Picture a music video that has all of these features:
- The whole thing is one take
- Audio recorded at the same time its filmed
- Filmed in a room that starts empty, and musicians “seemingly” appear from nowhere
- Has a ridiculously sexy rapper
The story behind Let the Beat Build is long and crazy. When Tha Carter III dropped, my friend Jo Bellino hit me up with the idea to cover the song with a live band, and do a video. That never really happened, but since I already had written the rhymes and the song was now permanently stuck in my head, I decided to do it anyway.
Over the months, the idea just snowballed. I asked my friends at 194 Recordings to join the project and together we applied for a grant help make it happen. As I was looking through the list of film students I knew, my friend Nina Reyes-Rosenberg referred me to the guys at Last-Pictures to me. They ended up producing the whole thing. Chadd Harbold directed and Adam Newport Berra DP’d.
The musicians in the video are all friends or friends of freinds that became friends. They all seem to appear from nowhere because we built a makeshift wall in the studio, which they would all have to run out of as soon as the camera was facing another direction.
The shoot was a pretty grueling day, with 31 takes in all, plus 6 practice takes. Everybody was a super-trooper, howev.
CREDITS
Director- Chadd Harbold
Producers- Golda McCormick, Nyle Emerson, Chadd Harbold
Director of Photography- Adam Newport-Berra
Steady-Cam Operator- David George Ellis
Assistant Camera- Andy Kromphardt
Gaffer- Greg Golko
Key Grip / Transportation Captain- Bobby Olsen
Assistant Director- Keith Haskel
Art Director- Heidi Goldstein
Editor- Bryan Gaynor
Post-Production Supervisor-Dan Berk
Music Producers & Engineers- Katie Buchanan & Alan Gordon
Music Pre-Production-Brian Lee
Mixed by Mykael Alexander
Mastering-Nyle Emerson
Assistants- Chase Culpon, Jacob Blumberg, Dana Sedgwick
HORNS
Al Barrentine (Trumpet)
Kevin Birk (Trombone)
Julian Taylor (Sax)
STRINGS
Molly Fletcher (Violin)
Cameron Orr (Violin)
Alexandra Jones (Cello)
Kristine Kruta (Cello)
Liz Hanley (Violin)
Hana Segerstrom (Violin)
Patti Kilroy (Violin)
VOCALISTS
Danni Lee
Elle Varner
OTHER
Marlene Desiree (Dancer)
Josh Pikulin (Guitar)
Katie Buchanan (Banjo)
HOMEBOY CHOIR
Plateno Man
Syanide
Maverick
Odudu Akpaeti
SPECIAL THANKS
Priska Neely
Put out more stuff like this, and you’ll make it big.
Fantastic! I wish I had a million dollars to share this with the world. Instead I will share it with my world.
This is one of the most creative things I’ve ever seen. Well thought-out, well executed, plus a girl with a banjo.
Genius.
[...] Elsewhere online gives some behind the scenes information (and footage) that’s worth reading through while you replay the video (you know you want to). Apparently they ran through it almost 40 times on the day of shooting. I’m still impressed he worked up that much official support for a project based off a Lil Wayne song…. [...]
This cover is so sick. Everyone definitely killed it! But I really wanna get this song on my ipod, where can i download this track?
is there a download of this anywhere?
Gotta say man, that was fab! Jeeez, way better then Wayne’s original, Big ups all the way from Sweden! Love the video aswell, stunningly beautiful and well done. The steadycam is amazing.
Bless!
Awesome! wanna see more!
High fives all around!
Very impressive, and inspiring!
The song is great but they should of been real about the background girls that was a recorded piece you can hear the bitrate kick in after the first oOOOooh anywaaayz be real is all I’m sayin yeah he raps it straight up but the whole song was digitized you can tell and dubbed voices…
this shit is dope.
I like your post. Good stuff. Keep them coming
…
[...] This post was Twitted by GoodLife11 – Real-url.org [...]
Pretty impressive video nice work keep it positive
the bitrate kicks because we switched from the room mic (also recording the teacher) to the lavs after the first oOOOooh. And i don’t know what u mean by digitized
I gotta say that was amazing, it was a complete package. Tight ryhmes, a great choice of song to cover, the live intsruments, sexy females. Keep it up and I see good things in ya future man. Hip hop is reaching out to new people to take over, streets are watchin and listenin.
For everyone thats trying to download go to http://www.youtubecatcher.com and you will be able to download any youtube video (including this one) and you can also download just the audio.
Who is that violinist?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PCSNgRWZpE
I will leave a reply as soon as I try it Thank you
Great article! I’m loving your website;
Thanks for the review!
[...] well. His mic should be cut a bit, but otherwise it’s a great idea and I hope it catches on. From Nyle’s website: Picture a music video that has all of these [...]
this is really cool!
[...] A music video for recent NYU graduate Nyle’s “Let the Beat Build,” a progressive upbeat hip hop, was filmed and audio recorded in one take. It looks easy, but only after 31 takes and 6 practice runs. [...]
great video, awsome song!!! great work
[...] <a href=http://nyellee.com/wordpress/?p=190″ target=”_blank”>one shot video</a> has become pretty <a href=http://twitter.com/#search?q=nyle” [...]
Great article! I’m loving your website;
i like your version better than lil waynes
Great point and very interesting food for thought. I’m not sure I have any clients I can replicate this with, but will bear in mind for the future. Regards
Some very interesting and insightful thoughts. I like this.
Thats certainly food for thought, where can I get more information on this?
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
plant in house
Yo, that video is pretty dope man! Good ish my dude. Great concept and vibe.
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
Original post by mattusximus
Raw, Real… and Really GOOD! Way to show all producers how to build a track Old School. *smile*
Great post!! I just have to copy it
Original post by Dmitri Gromov
The article is ver good. Write please more
Hi. I like the way you write. Will you post some more articles?
So cool! HaHaHa.
You killed it man!
ya’ll keep coming out with stuff like this!!!!!
I hope you make it big!
I’ve watched it 3 times now. I must say, this is one of the most well put together popular online videos I’ve seen; ever. Great job and congrats on graduating!
Love it! Found the albums through this and its amazing! Well done!
Article written ochentochno. In other words, and not say.