My new video for new artist and rising Gospel star, Vashawn Mitchell, releases this Tuesday, May 17.  With strong teamwork from my team, the artist, and the label, we came up with what I think is a beautiful complement to the song, entitled “Nobody Greater”.

The concept and treatment for the video was simple: to shoot Vashawn, walking through the big city streets with the amazing landscape of New York behind him, finding nothing bigger or “Greater” than God.

With this in mind, my cinematographer for this job, Khalid Mohtaseb (amazing DP, check him and his team out at: http://nextlevelpictures.com), discussed ideas on how to visually capture New York City in a creative and engrossing way.  We used extensive photographic and video references to inspire us, and took a lot of time pre-scouting locations all around the city.  Composition, mood, and capturing life in a natural way was my main focus for the shoot.

The post for this job was quite extensive, with lots of cleanup work from logos to ad replacements and other invisible elements barely noticeable (but that’s the point).  My friend Fritz Archer, came on board to work the edit and did an amazing job.  For the color grading, Khalid and I decided to go with a more subdued, “less” graded look, which ironically took a lot more time and effort to create.  Shooting with minimal lighting and almost all natural sunlight, I used After Effects to color grade, with tons of layers and masks to balance out the shots and create a nice natural consistent look as a whole.  Once the video comes out, I’ll post some before and after stills to see the exact work done to it. 

My producer Tia A. Smith of talentedSOL Productions assembled an amazing team for the three day shoot, consisting of my core team (Hitsquad Collective: my protege Lex Lewter of http://lightupfilm.com and stylist Stacey Jordan http://divinestyling.com), along with some of my favorite people to work with, including Assistant Director, Marc Kelly.  Khalid brought his A-Team on board as well, including Steadicam operator David Ellis, who did a great job for us.  My friend and up and coming DP, Cody Judson, flew in from Baton Rouge just for the shoot.  Special thanks to Harry B. Sando, director and photographer, who took behind the scenes video of the shoot, which I’ll post up very soon as well.  Special shouts to Karen Jackson, VP of Marketing for EMI Gospel; Davon Bagley, Vashawn’s road manager; Jojo Pada the publicist for hooking up the extras and string quartet; Neily Dickerson, V’s manager; V’s personal stylist Jason Bolin; as well as make-up artist Bisheaba Swain.  

Can’t post the video now, but until then here’s a live video of Vashawn performing the song.  Once it comes out, let me know if I did it justice!