The Making Of… Jaron The Fame – G.O.T.F (Get Off The Floor)

Posted December 21, 2015 by qotsm in Arts & Entertainment

I was fortunate enough to work with the Global Music Group (GMG) www.gmgpresents.com team when I was hired to direct a music video for the single ‘Get It Right’ by talented and effable DMV based vocalist Tenia Mackall. CEO Jae Garrick and I had crossed paths a few times before we committed to Tenia’s video as the first official collaboration between GMG and Twelve14. The video was reflective of the artist and the song: polished, upbeat and speaking the truth of the Word:

Tenia Mackall “Get It Right”

We were all happy with the outcome and loosely discussed working together on future projects.

A few months later I was making a pre-gym breakfast when I got a call from an unknown number. I don’t normally answer phone numbers I don’t recognize but my gut nudged me so, I wiped the egg off my hands and hit “Accept”. The caller introduced himself as Jaron Gilchrist, the artist known as Jaron The Fame and he was investigating the possibilities of doing a music video with me for a single he was working on with GMG. He had been forwarded to me by GMG CEO Jae and had heard I was ‘good’. The video was for the lead single from his upcoming “Onyx” EP and was called “G.O.T.F (Get Off The Floor)”. Jaron seemed like a really creative, dedicated guy who knew exactly what he wanted. I asked him to send me the song and any ideas he had and I would get back to him once I had reviewed what he was trying to accomplish and we could meet and formalize the process from there. Cool.

The track was quirky and genre defying; a popular late nightclub tune waiting to happen. His ideas matched the track – old way vogue, trannies, go-go dancers, fresh choreography, costumes, glitter and makeup. Glitzy yet urban. I spent a few weeks researching and looking at vogue and the various other dance styles (I had very little idea about any of these things) and ways that it could be approached to make it look polished, professional and original. I wanted anyone seeing the video to be mesmerized by the costuming and stylized cinematics.

Jaron and the GMG team loved my ideas once I pulled the disparate concepts into a concretized functioning visual ‘treatment’ which plainly laid out references and goals for the project and allowed all of the production team to be on the same page. They located a large studio space for the indoor choreography and ‘old way vogue’ battle and I found a cool alley behind a fish market that I fell in love with for the exterior work; all brick and graffiti and abandoned and dirty. I felt it would offer an appealing contrast when utilized with the costuming, choreography and characters.

I studied numerous videos with choreography as well as clips featuring live choreography determined to understand and explore angles to explore movement in the human form while paying homage to Jaron’s choreography. I became intimate with other classic ‘white room’ videos like ‘Single Ladies’, ‘Every Little Step’ and ‘Cherry Pie’. I was certain that I wanted the video to have a clean high quality look but I also wanted to bring some grit and after hours to it. Watching Jaron’s rehearsals I was struck by the intricacy of the choreography and begun to play with the idea of isolating body parts and approach their movements from unusual angles using multiple cameras. Rather than simply capture dancers in the traditional Wide Shot or Close Up I sought to find the meat of my visual rubric in partial, idiosyncratic movements of the human body.

As we approached the shoot date Jaron, the GMG team and I consistently connected with updates on costuming, colors, choreography, times, locations, equipment; transporting both dancers and guest artistes from NYC and Baltimore and on and on…. Pre-production was a highly coordinated team effort but all aspects of production were eventually handed over to me when we shot the video over a weekend in mid-May. It was a highly charged process a lot of expectation, nerves and creative energy. Jaron had successfully enlisted dancers of all styles and backgrounds, as well as the Baltimore musician DDm – all talented artistes in their own right who all showed up dressed and ready to work. This meant a lot to everyone involved. It had to be right.

For me, as a director my goal was to realize the images I had built in my head over the last few months and make them a reality. It dawned on me (quite overwhelmingly) that the responsibility now lay squarely on my shoulders to ensure this process was realized and seen through to its conclusion: A kick ass video. I had never done a project quite this large before (at one point there were well over 60 people on or just off set- actors, dancers, makeup artists, entourage, tastemakers….) but everyone cooperated fully. Jaron listened and kept calm (for the most part) and did what I asked him to do and GMG held my back all the way through, being there for whatever I needed. This allowed me to concentrate and work. My crazy ideas came to fruition and we got what we wanted over 28 hours of shooting spread over 2 days.

Thus far the video has been in rotation on Vevo, YouTube and Vimeo and was awarded a Bronze Medal at the 2015 Global Music Awards. Jaron has performed the track at several high profile spots including the main stage at DC and Baltimore Pride events (Opening for R&B artist K-Michelle at the former). You can see more of behind the scenes for ‘G.O.T.F (Get Off The Floor)’ music video in the upcoming GMG Presents ‘Self Made’ Web Series in partnership with Twelve14 which will be available to stream early 2016. You can keep up with Global Music Group and their artists via FB/ Twitter & IG: @GlobalMusicGroup.