Natural Light Commercials

This was one project I was grateful for all of my disgusting bachelor friends for reference.


To have a truly authentic feel, the production managed to find a house where 5 or 6 guys lived there. Truly disgusting inside. The day we started loading in, someone had to wake up one guy to get him off the couch so we could move it out. Free Natural Light for everyone at the wrap, I did not partake.

Dime Piece Feat. Snoop Dogg

SPEAKING OF BAD MUSIC VIDEOS....

Some Romanian girl had someone stupid enough to pay for this. And thank GOD Snoop is a sell-out these days and did a verse because that made this whole shoot worth it.

The same producer, Jesse (mentioned in the previous blog) kind of made it seem like he had "a hookup" with these low-rider cars and in reality had worked out a deal to pay these people... out of my very pathetic budget. He pulled me aside and said "don't tell the client or director how small your budget is, just keep it between us". And I'm realizing this is because they gave more than enough money and he's spending it in other ways.

SO, the director is this hip hop guy from Chicago. Very nice on the phone but acts too cool for school on set in front of his posse and the artist. But he hadn't gotten a script written yet so we had to meet about this while shooting the Snoop segment of the video.

I walk into the studio and the artist, Lilana is passed out on a sofa in the hallway and I hear a man saying "there is NO way she could have overdosed on weed. Just let her sleep it off". The whole studio smelled like weed and everyone is panicked that she won't wake up in time to shoot with Snoop. She never did, and we shot Snoop on green screen.

There was a very nice man in an interesting outfit. He was welcoming and insisted I have a drink while we shoot. It's almost offensive NOT to have one in that group apparently. This man, The Bishop (who I've learned later is a famous pimp) poured me a gin and orange juice (that was a first).



Bishop was the one who introduced me to Snoop, which is still one of the highlights of my life.



So back to the script (or lack thereof), the director hands it to me at 9pm (we're shooting at 10am the next morning). It calls for all kinds of crazy stuff that we don't have the money for. Things like a team of paparazzi. Cameras, flashes, equipment, just cost a lot more than people think.

So, sleazy producer Jesse says "just put an ad on craigslist". I told him he was insane. So, he had a couple photographer contacts for me to call and ask to come down as a favor. And shockingly, they did. Long story-short, the photographer's video camera was stolen and the producer refused to cover it. I threw a huge fit about it and will never work with them again.


Another disaster came up, the lowriders flipped out and walked off the set when they didn't get the money they were promised. The last scene included them so we wrapped early.

Summertime Anthem Music Video

This was a super-low budget music video, which I never mind doing because they always have the best stories after. A few things about the situation:

The song: Summertime Anthem by Capone E (never heard of him, but just after shooting this, it was HUGE on the hip hop stations right after)

The director: Mink. One of the coolest directors EVER and was doing this as a favor to someone. His 1st AD is one of the best in the business as well.

The producer: Sleaziest man of all time, Jesse Feslot. He actually rented a Mercedes to pull up in the day of the shoot!

The location: a park in East LA. It seemed nice and quaint when we showed up in the morning, but come noon, it's FULL of thugs and all of their pit bulls, baby mommas and homies.

The security: Actually had loaded guns. I have never seen that on a set before. But they also hired a handful of cops to be on set that day. They started off the shoot with a "safety talk" about the talent we were about to shoot and his friends that came along with him. They're a rough bunch and have a lot of enemies, I guess.

It was so great to have all of the cars from Fast and the Furious on set... along with a team of low riders... and low rider bicycles. Such a funny group of people.

With a tight budget, Mink wanted the limited set dressing to scream "bright, summer, fun", like a picnic. A list of items he specified were: red/ white checkered table cloths, red party cups, red/ yellow/ blue umbrellas, red buckets for kegs to go in... All of which was killed when Capone E showed up and insisted he wouldn't have ANY red on his set. Those people don't even eat ketchup, apparently! So, there was definitely some improvising that day.

These ghetto hoopty mommas that showed up were... priceless. THE SHORTEST skirts and shorts on that you could ever imagine, none of which wearing underwear... they just talk like hookers and love attention. I didn't know those people actually existed.

Anyway, this video cracks me up. It really was a fun day and Capone E's posse was really nice to work with.