BRING EM BACK HOME

BRING EM BACK HOME

Seattle’s DIY Music Video Directors Prove “You Have To Do It Yourself”

By Treamalle LaBee

Scene from the Blue Scholars' "Back Home"

a

Perhaps Seattle’s best-seen music video director right now is Zia Mohajerjasbi, whose video for the local hip hop duo Blue Scholars’ anti-war song “Back Home” was featured on the MySpace home page, is posted on blogs across the Internet, and clocks close to 30,000 views on YouTube.
Mohajerjasbi, brother of the Scholars’ Iranian-American DJ Sabzi, has directed 3 videos for the group, as well as videos for Mass Line Records label-mates Common Market and Gabriel Teodros. But despite an impressive Internet profile and the increasing popularity of the Scholars’ music, Mohajerjasbi says he continues to follow a grassroots, DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic.
“I’m trying to show visually what’s really going down in the city and involve the community,” he says. In “Back Home,” images of women and children in a mixed minority community highlight the song’s message to bring soldiers in Iraq back to their families. With Teodros’ “No Label,” he depicts the bearded MC rapping with dancing crowds of neighborhood kids.
a

Gabriel Teodros in "No Label"

a
For crew, Mohajerjasbi says he usually goes to local film schools and offers students there a chance to work on the shoot as a mentoring program. And, as with many independent films shot in Seattle, volunteer help pours in for a hometown artist, often in the form of clothing, cars, locations, or extra bodies for crowd scenes.
“It’s more apparent now that [major label videos] are just marketing pieces,” he adds.
Before current technology put the power of production in the hands of everyday people and the Internet revolution gave us a worldwide stage, music videos could have been considered “rock star confirmation.” Only certain people got to make them and even fewer got to make more than one. Videos were not only creative forms of expression for the artists, but also marketing tools used by the major record labels to present their artist to the consuming public as a complete package.
Music videos could not have been as important for the independent artist, since the avenues to show them were limited to small underground alternatives like public access television, while the commercial networks of MTV and BET showed mainly major label artists.
Now, as Michael Jaworski, head of Seattle independent label Mt. Fuji Records puts it, “it’s hard to say at this point who music videos are more important for.” Mt. Fuji hosts indie rock acts such as Jaworski’s own band The Cops.
“The most crucial [videos] are the indie ones,” agrees Fred Northup Jr, a local producer. “People are getting sick of mainstream.”
a

Still from "Back Home"

a

Northup and John Richards of KEXP’s “John in the Morning” are the hosts of a show on the public-access Seattle Channel called “The Local Music Show,” which shows a lineup strictly consisting of local independent music videos.
After a flood of indie music videos in the 1980s, Richards says, things slowed down considerably from the mid to late 90s because “nobody had a reason to make a video.” Now that is no longer the case because, he says, “The ability to produce videos has evolved.” He intends the show to provide a platform for a new generation of artists.
But working with independent artists on low-budget videos is not always an easy task.
“The artist wants furniture on the ceiling,” says Henry McComas, filmmaker and head of the Seattle production company Crooked Lake Productions. He says he got into making music videos the same way a lot of local directors do—he knew a musician. He used to shoot videos for the local hip-hop artist DJ D-Doxx, who introduced McComas to his music friends. From there, he says, networking savvy and old-fashioned hustle took care of the rest.
But McComas soon learned one of the main conflicts of developing an indie music video: A-list desires versus B-list funding. “What you have to do is not just say what can’t be done—you have to immediately be able to provide an alternative that they will like,” he says.
For example, the artist he is currently shooting a video for, Money Major and Vintage Tapes, wanted to shoot on the Metro bus because their song “Metro” talks about giving the listener a ride through the city. This of course would mean renting a bus for at least a day. “Not cheap,” he says.
McComas explored the idea of using a handheld camera to steal shots on the bus, but concluded the risk of getting caught and harassed was too high. So he came up with another idea: “Instead of shooting on the bus I told them, let’s get a Cadillac and have you drive around in that. That way you still get to show your city and you get to drive around in a pimped-out caddy.” The artist loved it and it was cheap.
Not all problems get solved so smoothly on an indie music video set. Another local video director, Rick Ross of Level 1 Media out of Tacoma, says that just like any other low budget independent production, planning is crucial. On one recent shoot, he says, he found himself standing around doing a lot of nothing with his time, because the artist had not thought further beyond the location where he wanted to be shot.
“If an artist is capable I let him have more control,” Ross says. “But ultimately the producer or director should be in control.”
a

a

On the set of "No Label"

a
Despite recent complications, however, Ross says he is not discouraged or soured on the idea of working in Seattle. “People have been sleeping on Seattle and Tacoma,” he says. “It isn’t saturated because there hasn’t been a lot of exposure.”
Robby Wood, a video director and recording artist for Seattle-based label Noc on Wood Records, says he started directing videos as a way to cut production overhead on records. The money he once spent on hiring a director, he now adds to his distribution budget.
“Guerilla is the way to go,” he says. Wood brings in most of his crew and equipment to Seattle from Los Angeles because he says the net cost is lower.
“Low budgets can affect quality,” he admits. “But the performance is most important.”
Mohajerjasbi, whose videos with emerging stars of the underground scene seem to transcend their low production values, says, “In some ways it’s easier to be more known. But with indie you obviously have more freedom. I’d like to do DIY on a major-label budget.”
Meanwhile, for directors shooting less established artists, Seattle can be a tough place to get started, being an out-of-the-way place on the nation’s media map. Sub Pop Records, Seattle’s most successful record label, rarely hires directors from the city for its videos—the label’s most important video director is actually Portland’s Whitey McConnaughy, a producer of snowboarding movies who has shot stunning videos with a decidedly high-value, non-DIY flavor for local groups like Mudhoney, Band of Horses, and Kinski.
“You have to do it yourself,” says Ross.

a

Rick Ross
a


Henry McComas

a


Robby Wood

a