10.19.2006
So I have this friend... we'll call her Rachna. That's actually her name, but her public knows her as someone else. She and I have known each other for about... ummm... 12 years. Good times all around. A little over a year ago, I met Rachna's little sister, Meghna. Well, truth be told, I met Meghna when I first started chillin with Rach... Meghna wouldn't let me take any of her favorite cereal. She was 10 years old at the time, I don't blame her. Anyway, Meghna likens herself to a singer. More than that, she actually IS a singer. I mean, she's a college student and barista by day, and a songstress by night. Things have been working out for her music career, slowly but surely picking up momentum.
Anyway, a few months ago, she and her producers come to visit the City, and naturally, we all have some quality time. We have some meals, they hang out at my apartment, we go take advantage of what the city has to offer... and by that, I mean her producers go to H&M, she goes to Forever 21, and her man and I head to Sephora for some hair product.
Huh?
Yeah, skip that part.
Anyway, they give me a bunch of copies of Meghna's demo album "ep." Good shit, to be sure. I start handing it out. At one point, I give it to my friend who works for MTV, who gives it to someone else at MTV, who seems to like it and subsequently asks my friend if this girl has a video because THAT'S something they could work with. I send that message on down to Meghna and her producers (we'll call them Seif & Gomar... again, because those are their actual names). A few weeks later, they come at me with, "We're going to do a video! We've been wanting to do one for months, but now we have some motivation! Would you be interested in choreographing it?!?" Here's me thinking, 'Uh, I'd love to, have they ever actually seen me dance?' No, they hadn't, and they apparently didn't care.
Fast forward a few months, and I'm flown to Ohio for a weekend to teach the dancers they chose some of the choreo. After dealing with a few big hurdles, we were on our way to learning some of the choreo. Of course, I had to go back to NYC immediately after I was done teaching, leaving them to their own devices.
Fast forward another 2 weeks (being last weekend), and I'm flown back out to Ohio to be there for the video shoot. Now, I don't know what I was thinking, but I definitely WASN'T thinking it would be SO INCREDIBLY LEGIT. Cameras and crew members everywhere, extras everywhere, hair and makeup people milling around, and the director asking me how people should move. Last minute rehearsals, constant costume changes and nervous performers kept things going (and warm, considering it was so cold that weekend), and at the end of the 19-hour day, we had enough footage to put together a potentially incredible 3-minute video.
Get ready.Labels: Video
posted by phat tony 2:52 PM
10.16.2006
I have no idea why I got the biggest kick out of this, but here you are.
posted by phat tony 12:23 PM
10.03.2006
A few things...
a) Still dating.
b) I spent this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio, teaching a group of twenty-somethings a bunch of choreography... A close family friend (well, our families aren't friends... I'm friends with her family... i.e. her sister...) is attempting to be a star, and I think a music video is one of those avenues you're just supposed to walk down in order to cover your bases, fame-wise. Okay, I don't know what that last sentence meant, either. I'm just saying her producers told her it was time for her to make a music video and then they asked me to choreograph for it, without ever actually having seen me dance. I think it turned out okay, anyway... we'll see.
c) I'm starting Tango lessons tomorrow with my co-worker.
d) Yes, I'm still a lawyer.
posted by phat tony 2:41 PM
