick.

It's fast and furious, and we deserve to have mindless, stupid movies. You feel what I'm saying, Like people, no one wants it John Wick, and it's like, oh my god, what what message is this sent to the youth and the Russian American community there, They's just then nigga can beat up everybody and bad guys are fucking bad and there's not you know what I'm saying, like, it's it's this imaginary world, well Superfly, Yeah, it's it's drugs in the same way, fast and furious does heists?

You feel me? There's no there's no good advice for a.

Drug dealer in Superfly, no underlining, no underlining.

That's a good idea, nobody you got something right. Instead, things become so what what what? What Control was was a symbol. There are symbolic of flashy drug uples. You know what I'm saying. You live in Cleveland and you ain't got a job, but you got a fucking braith wearing all the white all the time with you know what I'm saying. Like, and I remember there was like on Instagram, there was one page. I haven't seen him

Yourself to jail? So that that was what still Control represented. But again he does come food, his hair is straight. I didn't want kids to look at Uba Fly and see their world that.

Looks like my life. That looks like my world. And then the subconscious brain starts going, you know, like the wrong movie gets hot in the hood, the hood gets hot.

Nice carface changed the whole change everything.

Yeah, remember when the wires poppably done me.

It was inspirational to you know, like I didn't want to do that. So ours is a fun, dumb it's and it's again it's a Joel Silver action movie.

Right. He doesn't have the social conscious that we have. You try here and there, but he must make a fun movie because he doesn't have a social conscious.

When he made Predator, he wasn't putting the weight of the world and is back when he made The Matrix.

He was people kicked them, kick people in the face and beat up the bad guys. And it's fun.

Super Flies fun as fun. It's a great enjoyable movie. It's really a movie for teenage boys.

Fifteen year old you seeing Superflies, do you imagine how your brain would fry?

Girls, the car of the house and the like.

It's a great time for that.

And that's what that is.

But again, the politics of that is, I'm directing a Joel Silver picture. Joel Silver isn't producing a director X film, if that makes sense, the same.

Thing I'm working those right, you're working for him with me.

Yeah, that's important for people to understand because it's like a lot of times they don't understand anything like a director, especially a movie director. It's like they have full rights over everything, and and it's like they're they're they're like a quarterback. You got the chair, but you still got a coach that can kind of push and and and make different things. And so it's like you got a owner who can come down exactly. There's a whole situation. Yeah, definitely.

I got a question as just as a fan of music and of movies as well, Like we always in our heads we hear a song and we're like, damn, like we kind of pictured the videos in our head of how it should go. Has there ever been a video or a song that you were like, damn, I wish I had the opportunity to make that.

Some of them.

More so, there's like songs that they didn't pick me and then they chose someone else and it was horrible.

I'm like, man, I would have gave you the fucking you know what I'm saying.

So let let me ask you this some Toronto once again, shout out to Toronto. Toronto not only has a crazy music scene right now with Tory Lanez Drake, the Weekend, a bunch of people, and they just won the NBA Championship two years ago.

Right last ye last year.

Yeah, but a little known fact Toronto has a very big movie industry, very big movie industry in Toronto. What's the scene right now in Toronto is for well, obviously now COVID everything is shut down, but for up and coming entrepreneurs, speaking specifically for people in Toronto right now, are there opportunities in the music I mean, in the the movie industry or is that kind of who you know Hollywood type of vibe.

It's how you get in. It's very.

It's hard to get but you gotta find your way in the same way that and everyone gets in a different way. Maybe you know someone you gotta find your way in. This is the film industry.

Beca's just not an offense you can walk up to. But you have the Internet. I found hype with a magazine.

And mail in a phone, fucking determination, So you have the motherfucking Internet.

If you can't figure this ship out, you're not gonna survive on set. That'd be very real with you. This is not hey, do it for me business. This is figure the ship that's figured it out. Because when I go to work, there is.

Literally a stopwatch with thousands, tens of thousands of dollars connected to it.

And if I go past this line, then it.

Starts to stack and then double and then triple, and then there's pedal. There's there's police that come along and say move this truck and turn it like it is. High levels of responsibility in your and getting shipped done.

Yeah, so you.

Can't figure out how to get it. You're not gonna know how to fucking maneuver ship.

So you get a timeline on on on your production, and if you don't meet that timeline that there's fees.

That you have to pay out of your pocket.

The production does. But again, if the production has to pay.

If if my call time is at eight and we said we're gonna be packed up and driving.

