Everything you see in this video was completely authentic.
There wasn't any treatment, any budget, any planning.
We just went with the flow, and we were seeing how things went.
I met Ski back in March at SXSW.
It was like in a parking lot, with just a bunch of people.
We were all just in a parking lot.
We were talking, I told him I'm a fan of his music.
And he told me he was a fan of my videos.
And then he told me that I'm gonna shoot his first music video ever.
I was like, "Let's do it."
It was my first time in New York.
Ski’s hotel was right in Times Square.
So just being around there, to me, my first time being in New York ever it was like a
movie.
It was like something I'd seen before, but never got to see in person.
So I'm from Chicago, so Chance The Rapper is a huge, huge, huge inspiration.
Chance and Austin Vesely, they did a video for “Juice” in Time Square like four or
five years ago.
I remember seeing that, and I thought it was the coolest thing.
Seeing Times Square in a video and never being to Times Square, it feels so surreal.
It doesn't seem like real life.
A lot of the stuff that I used in this video and the visual effects was the first time
I ever used it.
I used the stock footage of a vapor wave, galaxy road to make it kind of look like water.
It’s called “blobbylizing”.
So I “blobbylized” it and I softened it.
I actually distorted it.
I lined it up with the sidewalk so it kind of went hand-in-hand with everything and looked
super natural.
I reversed it because usually the footage is going forward, but I reversed it so it’s
coming towards us.
So as he’s moving forward it kind of looks as if he’s walking faster than he is.
Frame-by-frame I masked out his legs and feet.
Therefore I could lay in this vapor wave behind him.
One thing I always try to incorporate is fun colors and just aspects that would really
catch the eye.
That's what people want to see.
They want to see something that makes them happy.
You know?
Life's too serious.
So, I like my videos to kind of just take you out of the shell and just have fun for a little
bit.
We were hanging out in the hotel room and how Chucky kind of got pulled into it was
Ski had recently just been carrying around the Chucky doll at the time.
So I saw the Chucky doll and I was like, “We definitely need to incorporate that.”
And Ski was all for it.
Ski was like, "You think I wasn't going to bring him with?"
This is in his hotel room actually, this is on an iron board.
It was like a perfect intro shot, I thought.
And it kind of introduced Chucky into the video.
This stuff you're seeing through here is just pixel sorting.
I just laid a pixel sort effect, which pulls pieces and colors of the video in each frame
and kind of randomizes a glitch on them.
For this shot it was a lot of fun because we just happened to see them there with their
little tip jar next to 'em, taking photos.
Ski gave them however much money, like a $20 bill.
And he was like, "We're shooting a music video, do you guys want to be in it?"
They're like, "Sure."
You know what I mean?
20 bucks let's do it.
The Statue of Liberty right here, I think he's hitting a dab or something.
Everyone behind us had stopped.
It was like we were the center of attention.
With every shot in this video you didn't know what to expect.
Someone could look at you crazy, or someone could hop in the video and start dancing with
Ski.
It could have went any different way.
So with every shot we took it was fun because we didn't really know what was going to happen.
So right here you'll see a family.
They were caught off guard for sure.
That’s gold right there.
That’s perfect.
When he lifted up his arm and shook back and forth, and put on this face.
I knew that it was gonna be big.
I magnified his eyes and feathered it out so it looked natural, and it looked as if
he had bug eyes.
Shook.
I was just hanging out the front seat.
You know, half my torso was hanging out.
This actually isn’t even his hat.
It’s one of his boy’s hats and he’s like, “Yo let me just wear this hat for the video.”
So our boy Mike he was like, “Whatever you do, just don’t lose the hat."
"Man, just don’t lose the hat,” before we left out.
Ski is like, “C’mon man, I got you. I’m not gonna lose the hat.”
A few hundred more feet we pull over, 'cause Ski is like, “I gotta go get the hat."
"He made it very clear that I shouldn’t lose the hat.”
So he’s sprinting, runs around the corner.
He was looking around everywhere, couldn’t find it.
He’s like, “I lost it.
"I’ll just pay him whatever the hat costs.”
He gave him like 200 bucks or something just ‘cause he felt so bad.
After the hat fell off and we kinda realized it was gone, that kind of set the tone and
we’re like, “You know, we’re gonna end it there. We got a lot of footage.”
Directing is like bringing an idea to life.
So sometimes I'll have ideas written down on paper.
And then seeing that happen is one thing.
And then being able to put it out and release it, and see it get sometimes millions of views,
that’s incredible.
The editing process is like playing a video game.
It's the same joy that I had when I was kid, playing video games.
But I'm productive.
Me and Ski, we have a very personable relationship.
It's like, before anything, we're just friends.
It just clicked.
The YouTube channel has almost turned into a platform.
So I can give people opportunities.
And I can really break new artists.
And that's so fun to me because I can handpick someone who I really believe in, do a video
for them and if enough people agree with me as far as the talent, or if they enjoy the
artist, then bam.
That might be a chance to break them and possibly change their life.