XX: BEHIND THE SCENES: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

During the peak heat days of this past August, we shot the second music video for Die Jim Crow: “First Impressions,” the sparse and intense third track off the EP. With “Headed to the Streets” being our first music video, and having premiered in June on RollingStone.com, the stakes were high for this one. Rather than try to outdo “Headed,” my approach as director was to keep it simple but bold – in line with the sparse quality of the song.

Returning in the role of co-star, formerly incarcerated BL Shirelle would be the focal point of the video, holding it down for Charles “C-Will” Williams, her co-vocalist/lyricist on the track who is serving a life sentence in Ohio. Similar to the “Headed” video, in which Anthony “Big Ant” McKinney made his appearances through jpay videograms, C-Will would be projected on the walls of a set with BL alongside.

In tow with BL Shirelle would be Shotta Montgomery, AKA Demetrius Patterson, who had collaborated with BL while the two were incarcerated at SCI Muncy. In fact, before I ever communicated with BL, I wrote to Shotta. I had seen the TedX SCI Muncy series, and was impressed by the rap verses in BL Shirelle’s “Wrong Side of the Road.” What I didn’t realize was that BL Shirelle was not a band name but the artist name of Monique Mull, who had written the lyrics and composed the song. Because BL felt she was better served introducing the song and playing guitar, she gave her verses to Shotta to rap. So, back in the Spring of 2015 when I wrote Demetrius Patterson asking if they would like to be involved in the Die Jim Crow project, to my surprise, I got a letter back from a Monique Mull. Mull explained to me that BL Shirelle was her brainchild, and that Demetrius passed on the letter to her.

BL Shirelle (left) and Shotta Montgomery outside Sets & Effects (Photo: Alana Burgos)

BL Shirelle would be released a few months later and her collaboration on Die Jim Crow would begin. Shotta, however, had three more years in their sentence, and was not released until Spring 2018. With Shotta back in society, and the upcoming “First Impressions” video needing an actor to play percussion, I felt that asking Shotta to appear alongside BL would be a great way to finally collaborate.

Production meeting with the actors at Reale’s Bar & Grill, Philly PA

So, on a hot August Sunday morning, BL and Shotta boarded the Chinatown bus from Philly and made their way to Bushwick, Brooklyn, where we were shooting at Sets & Effects — a fabrication shop I’ve worked at for several years while producing DJC. We had built the white room set that Friday after employees had gone home, and shot non-actor scenes all day Saturday. We got some cool ambient stuff:

DP Steven Turco (left) and Director Fury Young (Photo: Lorena Liñero)

The shoot Sunday went great, though exhausting and non-stop with ever-changing set-ups crammed into one day. After shooting BL and Shotta throughout the day, horn player Dexter Nurse came through in the evening and we got some great shots for the outro. We’ll be posting a behind the scenes video for our next blog, so look out for that. The music video will be out before the new year along with a “First Impressions” single featuring remixes by Dälek, Scotty Hard, and an unreleased track from Wichita artist Cedric Johnson (AKA Versatile) which originally inspired “First Impressions.”

Hope all of you had a great summer —
Fury

Dexter Nurse on the trumpet (Photo: Lorena Liñero)

P.S. Thank you to those who crewed on the music video: Steven Turco (DP), Lorena Liñero (Set Dresser & Stills), Dave Jones (Gaffer), Brian Goodwin (Gaffer), Jamel Embry (Carpenter), Cat Navarro (Line Producer), Darron Burgos (G&E), Alana Burgos (Stills), and Leah Samuel (SFX).

XX: BEHIND THE SCENES: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

XXI: DJC SOUTHERN TRIP 2018

XIX: ROLLING STONE “HEADED” PREMIERE & SINGLE RELEASE