Away at at eight am.

We're gonna show up and at eight pm we're gonna be done. But then a PM comes around and not only am I not packing my trucks, I'm nowhere near the packing my trucks.

I need two more hours. Those two more hours, well, we made a deal that now I'm going in the overtime. Overtime lasts as long. But what if I need more time pass to overtime, Well, now I can go to the double over time.

I go to the triple overtime, then I get a meal penalty. Well, everyone's supposed to eat. Now I can't stop to eat because we're almost done. Okay, Well, if we're not gonna eat, I get a we get mealk.

Now everyone gets more money. You feel what I'm saying.

This is how this shit works.

It's there's consequences.

So again, if you can't figure out how to get into the film industry, you're not gonna survive in.

The film industry. I don't know. I wish I could tell you there's some way, but you've got to figure this out. This part of getting in this is did you ever in school in grade school to the incubate A and then you see like a chick?

Yeah, okay, and do you remember the.

Teacher said, don't help them out of the A?

Right, If a chick can't make it out of the A, it can't make it out of the A if you help it out.

There's a double If it's not strong enough to get.

It can't make it out, and it wouldn't be if you help it out and it wasn't strong enough to make it out, it wouldn't be strong enough to live and then if you help it out, if it was strong enough to make it out.

But you helped it out, it didn't develop the strength it needed to live, and it's going to die as well. So there's no scenario and you helping that ship out of the a that is good for the chick.

Now, I'm glad you said that because I sat down on Instagram a few weeks ago, like, sometimes you can actually hurt somebody by trying to help them. Sometimes it's like you you're you're enabling people and you're helping them, You're you're actually hurting them because they're just they're skipping vital steps that are needed, Like you're taking them from point A to point Z, but by doing that, they're skipping.

That journey and once by themselves, they won't so long.

Yeah, it's the egg analogy, and it is the one to use. It's the one for these kids. If I help you, if you're good enough to do this, you can do it on your own.

And if you're good enough to do this and I help you, I'm gonna hurt you. You're not that, like you said, those steps you're gonna miss.

The egg analogy is the best analogy which is like I don't like saying too much about what I would do. You know what I'm saying. I can tell you my story about what I did. Yeah, you figure it out now. Now.

I respect that. I respect that because it's like everybody's journey is different, and your journey that you that you did twenty years ago is completely different than somebody that's gonna do it right now in twenty twenty.

You gotta get out of the egg on your own. Once you're out of the egg and I see you on set, well, now we're in a different conversation. You made it here, You're good enough to be here.

You're in the league.

Now, now this a thing going on, you.

Know what I mean. But till then that that they don't just handle you shit and you should have want it. It's not gonna I get the dream, bro. I was young. I remember when I was dropping a package off the puff and I had my tape.

Hey can I show you something? And you look now, I at like this video opera and like this shut it on film, like I'd come up. It wasn't my old though, you know what I'm saying. It was some artsy fartsy cool kids shit and he looked at it. What's your name?

Little x cool?

Later on in the future we worked together and did kind of all I've done, all kinds of stuff apof and you know what I'm saying, he is a great inspirational guy.

Again, relationships that you have twenty years later, you know what I'm saying, twenty years later, still know the epact. But he didn't see my work. He said, oh my god, oh the like And of course I wanted that.

Who wouldn't want to be fucking treated like a genius. But it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes the guy will and later you don't know how this is all gonna work out. But following your interests, following your passion, studying your craft, Altill now like Alton now, I still watch, especially on YouTube.

YouTube if you want it to be is.

A film's will Now people do very in depth, especially now that ideal in story. For me, the new level is story structure, character development, that the things that make you want to watch.

The show past the visual and I.

Study it and I study it and I study it, and YouTube has tons of great people that have really insightful ideas about this.

And then I also read the books about it, and I do my homework. And at this time in.

Quarantine, I've been studying my craft. If I'm bored, I can watch these videos about my craft. So following your interest studying your craft, hustling.

You know what I mean, and just and doing that work, so then you're ready when that moment happens, then you're ready. But uh, and that's that and that's that's information I can give you. As far as like how I would use Google, I'm not telling a like that, how I'm already ship if you ain't. If you had to figured out that, you should have your shit on your phone?

So what what's what's the next? What's next for you? As far as like, are you moving more into the movies? Netflix? Streaming? Like music? Where do you see your own personal look?

I'm working on, you know, all the stuff I'm a director out of all the categories, right, So there's movie stuff, there's goals and conversations, and TV. There's goals and conversations, and music videos, goals and conversations.

