What's up, beautiful people? It's your homegirl, Daph, coming to you in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!
Okay, so I wanted to share with you guys the behind the scenes look of my last video. And that was my Halloween transformation into
Aunty from Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. So a few of you have asked me on Facebook, on my videos, ''can you share with us your process of shooting a creative video
from coming up with the idea to executing it?''
And this video was perfect for that, because it required a lot of creativity, teamwork and travel. We actually shot at 3 different locations:
Red Rock, Topanga Canyon, Vasquez Rocks. And to get to all those places, you need a car. So your homegirl got the hookup from Glendale Hyundai. Thank you guys so much for giving me
the Hyundai Sonata to get to all these places. Before we actually got on the road and started doing all that shooting, we had to come up with a creative idea.
Now, because I just moved out here, and I've wanted to be Tina Turner--Aunty from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome--for a while now, I was like, this is the perfect time.
So the first thing I have to do is pull the images. So I went on Google Images, and I typed in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I also even typed in desert locations.
I made a collage out of it. You can even just print out the images and tape them up somewhere. You just need the visuals all together at once so you can
see what the big picture looks like. So once I had the images, I shared those with my girl Liinda, who's the choreographer and helps me with all my movement.
LIINDA: So that way they can see your...
MAYA: What are you doing?
LIINDA: Maybe relax your hands a bit... yeah. And really like, chest out, open.
MAYA: Is that?
And my girl Jazmine who was shooting this epicness.
MAYA: Is that okay? Does this work?
JAZMINE: It looks good, she's tiny!
LIINDA: ... and then, chin like, from your right to left.
I had to come up with a storyline. The first thing that popped into my mind was a girl on the ground, kind of naked, but not.
And just like, all desert. That was what was in my mind. And I wanted her to be in a position of weakness. And throughout the journey of her searching, she discovers who she is, and
she's this powerful, leader, warrior, and that is shown and exemplified in her wardrobe, in her costume, in her makeup and the way she carries herself.
So there is a journey from on the ground weakness to on the top of a cliff, arms up, gone with the wind!
So that was my storyline. Now the first thing you've got to do is get the costume together.
I'm in this fabric store. What's the name of this store called?
WOMAN: Michael Levine's. MAYA: Michael Levine's? Oh, okay, thank you.
And I found this stuff for my transformation, yo! I just don't know if this falls, like...
So I'm going to... I don't know. This is the closest thing, though. I'm going to keep looking.
Actually, this was so much fun for me. Just to go on a mission and get all these pieces together and I had just moved out here. So everything is like, okay, I'm learning about this
awesome city. And then the next stop was Home Depot.
I was just looking for something that had structure, because looking at her shoulder pads, they were very architectural. And I figured Home Depot, as opposed to an art store,
would have those materials, which they did. So you see me here on the ground in my living room, just working away, trying to construct these shoulder pads.
And I just looped it like so. And then I have these pliers that I cut it [with]. And then I bought these stop sets. It's in the same section; it's called wire rope accessory. 37 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:47,010 And I weaved it through and then I hammered it.
So just snip it.
So I'm going to take this wire...
Now, the next thing is the wig. The first wig I had, I bought here on Hollywood and got it styled the night before the shoot, which was a big no no. I paid a lot of money for someone else
to do the job, and when I got the actual wig, I was kind of disappointed. But the show must go on, so we ended up using that and shooting with it.
Dude! I have arrived.
And we still had more scenes to shoot, so I went ahead and I contacted my cousin Jeigh in New York, and asked him to go over to my favorite wig shop, Orange Beauty Supply.
And he bought me a fierce lace-front wig and I just styled it.
...custom make this wig and make it Tina Turner. So what I have is some Aquanet from Walmart. Dirt cheap. Just use this for styling synthetic hair.
Got some brushes, sisscors, and a blow dryer, okay?
What I love about this wig is there's lots of tracks. You need a wig with lots of tracks so that when you back-comb it, it's not empty. Just thick.
You want a thick, full head of hair for this particular style. So again, just back-comb it.
Go ahead and cut it. Give yourself more than you need in case you make a mistake, and then we'll clean it up later. It's all about thinning it out. So the mullet-esque look requires going
down. So it's going to be short up top, and then logner as I get here. And then the only part that should be really long is the very back.
And the earrings, I actually bought at Home Depot, again. And it was just artist wire. It's the wire that you use to hang frames. So it comes coiled in a... kind of like, not a ball,
but a flat, circular thing. So I was like, thinking to myself, ''well if I just unravel it, and secure it on the top, that could be the earring. So Liinda, crafty Liinda, this was like...
this was Mission America's Next Top Crafters, because we were all in the car, well they were in the car like, crafting together these pieces. Everything was last minute.
Shoutouts to Liinda for those fierce earrings. So now for the filming part. We were filming in Red Rock. It was so windy.
JAZMINE: Walk past me!
But we got the first part shot. In terms of the tutorial part, it was really hard because I couldn't see. I kept crying and it was just not ideal shooting conditions for the makeup.
It was so distracting. So we ended up just wrapping. And this is the storm warning that popped up on our phones just minutes after we left. So we just missed it.
We had high hopes of filming! But alas, the winds have gobbled us up.
We just needed a desert like location that was closer. So we just--I think it was like 15, 20 mintue drive to Topanga Canyon. And then we actually had to do a hike.
We had to hike. And that was about, I don't know, 20 minute hike?
And we found this awesome location to shoot that moment where she's on the rocks, like commanding the elements.
I am feeling my feeling my oats! Hold on.
Oh, you know, just strolling around in my pumps... on a mountain--
JAZMINE: One pump down!
MAYA: Posing on a canyon.
Come over here, Liinda, what do you think?
I can even so something from down here. Looks like you have really long legs. 73 00:09:52,100 --> 00:09:53,140 MAYA: Legs for days!
In terms of the tutorial part, we didn't have enough time. So the next day, I decided to drive to Vasquez Rocks. I didn't want to go to Topanga because that hike by myself, no no no.
And I set up shop, and I found like a rock that was kind of enclosed. So even though it was windy, I didn't get much of the wind. And that's where I shot the beauty looks.
Here we are, just packing up. I just finished filming pick up shots. There's Jay Ellyiot playing. Tripod and all of that. Look at that. 77 00:10:32,150 --> 00:10:44,070 And then once I have all the footage, I drive back home and try to edit it all together. And the editing is all inspired by the music.
For me it's all about the music. And Jay Ellyiot, who is my music producer, created such an awesome soundtrack that I just edit to the sound. Especially for the opening and the closing part
because those are the parts that I go creative. I feel like I make these videos for the opening and closing.
In terms of the editing, there's a lot. What can I show you...
So you can see here, this timeline. All those kind of goldish, mustard lines, they're all actually just black. And I copied and pasted them so they have the same length and distance.
And it was kind of like I was going for a helicopter type feel. What's really helpful in shooting as well is b-roll, which are just additional shots to insert to establish the location.
So if I scroll over, Jazmine actually took this as we were driving back into the city. So I used that. And I overlayed this image with some textured rocks.
The shot that ws actually kind of epic for me which was like my glory shot, I shot this at Vasquez Rock and it was the sand part where the credits come in.
But that was actually me doing this.
So I'm just swooshing my stick around and hoping the camera catches the dust and not the actual sand particles.
And then I have these shots of me... the clothes laid out, because I was going for her finding these clothes and putting them on, but we didn't have time to film that.
So yes, that means there was 3 days of shooting, lots of days of editing, and lots of fun!
So that's pretty much it, I look forward to seeing you guys in my next video. Remember to do you...
DAPHNE: Be you, and stay true. be shameless!