#GasThemUp – Yannick Reid

It’s my absolute joy to see people you once shared similar spaces with really just stand out and completely own their space. Though he was several grades above me, Yannick and I often crossed paths in high school because we shared mutual friends. I have followed along with his amazing journey for quite some time and was elated when he accepted my proposal for an interview.

**This is a part of an ongoing series called “#GasThemUp” where I interview my friends who are entrepreneurs. The answers to the questions are 100% theirs but the setting of the interview is completely from my imagination. Enjoy!**

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Backstage

I glanced down at my backstage media pass, feeling beyond grateful to even be in the crowd. As I watched Protoje finish his final number “Blood Money”, my eyes shifted to the far left of the stage where Yannick Reid discreetly stepped out for the perfect closing shot. He glanced down at his camera’s viewfinder and approving of the photo, walked over to where I stood. He was my target for tonight’s interview. 

               “What was your first introduction to photography?” I asked as soon as he reached me.

        “My dad. My dad is a professional PR photographer and he’s been one for as long as I can remember, he first put a camera in my hands.” He smiled at the memory.

       “Did you always want to follow in his footsteps?”

He thought for a moment, “No actually. I was really interested in cameras but I was more curious about video initially than photography. Regardless, he taught me photography and after doing a couple stage shows like Reggae Sumfest, I developed an interest in it.”

        “Oh nice, so you were always into the arts?”

He motioned for me to follow him as he went towards the artist lounge behind the stage.

        “I’d say yes. I was really into cartoons and animations as a kid so I would entertain myself with drawing and colouring. There was also healthy competition from peers as a kid too so there was a motivation to be better for fun. Those times till maybe the end of high school art was more about leisure for me, it wasn’t something I thought of as work or had to even think about. I’d either be watching tv, playing a video game or drawing. All those things just influenced me and drove me deeper into the craft.”

       “That’s really cool seeing that transition throughout the years,” I said as we sat in one of the lounge couches.

Protoje, along with his band and backup singers all filed in, still hyped from the performance.

Yannick stood to greet Protoje and the band, commending the performance. When he took his seat again I took a moment to admire the fact that I was surrounded by amazing authentic Jamaican talent, before jumping into the next question.

          “Did you ever feel pressure from your parents or peers to go the more traditional career route?” I asked, thinking of the creative tragedy it would have been.

           “Never. Both my parents are self-employed artists. I was fortunate to grow up not even knowing that some children were discouraged from pursuing a non-traditional career. It wasn’t until college that I realized that was a thing. My parents supported me in all my endeavours, traditional or non-traditional.”

       “Wow, extremely fortunate, especially considering how Jamaican parents are.”

          “Yeah, I’m really lucky and I really am grateful for it. Realizing how many talented young Jamaicans are discouraged by their families.”

Yannick checked his camera again, going back through the shots of the night. I watched as he scanned through the reel, appreciating his amazing eye and ability to capture the moment at just the right time.

               “The world is grateful to your parents allowing your gifts to shine. What’s been the proudest/coolest moment in your career thus far?”

               “Hmmmm That’s a hard one. Really tough. I think maybe the first time I did a music video for Protoje and it premiered on Complex, I was really proud of that. Also, I was featured in The Gleaner, not so much a big deal to me personally but it made my parents feel really proud and seeing them proud makes me really happy. And I think the coolest moment is probably just getting to see the world from photography. Always amazes me when I take a moment somewhere new and realize how I managed to get there and I feel pretty blessed.”

               “Aye! I love it!”

Maybe this was a form of inception… artist-ception maybe? Being an artist that was able to appreciate another artist’s appreciation of their work and achievements. It’s what I believe helps the creative community to grow. I felt a tinge of sadness knowing the interview was winding down, but happy I was even afforded the amazing opportunity.

I knew it was a typical interview question, but curiosity won and I had to ask, “where do u see yourself in 5 years?”

He sat back in the couch and tilted his head to the ceiling before replying, “Five years? Hopefully successfully travelled to every continent – I have Australia and Antarctica left, hopefully still working with Protoje, but also other artists that I’m fans of, enjoying my life with my craft and my loved ones.”

Satisfied with the answer, I continued, “What’s your advice to young artists just starting out, especially if they don’t have the support of family?”

“In life, a lot of people will not understand what you are trying to do until you do it. Some will come around and some will never come around. But everyone gets to live their own life, and your family has lived theirs, don’t throw away your passion for someone else living their life. Have a talk with them tell them you love them but you respectfully don’t need their opinion, you’re determined and it would mean the world to me to have your support, but with or without it I’m gonna do what I feel is right.”

