Justyfi's "M.I.P" Music Video

When Aaron, also known as Justyfi, reached out to me once again with a Music Video idea, of course we had to entertain the concept.

The song, which focuses on many of the problems with rap culture, including drugs and violence, is fueled by Aaron's outlook on life, music, and his faith. As such, he wanted to steer the music video in a direction that pointed out many juxtapositions, where shots would be combining two unlike things, or symbolism would be used to point out interesting priorities in this particular lifestyle. Are you able to find all the symbolism in the video?

Stylistically, Justyfi had two visual inspirations for the style he wanted to emulate: Wes Anderson and Tyler The Creator. Wes Anderson's cinematography has a very "boxy" camera position where shots feel very intentionally placed, using a lot of centered shots and straight-on viewpoints. Many of Tyler The Creator's recent music videos also have a very warm, soft filmic look, with golden skin tons and punchy contrast. That became the primary inspiration for our color grade.

The video was shot over 3 days, with a shot list joint developed between Shoreline and Justyfi. On set, we used our Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro and our Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K as our primary cameras, which are responsible for almost every shot in the video. Editing and Color was done in Davinci Resolve.