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23rd January 2017
100% Staake
Title of film: Young Thug, Wyclef Jean
Director: Ryan Staake
Production Company: Pomp&Clout
Ryan Staake’s video for Young Thug’s Wyclef Jean track is genius. Young Thug is pretty smart too for agreeing to do this master send-up which teases your brain into a delicious space of wondering whether it’s a true story or very cleverly fabricated. And so we watch it over and over again because it’s riveting and joyous and funny and a fucking good track anyway.  We talk with the director about the hows and whys of making the video

Not for one moment did we think Ryan Staake’s video for Young Thug wasn’t scripted beforehand but hey we don’t care because either way it’s brilliant. (Yep, we’ve seen the Noisey behind the scenes but we think they were in on it too!).

It’s actually a true story.

The graphics, the pacing, the action, or non-action, are faultless crafting. 

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I take a lot of pride in my VFX craft and love to hear that you liked it. Pacing in itself was incredibly unique in this project, because I had to juggle readability of text with the visual pacing of the edit…not too slow, not too fast… just right!

So the flash-edit of the original treatment of burning the 100 dollar bills to match probably the “Play with my money” sentiment is genuine?

That was 100% real. I was going to withdraw the budget in $1 bills, stack it into a pile, fill the core with wood and newspaper, rent a cheap camera and light it on fire. We were researching legal ramifications of this event and the label requested a new direction. I probably would’ve been taken to federal prison for a music video concept so I’m very pleased that it went this way.

What was the worst nightmare of the production? (You’re not allowed to say Jeffery not turning up). 

Waiting for feedback from the label. They were slow, it was mind-numbing

LINKS

Pomp&Clout

Riff Raff

Credits
"Co-Directed" by Ryan Staake & Young Thug Production Companies: Pomp&Clout x Freenjoy EPs: Ryan Staake, Ryen Bartlett & Nathan Scherrer Producer: Jeff Kopchia Head of Production: Kevin Staake Director of Photography: Trevor Wineman Editors: Ryan Staake & Eric Degliomini VFX Supervisor: Aaron Vinton Lead VFX/3D: Pete Puskas VFX Touchups: Eric Degliomini & Ryan Staake Illustration: Carlos Ancalmo Colorist: David Torcivia Audio Edit: Aaron Vinton Voice on Recording: John Colombo Rotoscoping: 3D Services India