 

And that was the damn truth. I echo Yannick’s advice 100% and encourage everyone to take that stand. At the end of the day, you have to live with you, even if no one else does. Will you be able to look back at your life knowing you lived and made your contribution to earth based on your passion or someone else’s?

Follow Yannick on his social media accounts:

IG: @thetherapistsol

Twitter: @thetherapistsol

Website: yannickreid.com

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CS4 Blog 9 – Production: True Colours

Now is the time when all the pre-production stuff, all you learned in class last semester, all you rehearsed for, all comes down to these days – production. This is when your actors choose whether or not to show up for shoots, producers go missing, and everybody gets at everybody’s throats for not cooperating. This, my friends, is when you see who is serious about their grades versus who will just ride on yours. Did I just say that? I think I did.

For the first film that was shot I assumed the role of Sound Designer and later had to assume the role of the leading lady on screen. Acting has never been my strong suit so imagine my frustration when my face was what I thought “serious” and having my director shout at me “Stop smiling! You’re supposed to be serious!” I kindly shouted back “This is my serious face!” It really wasn’t but I was too frustrated at the time to care. Yeah, not fun. Acting? I can now cross that off my list of career attempts, I’ll pass.

But despite the disagreements and the challenges met on the first shoot, I do think it put quite a few things into perspective for me.

1. Team work is always key. If you want a successful shoot you have to be prepared to work together with people you may not like just to get the work done.
2.  Learn to play the hypocrite. This was probably the most valuable lesson my 9^th grade art teacher ever taught me and possibly the only thing I remember from that class. Learn to smile and nod in the face of those who get under your skin and on your last nerve. At the end of the day the goal in mind is to have the work completed and create a successful film, not to make friends.
3. Learn and improve. Learn everything you can by watching others who are better than you at a specific area. Learning from somebody more talented will only help you in future. Don’t be jealous of what’s true.

Production taught life lessons and boy did I learn them.

CS4 Blog 7 – Pre Production: Props and Script

After the script is written ensure EVERYBODY on the production team has a copy and is aware of any changes made. This is to ensure everybody is on the same exact page in the same exact book.

Okay guys repeat after me: Props and script MUST coincide. It doesn’t make no sense you have a comedy script with blood and spiders as props. No.

No matter what anybody wants to think, without everybody having the correct version of the script you are bringing to screen your shoot will fall apart. Seriously, I’ve had similar experience. Take from my production experience and mishap. Keep everybody in the loop at all times.

CS4 – Blog 5 – Sound Design: Wall-E

After that rant about the silent film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” I figure it only makes sense to balance it out with a rant over one of my favourite animated films by Disney Pixar – Wall-E. Not only was the storyline for this film so-totally-amazing, (yes, I just did that in my uptown Beverly hills voice) the sound design for this film was damn near flawless. Wall-E holds – in my opinion – one of the most powerful stories in Pixar history and makes me stop to consider so much about technology and the way we treat the environment.

The difference between the sound Wall-E made, to the sounds of the cockroach (gross) running around and the other ambient noise, the instrumentals, the sound of the voices and how they were manipulated to match each character… can you sense my excitement from reading this blog?

Because of the excellent sound work that was done, watching Wall-E became an experience, rather than just a film. I felt as if I was on that space ship being a lazy, fat ass as those people were. I felt like i somehow needed to throw away my cellphone and pawn my laptop so I would not end up like them. That, my friends, is not just the power of great storytelling, but also due to the power of excellent, meticulous sound design.

The attention to sound detail in this film has made me more conscious of sound when filming. Not just so I can have clean, crisp dialogue, but also that I can give my viewers the type of experience that can transform their living rooms into the scenes happening before their eyes.

Sound designers, pay attention to your environment in a way you never have before. Listen to the sound of the rain pitter pattering on the roof, the steam rising from the hot asphalt as the raindrops begin to cool the roads, the sound of the wet footsteps on the pavement walking quickly to escape being drenched, the sound of the car tires meeting the wet road, the sound of the umbrellas opening to shield their owners, the sound of coats billowing in the wind.  Pay attention to how the sounds we don’t normally give recognition to add to the realness of the experience.  Pay attention to EVERYTHING and how it affects your mood the mood of the people around you.

If you have never seen the film Wall-E (Finding Nemo is another excellent choice where sound design is concerned) go ahead and Netflix, buy the dvd (or blu-ray), stream or whatever other activities you must do to get this film in your possession. To my future filmmakers, you will not regret it.

