While a young man, I didn’t know what good hip-hop was until I met the individuals who would eventually make up Are You Serious.  Having gone under several different names, different groups, from solo pseudonyms to the locally known Observatory crew, and long after throwing down vocals at my college parties – each individual member that makes up Are You Serious brings their unique take to the hip-hop genre.  They bring an underground and an alternative vibe that encourages the best in listeners, and always bring a crowd to the local jam at all venues in Colorado.  Giving incision films a shot at producing our very first ever music video – Boonhamin, Doc Oscify, Jus Panda, 2Bit, and David Ochoa bring their A-Game to a unique opportunity for both crews.

If your a listener looking for new hip-hop but always caught up with the same hot heads or internet video twerk’sters that flood the web waves – forcing fliers upon you at local venues – we promise you’ll find something truly unique to both the sound and the vocal delivery of Are You Serious.  Looking for a taste?  Listen to “Music”, featured on Are You Serious’s first self titled EP, visually through a music video produced by incision films.

Video By:

Nicholas DeSuza, Andrew Miller, Joel Meaders, Kathleen Bryan

We had an absolute blast creating the video, and being from out of town we were set up with a place to stay and goods to imbibe at the end of each day of shooting.  We intend to make a second go at a video with the hip-hop crew, as we will be the first to admit there were a handful of complications while creating this one.

For starters – as editor of the video – I’ll admit the effects didn’t come out as planned.  Being a no-budget film, we substituted green screen for black screen and used a LUMA Matte to pull Boonhamin for effects compositing – with some adverse effects.  It wasn’t 100%, as most black screen usage is intended for visual effects with the desired effect of overall alpha – like sparks, fog, blood splatter, or other particle effects.  In a high budget setting, black is good for water covered characters as green reflects too brightly off the liquid — but the tools to pull off such a feat weren’t mobile and readily available.  While rotoscoping is always an option, to get the video done quickly and practically, corners were cut.

We also had a last moment location fall through.  We were supposed to shoot the final scene of the video – with all of the performers – on the roof of the Regis student housing.  When we arrived all doors opened until the key for roof access didn’t turn as intended, and in a scramble we scurried off to a location several miles away in front of an old mill.  While on th Regis location we were able to collect images of the city for compositing, but either through a broken lock or weather damage – our planned location fell through leaving a devastating car-lit closing scene.  Being out of time and options, I’d consider it to be a fortunate situation.

Overall, we hope you enjoy the video and show your support for the local legends.  Expect another video soon featuring Are You Serious in the near future, with all new tricks.

You can grab a listen to most of Are You Serious free either on YouTube, Soundcloud, or Reverbnation – we encourage the manual searches.  Currently they are being bogged down by videos of pugilism long since absent from cable television who share the name.  They also have a website featuring more great video, photo, and graphic media at www.areyouserious.net.

LINKS

1. Facebook: Are You Serious
2. Reverb Nation: Are You Serious
3. Soundcloud: Are You Serious
4. Are You Serious Official Website
5. Jimmy Hands Memorial – 3/9/11 | Event Photography & Video Promotional
6. Observatory – 1/20/11 | Event Video & Photography