The Creation of "Hey Ya!"

Inspired Mayhem: Hey Ya!


I had been dreaming about making this video for awhile. I loved all the Inspired Mayhem collaborative play, but since all the people involved were dancers, it seemed odd that we almost never (other than Cisco's Garage) danced to music. Logistically, it was always easier to just bring the props and camera, shoot what I could, and then edit it to a song that fit (which eventually, YouTube would ban for copyright reasons, but that's another blog!). Besides, the creation of a music video is kind of weird, because you have to dance to the same song, over and over again.

My original concept for "Hey Ya!" was to shoot only one or a few dancers at a time, all in the alleyway, with a similar background, and just rotate dancers through, so I could intercut between the different groups. However, like everything else with IMP, the plans I make must been thrown away, if the whim of the crowd goes in a different direction. People didn't want to stop dancing, and I didn't want to ask them to.

I produce each shoot, but I cannot force anything without bruising the collaborative spirit which brings others into it. Inspired Mayhem is exactly that: I can help get the mayhem started, but then I just have to trust in the participants' inspiration to make the magic happen. It's not even herding cats; it's meowing nicely, and then getting out of the way, so the other cats can come play.

(Speaking of which, I have to tip my hat to Craig B., who did all the camerawork on this one, allowing me to focus on connecting to and enlisting dancers to join in. Like so much else we've done together, don't know what I woulda done without you).

Guest bloggers: Marci and Arlys
Marci: It's like unraveling myself like a spiral staircase down into the trunk of the tree in a mysterious forest... as the camera is rolling and our interactions take place, I feel the inevitable momentum of possibility's-edge and what-if and let-go and try-this go ballistic - HEY YA! the shoot has a life of its own, capturing us all in a dynamic vortex that spills out, surprising ourselves in new directions, configurations, juxtapositions ...and it's so exhilaratingly free! My hula hoop breaks and I celebrate its undoing, a symbolic opening to new shapes that include more... bodies, energies, vibes, colors, radiance... IMP is a-bun-Dance of US. - May we continue to discover ourselves anew - Marci Javril - www.youtube.com/marcijavril

Arlys:
"No think - just move, no think - just groove".

The Creation of "Pass That Dutch"

IMP-Style: "Pass That Dutch"


My third IMP-Style video (and second solo) was burning to be shot. I was still all-fired up about "The Anthem", and Outi and I had just collaborated on "Rub My Back". After spending most of the day cutting for our duet, I'd run out with Z (my motorcycle) and shoot bits for "Pass That Dutch." (Z actually has a few cameos in the video, in the background in a couple of shots, and in the frame with its light on for a night scene).

If you read the Anthem Blog, you'll see that my initial inspiration was simple: just top-rocking (bipedal dance) in an urban environment. In the Anthem, I found a few three-dimensional variations (railings, wall supports), to change it up some, but with "Pass That Dutch", I really wanted to expand that.

I have been playing with parkour for a couple of years now, and more specifically, I've been "adventuring." Adventuring is not always about physical feats, but is also about facing other kinds of fears, like fears of being caught, when trespassing. For example, I was shooting some parkour for a Stick's Riffs at the train yard recently, when I was arrested, cuffed, and put in the back of the squad car by L.A.'s Sheriff's Dept. Thankfully, I had my camera rolling:

Also thankfully, the Sheriff and his Deputy just let me go with a warning. I immediately went out and trespassed some more, because you can't let fear rule your adventure.

So I was determined that "Pass That Dutch" would combine my love for dance with my taste for adventure, and sought out locations that would let me dance, in the face of my own fear.

My main location for "PTD" was City Fibers, a paper recycling plant that takes up a couple city blocks just below downtown. They had already shooed me away, when I earlier went riding through on Z, scouting for fun stuff, so I knew I had to play it lo-pro.

In the following clip, I lost my balance while climbing on an enormous pile of recycling bins. What scared me was not the near-fall, so much as giving myself away, because there were workers just over a fence. You can see me looking out to see if I had been noticed.



Just around the corner from the bin pile, inside a fence, was this beautiful canyon of paper bales for recycling. I had noticed it, the first time I drove through, but there had always been someone in or around there. Then, on my third time snooping around City Fibers, I saw the gate open, and the canyon empty. The light was perfect, and I knew I had to sneak in while the opportunity was ripe. Of course, I didn't escape unnoticed. In the following clip, you can hear the forklift rider say: "What's up, fool?" I walked out, but, of course, as soon as he had passed, I raced back in, and that served as one of the opening shots for the video. I always love, when possible, including the chance passerby or incident as an element in the video.


Another such element was the truck that passed underneath me, when I was dancing on the train signal structure. This is right next to the L.A. Times building, where the rail road tracks (that bring the Times their paper) crosses the road. Just a moment of the truck shows up in the video, but it's always nice to reveal just how precarious and foolish my dance locations are.

What you can't see on camera (because I didn't include the road in the shot), was the cop car that turned the corner literally five seconds before I was about to climb. Having just been arrested for trespassing on railroad property, I count myself lucky.

Probably the scariest location for me this time was the overpass (over Washington Blvd.). It wasn't technically difficult, but it was my first shot of the day (and I had to hurry, because the light was fading). It's much easier to face risk (and especially to surrender into dance in the face of risk), after I've warmed up into it. That risk was compounded by a couple of vagrants, who were somewhat belligerent about this unknown person with a camera lurking around their lawless territory, but they left me alone when I promised I wouldn't shoot them. Too bad, because they'd be a nice addition to this blog!

