Behind the Lens:
Pray For ‘Em
Butterfly Ali
Many years ago, I met Titus Makin (Butterfly Ali) on a set of a music video for Kelsy Karter. I didn’t know much about him other than the fact that he was an actor, and I heard he could sing. After a quick YouTube search, I was blown away! Fast forward a few years later, I ran into him again by chance at an acting showcase where his sister happened to be performing.
Now, in the midst of an industry that came to a screeching halt due to COVID-19, I was completely ecstatic when he reached out to me on Instagram.
Titus contacted me on August 20th. We needed to shoot as soon as possible before his TV show started filming again and he’d need to quarantine himself for it. That means we had just 14 days to come up with a music video.
Challenge accepted!
Equipment
Camera:
• Red Scarlet
• Sigma Cine 18-35mm
• Sigma Cine 50-100mm
• Mavic 2 Pro
• SmallHD 703 Bolt
• Teradek 500TX
• Nucleus M
• Sachter Flowtech 75
• Gold Diffusion 2
Electric:
• Aputure Nova 300c
• Aputure 300d (fresnel, Light Dome II)
• Aputure AL-M9
• Astera AX1
• Leko
• 1K dimmers
• Various gels
Grip:
• C-stands
• Roller stand
• Manfrotto super clamp
• Duvatine
• Apple boxes
• Sandbags
• Cardillini
• Haze in a can
Crew
Production
Titus had a vision from the very beginning on what kind of story he wanted to tell through the visuals to his song, Pray For ‘Em. I worked quickly to start scouting locations with Rebi by spending the day driving around Santa Clarita in hopes to find some cool abandoned locations. With no luck, we drove around Malibu and came across the amazing Labyrinth location that overlooks the ocean. We also went to the open field location, which I had found previously for a shoot I did a year ago in a similar spot.
I split this shoot into 2 days. The first day would just be Austin Hughes, Christian Colwell, and Rebi Jordan setting up in one location and then running to two exterior locations around Malibu, California. The second day would be filming in two different stages in Downtown LA.
After a proper scout, I built an equipment list and contacted my good friend Christian, who I have worked on many many projects with throughout college and beyond. We planned out a rental schedule together which we used Sharegrid to lock down the lenses, the Aputure Nova, and the gold filter.
I reached out to Tom Taugher, who I met a few times during mutual sets we worked on in college. He’s been successful lately running several rental locations, distortion effects, and more with Buff Nerds and I saw he had now been operating a steadicam and owned his own rig. I contacted him on Instagram and lucky enough, he was available for the shoot!