Commercial goals and conversations, right, so all this stuff is going on.

What I'm really happy about is that on the commercial side, I did a short film for Pere Moss.

You know wait, we went to this fashion show in Brooklyn.

What's his name, Kirby, Kirby Kurbye shouts to Valencia. We went to his fashion show.

Amazing fashion showk Yeah, amazing.

So I wrote and directed a short film for him. Technically it's a fashion film, and here we go. This was a low budget project. This was a low budget project. Okay, we had nowhere near the kind of money. But here's the entertained. Here was the passion, the studying of story structure, the Kirby and I really working together, working together.

Yeah, technically I'm still working for him though. The money is not the thing that makes it. It's his thing, you feel me.

Yeah, But we're collaborating doing this thing together and it's and that was really one of the best client uh director. That experience was really the people working together to make something better. Always no one gets that's mine. And now I get to just like to get people that want to force their decision as opposed to going with the best decision do.

I just saw him with director of credits. He just did Wallet's new video.

So we made this, We make this thing.

I look, it's not it's called Seven Mothers. You could check out it's also on my page.

But Pierre Ma's Seven Mothers and people cry when they watched this thing all the time, constantly. Right, It's a story about Kirby, his mother dad when he was seven and these well seven or eight, but then these seven women raised him.

And it's a story about family and but based in black culture and the church. And I had something I wanted to say.

It's something I show students because the story structure, it is textbook story structure.

Like I'm saying, so all these things, and we made the very low budget thing.

And then when award season comes because it commercial is big on awards, awards a big part of commercials, and we're getting nominated for really prestigious awards.

We're winning prestigious awards that our little low budget short.

Film is nominated beside Apple and Spotify and tinderft like big, over the top, big budget projects and here's this one little fashion film that we did for probably a third.

Of the money. But the philosophy be all the things which to do, you.

Know, entertained and entertaining people doesn't always mean it's fucking a fucking show and you feel great sometimes the entertainment is breaking your heart and making you think about.

Someone you love and think about how a spirit can still speak to you.

From beyond the grade, and how the universe brings things together. You know what I'm saying, That can still be entertainment. You're really tugging on your heart springs.

So we're there the entertain We're here to do that work and all that studying. And it ain't easy to go being nominated.

Becauside an Apple project or Christian Dior or you know, Tom Ford or this ain't little brands, This ain't little things. But with the right philosophy, with the right approach, with the right heart, with the right collaboration, with all these things going the right way, you're a little.

Private that can make big waves. And so that is something as of you know with Superfly, the TV shows what.

I've got a lot going on.

Man, I'm a working director, but it's projects like that that really means something, really means something heartfelt. And then the payoff isn't in the pay and we weren't calculating it, we weren't making.

Like God, we just made it and then the return was at so so before we wrap it up, I wanted to talk. I know Troy had questions about.

The Yeah, yeah, because some of the things you're doing now, man, I thought it was just amazing operation prefrontal cortex. I know that's something that that you're very passionate about and studying the brain studies. And you know there there were some events that happened in your life that kind of triggered it as well. And I heard that there's work that you're doing in prisons and you want to incorporate

I wanted you to talk about your experience with that.

I mean, look, George Floyd is I think it might be his last.

Video with talking about the violence in our community. And yeah, we have a beef with the police.

The whole world has. You can see the police are.

Out of control.

Well we got something else. Our young men are killing each other everywhere you go.

Toronto is on fire with the with the gun violence and they don't care. Literally, the last shoot the day that George Floyd was killed a twenty one year.

Old and Kudini got killed out here.

When you see the security footage when they start shooting at each other, there's a six year old standing in between.

Downtown Toronto in the middle of the day. Film me. Yeah, and it's that fucking series. But when we've done police, we've done all the programs. And I was shot myself in my back that the bullet went through two people and hit me. Luckily I shifted my body weight.

Might have been the difference between a whole other kind of life of regular hospital visits and what happened to me.

They cut it out and I walked out. You know what I'm saying. So I started I started pulling together. I'm science minded. We could say I'm interested in science.

And I remember I'm reading something one day and I come across some some something in some science journal and say, oh, the criminal mind isn't like the normal brain.

The criminal brain and the normal brain aren't the same.

And I read it and it says the prefrontal cortex is smaller, that's decision making, and the amygdala is bigger.

And that's emotional control.