The Creation of "Rub My Back"

IMP-Style: "Rub My Back"

When I showed Outi my first rough cut of "The Anthem" , she immediately said "I want to do that."  She's never been afraid to get her hands dirty.

We went down the next day to downtown L.A., again, with no plan, no choreography.  But we've been dancing together for years, so our telepathy is strong.

I've been playing for a long time around the 6th St. Bridge (including driving on sidewalks, and other footage that will appear in the final of Stick's Riffs: Bad Driving). Some of that footage follows:  

One feature that I've been eager to include in a video is a block-long tunnel, utterly unmarked, that starts from under the bridge, and leads to a ramp into the L.A. river.  The tunnel entrance is in the background in one of our shots (lower right).

When we arrived in the river (no river at all, for those of you who don't know it, but a long concrete culvert), we found there was already some bad driving going on.  Three trucks were playing with hydroplaning on the shallow river surface.   I had taken Z (my motorcycle) into the river just the week before, on a lark, (and ridden down about a mile and back), but I kept mostly to the dry areas.  I don't know if our appearance made them nervous, but they left before we started shooting.

The river supplied backgrounds for four of our shots, including Outi's idea of dancing in the river itself.  A couple of homeless guys applauded us during the shoot, one of whom crossed frame and made the final cut.  As the sun was setting, three men hiding and doing some business in the bushes on the bank above us finally got us to consider leaving.  I've been playing around in plenty of rough and wild neighborhoods in L.A. after dark, but it's all new for Outi.

Back on the surface, we found that there was a Hollywood shoot happening right above the tunnel (it's a favorite location for the $ producers, as well).  We were hoping to get them into the background for a shot, but they wrapped up, just as we were getting ready.
The other spots were all within a half-block of the tunnel entrance.  The multi-tiered tan wall, fence track, and the long curb all front the bridge, and the street lit area was right across from them.  This was my first time creating an IMP vid using night lights, and I love it.  With summer faded into fall, there's such a small window between when everyone evacuates downtown and when the sun goes down, street lights help prolong my shooting day.  Dramatic lighting, too.

One of the toughest things about the shoot was the synchronization of two separate iPods. This is something we'll have to perfect for future shoots, especially when we have more people join us. This is a quick outtake montage of our absurd attempts at getting the song started, in all four ears, at the same time.

After just a few hours, we wrapped our first IMP-Style duet.  Although I had been playing with parkour and other three-dimensional dance, it was mostly new to Outi.  But you'd never know it; she threw herself into everything with no hesitation, and full commitment.  A beautiful first for both of us; it was also our first duet (after years of dancing together) caught on camera.

The Creation of "The Anthem" + IMP-Style.

The first IMP-Style video, to Pitbull's "The Anthem."

IMP has been creating play videos for the last 10 months, mixing dance, parkour, and some stunt work in there. And I've been playing with parkour for the last couple years, acting out my Jackie Chan fantasies around downtown L.A.

I was inspired by the following video, rough hewn as it is. It has within it the seed for what I've started calling IMP-Style, meaning dance that mixes hip-hop (and other dance styles) with parkour and environmental exploration. Big props to the guy for his bravery for doing what he has to do, with little concern for passers-by.

What finally occurred to me with "The Anthem" is what now seems obvious: a video that is more or less straightforward dance, but within urban rugged environments, and using whatever three-dimensional structures are available. It's parkour mixed with hip hop mixed with Contact Improv mixed with whatever.

As soon as I saw the video that inspired me (on the last blog), I grabbed my camera, jumped on Z (my motorcycle), and headed out to downtown. No plan, no idea of what I was going to run into. Indeed, this would be my first time really allowing myself to dance full-on, while outdoors in public.

Downtown L.A. has many amazing places to play, but the area near the railroad tracks / L.A. River has the richest collection of features, the least amount of people, and much of the best graffiti in town. I found a parking lot that was unsecured to start, and focused more on "top-rocking" (i.e. normal, upright, bipedal dance), to get me started. But right across the street from the lot was the 621 railing, which I had previously explored in a now-defunct Stick's Riffs video.

As with the previous and following set-ups, however, I planned nothing, did it all improv, and in only one take.

The real coup, however, was finding the abandoned building that takes up about half of the video. I had cruised by it earlier on Z, lucky glance, just saw the interior through a slat in the wood. But I saw some guy hanging out in front of it, and thought I'd come by later. When I did, he was no longer around, so I slipped in and shot until dark. I didn't head out to downtown until nearly 4pm, so there was little light left, and during the last shot (as you can see), I lost all my remaining light. As I was preparing Z to leave, the guy came back, and his reaction suggested that he lived there. A good time to roll. Of course, I'm dedicated to not destroying or defacing any of the places I play in, so no harm done.

It was scary, too, to see my own dance on-screen. We'd been shooting for 10 months, by now, so I was used to seeing myself play, but I had never shot myself dancing hip-hop, so it was a total mystery. I only knew how it feels. The greatest insight from watching the footage was not "change this or that". It was to remember to trust the flow. It was painfully clear when I tried to make something happen, rather than just allow the dance to move me. Most of that footage, of course, didn't end up in the final (some of the floor work is a bit forced). But more than anything, it was the reminder to trust, to allow myself to dance full-on, without reservation, and just have a good time with it. Sounds like a good prescription for life, too.