Good 4 It Photos
In December 2017, I collaborated with cinematographer Gregory Falatek, model Kyla and makeup artist Shaina Paulson to help materialize my idea for my song “Good 4 It”. This song was featured on my 2017 album release whereisspadey.
The song was originally about a sexually charged night with two female partners in a vehicle. All of the occupants were under the influence of LSD and enjoying a explorative night under a moonlit landscape. In the song, I chant “Imma make it better, I’m good for it” which meant that whatever troubles that my female counterparts may be experiencing, I’m good for making the current passage in time safe and exciting.
My management and I planned the video shoot months in advanced so that we had enough time to find models. We scoured forums, Craigslist, Instagram, and the latter. During a trip to the Baltimore area where I was filming another music video for the album, one model bit. I was definitely glad that someone was interested in the project. We were excited to work with her when I returned to L.A. I thought “Now all we have to do is find one more!”
After my return back to L.A, the model unfortunately would drop out somewhat close to our shoot date. This left us scrambling and also left me in a tight position because I realized I probably wasn’t going to have two models for the video. I felt like it wouldn’t make much sense having the song speak of two women and only displaying one. This lead me to have to re-record the lyrics for the sake of the video and I removed all plural words. Whilst doing this, I was also still looking for just one model.
Then came Kyla. Kyla had been following me on Instagram even before I got to L.A. One day I noticed her post a story with my song in the background. Of course I was deeply flattered and thought this was a perfect opportunity to ask her if she wanted to possibly feature in the video. Like the badass she was, she agreed and we flew her into L.A. I told her she’s a love interest and we’ll get slightly touchy feely (gentle face touching, hand on thigh, etc). Everyone was on board and ready to rock and roll. We shot footage at the Old Los Angeles Zoo including shots in Chinatown. These places were suggested by Greg. I wanted a mixture of VHS styled footage along with some Hi-Res footage, and Greg greatly achieved that by using a Black Magic camera and an old VHS style camera (cannot remember the camera model name) I met Greg by way of his girlfriend who I had met just rummaging through Instagram, as I used to do a lot. I was looking for creative faces for other projects (mainly Nocturnia) and I stumbled upon her. I found she lived fairly close to my Koreatown location. She mentioned that her boyfriend was big into cinematography, music and the overall arts.
Great ol’ Shaina! I was excited to work with Shaina seeing as she worked with one of my dear creative friends Buttress. She was actually referred to me by Buttress and so we instantly hit it off. Of course I troubled her head with all my other creative endeavors I wanted her apart of, but I made sure we got Good 4 It out the way first. The shoot took just a day. I remember showing up a bit late, but I had to run to a neighboring city to pick up our rental car which was a black Dodge Charger. What was even funnier is while all this was going on, I was still on the clock working via my laptop until about 3:00 PM.
Overall, it was such a memorable and fun experience with great people. We all have moved on doing our own things, but it I am so glad to have these memories.
I hope you enjoy the photos!