So and then I'm reading something else and it says something about children who are abused and something happens to their brain and the prefrontal cortex is smaller. And then I read something else and it's meditation changes their brain and makes your prefront.

The cortex figure and it makes your mikdala smaller. I'm hold on, that's the opposite.

Of the violent group.

And I start and I gather these studies together, and it's very very clear childhood abuse to neglect change how.

The brain develops. Children who are abused to neglect that.

Their prefrontal cortex is too small, their migdala is too large.

Chronic stress changes the brain.

People who are are stressed out, their prefrontal cortext shrinks. There a magdalah gets big, violent and aggressive people their brain as distinct differences in the average person. Their prefrontal cortex is too small, their mikela is too big.

And the prefrontal cortex is the part that decides decision making.

Right, yes, and the and the migdala is the part of the brain.

That emotion emotions yeah, And.

It's also the part of the brain that decides to fight or flight.

So this is when people people are people are making decisions based off of emotion and not rational decisions. If they have you, it's it's very interesting part.

Of the real decision making. The brain filters it. But your migdala.

Decides if we're gonna if I'm gonna if I'm gonna run away, or I'm gonna hit that you know that blackout moment and just react because not only does the magdala make the decision, it also can turn off your prefrontal cortex, so literally you're not making a decision right, So.

This is what's happening.

And then if you are constantly stressed, say you live in a bad neighborhood or you have a dangerous job, he says, we.

Live in danger all the time. We don't got time that you can figure out, figure shit out.

We go to fight or we're either gonna run or we're gonna fucking fight. It locks it in the hippocampus is learning and memory. The amygdala will lock in your.

Fight or fight response, so you just fight it. You feel me, So there you go. But meditation does the opposite.

It gives volume to your prefunctal cortext enshrinks your amignalant and gets volume to your hippocampus all the parts of the brain. When you meditate, the parts of your brains that should be big get The parts of your brain that should be small get small. Like working out, you work out all the time, the muscles that should get you know, the muscles get big, the waste gets small, the stomach gets small.

You know what I'm saying.

It's the beauty of exercising. This is exercising your brain. Okay, and you do it through meditation. When you meditate, then when you have big meditation, like in the schools, violent schools, everything changes.

The suspension, stuff, lent.

Stuffs, the grades go up, the physicality all the time high. You know, maximum security prisons, the most violent prison in Mexico. They start meditating, the violence goes down, their awareness rises up, all these great things.

Even with police officers meditate, they de escalate more, they don't they're not as violent.

This is to reducing the violence in our in our community, in general, in our cities.

We need so our plan because Operation Reefunts or Cortex.

Our mission is to reduce violence, gun violence, mass violent, police violence with meditation We need to be in our schools. Our schools saves our next generation. Right, we've got a school, we got the worst.

Good of the world. They start meditating, that school's going to change. We've changed the generation. Once those kids have those tools, because once we get past.

The idea or past the fact that they're that the the shape of their brain no longer is susceptible to violence and aggression. Then we start getting into the use of existing knowledge, better memory, better friendships, better social skills, better physicality.

They start becoming better, fuller, happier human beings from the meditation. You know what I'm saying. We need to get into our.

Community groups, into communities that are affected by violence.

Not every we all know this. The whole hood isn't full of fucking gunmen. But you grew up around it. Sh It's dangerous. You've lost friends. You've been too many close calls. You know, shit like this. You've lost friends.

There's a lot of trauma living in these neighborhoods because of the violence.

Meditation can help you with this. So we need the community groups. We need the correctional system, and that is you know, we need to be in those prisons helping these guys figure the shit out so they can actually come out of jail and live a good life. Everyone's supposed to be able to live a good life. That's the dream, right, not just being rich and falling, but that you live a fulfilling life that you you know. And then there is the.

Streets which needs another program. It's a mentorship called program called Advanced Piece to bring that in a very if you go to advanced Peace dot org you'll see a very effective program mentorship program to reduce violence that will save money drastically from city budgets because of the cost of shootings.

A million dollars a shooting.

Yeah, right, And then we need to get our police meditating. We need the police need to meditate and beyond forget the bad cops, forget the white supremacists.

And that's why we didn't really touch on.

But white supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement worldwide.

That's the FBI says that, not just me. It's not a conspiracy. That's what the FBI found. So let's not let's put that to the side. Let's talk about cops who actually are you know, they joined because they wanted to do something good. Well, the stress of the job is making them is changing.

Their brain, strengthen their prefrontal cortex. It's enlarging their maggo. It's locking in their fight or flight response. It's making them more aggressively, it's making them more violent.

