written by director Abdullah Abu-Mahfouz
Nearly six months in self-quarantine without filming something was difficult to bear. Setting a camera up while creating a breathing drama and feeling it come to life is an irreplaceable experience that I fell in love with at a young age. My half-year fast from that was finally broken when Austin Greene and the rest of The Mimic band hooked me into directing an irresistibly fun, whacky story for their song “Who’s Yo Daddy.”
You can watch the music video on YouTube now! The Mimic will be releasing their first album on July 17th.
Laughs on Laughs on Laughs
In my own words, the “Who’s Yo Daddy” music video tells a story of cautious, yet extremely hypocritical, man departing from a self-quarantine but finding himself being chased by an Easter Bunny. It’s hard to explain the rest in words and you’ll have to watch the music video yourself to experience the insanity.
More important than the story for me is the experience behind it. Austin and I put in about a week into the video and the only thing I really remember from it all was laughing from beginning to end. While planning the story, we told ourselves that we’d take it easy on this shoot and aim to have a good time above all. Ideas were totally flexible and so were jokes; there were plenty of those.
I think this whole thing started with a dream Austin had and then him committing to buying a $100 bunny costume. The whole story was then based on that, and I think it worked hilariously. It was definitely a blast while trying to draw it in our storyboards.
The idea that made us laugh the most was the one we committed to. My favorite moment from the whole video is when Austin runs up to a random passerby, spontaneously played by Chris Laurer, and uppercuts him in the male privates. It was an idea that was initially a joke from one of the cast members, but there was no way I was passing on at least seeing it.
Editing all these crazy moments was also a thrill. Austin joined me via live stream and we pulled a 22-hour workday to get it done. I recorded some of it and you get an idea of how things went in this video:
A New Way
With COVID cases rising on a national scale, who knows how the future will change filmmaking. I fear that it is likely for “low budget” productions to cease and what will only remain is skeleton sized productions like this music video (I was the sole crew member) or large budget films/shows that can afford the extra cost of running sets under strict COVID prevention protocol. If the economy shuts down again, productions may shut down completely for the year.
For now, Reel Nation Media will continue developing conscious media art. Our first original web series is in development and potentially our third feature-length documentary. That’s all news for another day though…
Don’t miss out on the ever so catchy song, ‘Who’s Yo Daddy” and the music video! You can follow the artists, “The Mimic” on their social media:
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themimicmusic
@MimicMusic2020 on Instagram
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