"Real No More" is the latest video from Overtown born rapper David Smith. David, is a friend of mine and we've shot many videos together in the past year. His debut mixtape "OVERTOWN" was released back in July and he's already set to drop his follow up "Vintage" in the upcoming year!
While in Overtown filming documentary footage, we had heard one of the neighbors "Mr. Bill" had been gundowned the previous night, this news shocked David as he had known him as a kid saying "he was a good man, he used to fix kids bikes".
A week later he had told me he wrote and produced a knew song and would be coming over to record it. Once I heard the line "Killed Mr. Bill on his porch" I knew he had touched into something real, something that would connect with his audience and something that would "need a video"
David had told me he had got a girl that was really good with make-up and he wanted to use her in the video to portray "death on my shoulder". When I had seen the great make-up and contact lenses I knew that her involvement would give this video the originality it needed, but my worry was how were we gonna shoot this demon in a graveyard with no permission? like most things we just went out there and did it.
When shooting we did get stopped by the Cemetery's worker which said "You have to ask permission.. but if your just taking pictures I'll allow it" we continued filming. But the random Miami rain had other plans. We did the most we could and I knew the slow-motion and color correction would make this video look great and the rain would probably just add to the dramatic feel (which it did) so we wrapped.
The next shots would all be at night, we waited to receive the flares we would use. The flares added a great red color and dramatic lighting, when using them they dispelled a powerful smoke which was hard not the breathe in, but still we shot and the shots came out great. We shot in the heart of Overtown and everyone was excited to be in the video. Once we wrapped David talked to a few of the guys explaining his inspiration for the song, which they all understood very well and they encouraged him to continue pushing, in reply he responded "Most Definitely".
When editing this video I took time to make sure that it was not only cinematic, but different. I wanted people not only see another rap video, but feel the horror of living in an environment where good people could lose their lives any minute for no reason. I hope I accomplished that goal but either way knowing that we could impact a few people means alot.