I can tell you, man, when you have a job.

Where it is dealing with people who have been traumatized, you you take it's a heavyweight. I do a day of meetings with you know, the mother lost or son, the guy who loves the people that are really in the living the life.

It's crushing, it's hard, it's heavy, and that's the day of meetings. Let alone. Being a social work in.

Your job is to like get off the phone with the girl who's debuted and then get go no funk. Like at some point the brain says that I can't care anymore, I can't take this Twitter.

Meditation can believe that. But again, being a police officer.

We.

Costs go through some ship. Man to go through some ship, and.

The brain reacts to that. So it ship's dangerous out here. You have time to be nice to people. Meditation can relieve that it can get their bran back to a function.

They become better police officers with that.

So this is a This is how we make big, big changes. This is how we at least in our.

Community, as we have to deal with systemic racism, as we have to deal with everything the system throws at us.

Meditation can give us the ability to deal with the system, to navigate it better right and then hopefully do the work to undo the way the game is rigged against us. But right now, we've been doing it the other way. We've been trying to unrig the system, and we gotta do us first because we don't know.

We don't know. You see what's happening with the system. The whole shit is fucking wobbling. This should looks shaky right now. So it's how you do it? How are you going to handle yourself? This is what meditation can help us do.

Yeah, I'm a big believer in meditation as well. And a lot of times people have the misconception about meditation because they think that it's you gotta like sit Indian style.

I saw you, you know, and that's that I struggle, like being still and not having a thousand thoughts going. I saw that you use you use music as one of the key factors to help you do that. And I saw like when you did it through speakers, you your brain waves were at like eighteen percent, but when you had headphones and you saw a drastic difference, which is key. Like I was like, you know what, I gotta try that. I have to go Yeah I didn't try, Yeah, I said, I have to try it.

You do, we do. When you have the headphones on, you find the right music. It just becomes very encompassing, you know. And then not every meditation. I have diet meditations on that babe, you should check out. And uh, that is the techn The meditation technique.

I use is a lot of visualization and as you as you as you calm your you go through your body and relax your body or you relax your mind, and then when you get really relaxed, then you be.

The visualized goals. And it's very helpful. It's very helpful. It's good to you know, it's a good place to be visualizing.

Where you want to be in your mind in this calm state.

Life you're trying to build for yourself.

And then you know, we can have a debate whether just divisition.

Actually you know the law of attraction.

Or is it you know?

Or does it just helps you see what you want and know what you want? You know what I'm saying, No matter what, have you cut it. It's a good place to be and it helps you as you.

Go to execute director acts man a visionary in more ways than one.

That's a fact. It's been a pleasure, bro. Yeah, man, glad we got a chance to do this. Hopefully we can connect in person sometimes. Yeah, we definitely gotta come Toronto once this whole thing is over.

King of Toronto was opening the doors for us. I'm sure.

Shout out to everybody.

Let's get it.

No for sure, anything that you want to make the people aware of, anything you got going on initiatives, anything like that.

Oh yeah, so operational Bree from the Cortex.

Our website is you know, opdash pfc dot com, and our Instagram page is at op dot pfc. Give us to follow, you know, start meditating itself. If you you don't know how to meditate, google it, Go to YouTube and search guided meditation. Google how to meditate, Download an app like Headspace or Calm. There's lots of ways to learn about meditating.

Again, Bro, there's all this technology around you. If you don't know how to.

You know what I'm saying.

If you got if you want to do something, you can learn how to do it all on your own nowadays. So use that, use the power in your hands and learn how to life will just become.

Better the more you do it.

That's a fact. Troy Housekeeping Items.

Yeah, shout out to everybody on Patreon dot com. Y'all know that's our Proud to Pay program where we have five different tiers. Each tier gives you a different thing where whether it be discounts on our merch or access to our university. Eyl University our biggest and the biggest community for financial literacy and entrepreneurism. It's been going crazy.

It's been amazing. Man.

Right now in the midst of reading the twelve week Yeah, and that's been going crazy, So shout out to everybody that has.

Been part of that.

Yeah, and shop once again, shout out to Canada. We coming to Canada. We're going to do a networking event, a podcast, and a workshop as soon as we get clearance. And we're not going through the Christopher Columbus thing. We're going to bring people from Canada that can actually talk about, you know, real estate from a Canadian perspective and all of that. We're not just going, you know, force our American ways going people. But yeah, man, once again, it's

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