CS4 Blog 2 – Genre

Assuming you do not know what a genre is, in layman’s terms it is pretty much the category that a song, TV show film etc falls into. When I tell people I can watch or listen to anything from any genre as long as it doesn’t bore me, they think I’m lying but I am as serious as a heart attack. I enjoy musicals from the 1950’s (Pal Joey, No Business like Show Business) just as much as I enjoy a good action movie (Transformers, 300). Since we are indeed talking about film and television I’ll give some examples related. One of my favourite TV shows currently is Castle (on abc Monday nights at 9EST. – I should get paid for this) and Castle happens to fall into two categories – crime drama and comedy. One would ask, how do you mix murder and humour? But somehow the creators and writers manage to make the two not seem like oil and water.

Knowing your genre thoroughly before you begin filming not only helps with underlining things such as character development and cinematography, but also helps you to better appeal to your target audience. Castle would not have been successful if people were not able to find humour in the most serious of situations.

So before you begin writing your script, consider these things:

• Who are you trying to appeal to with your story?
• What genre would your story fall under
• Is your story the appropriate genre for the crowd you are appealing to?
• How can you make your story stand out in its genre

Genre is only one aspect of writing and filming but it is not one to be overlooked.

CS3 Blog 13 – Post-production: “Cut!”

After the stress, the disagreements, personality and creativity clashes, hot sun, rain storms, wind, snow and whatever natural disaster that came to destroy your shoot has passed and you realise you have all the raw footage you need you can breathe a big sigh of relief. You get the awesome opportunity to say “That’s a wrap!” while your crew and cast applaud your hard work that did not go unnoticed. Or if your production team was anything like mine you wipe the sweat off your brow and say “Thank God we done shoot.” (I’m saying this in Jamaican creole, just so you know.)

Yes, it is a time to throw your hands in the air and praise baby Jesus, but don’t celebrate for too long as you’re only half way there. Editing accounts for the other 50% of the work you are doing and trust me when I say editing can be a real pain. Also, this is when you back up all your footage on an external hard drive. And when I say all, I mean ALL. Leave nothing to chance. Nothing is more depressing and frustrating when you lose footage because somebody deleted it by mistake. Or when you are half way through editing and your editing software crashes and you didn’t get to save what you had (This happened to me just the other day.)

So, to avoid having to reshoot unnecessarily, save, save and save again. Every step of the way, every time you make an adjustment, save it. While you are working on your computer or laptop, be saving to an external hard drive simultaneously. Trust me, it takes nothing to save the work an extra time but it takes everything to have to reshoot because of lost footage.

When you have finally completed the post production stage and your work has been uploaded or burned to a DVD, then you can truly celebrate your hard work and success. So if you have completed a production recently and made it all the way through without going to jail or throwing a crew member off a building, pour yourself a glass of wine, put your feet up on the sofa and smile. You deserve it.

CS3 Blog 12 – Production: Reshooting

When shooting for a production it is best to factor in time for reshooting as you will most likely be doing a lot of it. Sometimes during the shoot you don’t realise how off the lighting or angles were or that the camera was a little shaky or how certain footage may not flow with the rest of your video. Some of these things can be fixed in editing, but others are best left up to reshooting.

My own personal experience, especially with things such as bad lighting has taught me that editing cannot fix everything. It is always better to get the best you can during production rather than to wait until post production to try and fix it. Reviewing footage to ensure that everything flows and the lighting is fairly consistent is very important and will save you much more time.

CS3 Blog 11 – Production: Shooting cutaways

When shooting for cutaways you must first consider your script and how the structure of your script will affect your shots. Cutaways are usually medium close up shots, close up shots and extreme close up shots, as the show more detail than a wide angle or medium shot. This is where storyboarding can really come in handy. If you have your storyboard at hand, you are able to see the initial shot plans and this will not only correspond with your script, but also aid in camera direction.

Cutaways not only add interest to your work but also help to emphasise and corroborate what your narrator or interviewee is saying. It allows for dimensions in your production and helps your viewer to feel more involved with the production.

Shooting cutaways for this documentary made me realise just how heavy the camera really was. Carrying around a Sony HXR2000 on my shoulder to shoot different footage for cutaways was a lot less fun than it looked. Along with the weight of the camera, getting the camera to shoot steadily while trying to balance it on my shoulder was a laughable task, as my colleagues so proved.

Regardless of how challenging, I recommend cutaways be used in every production as it not only show your multidimensional videography skills, but also adds oomph to the end product.

CS3 Blog 10 – Production: Jamaicans hate cameras

I remember one of the first things my photo-journalism lecturer told the class in my first year of studies was that Jamaicans either really love the camera or are really paranoid about it. I have proven this to be true time and time again when trying to get somebody to speak on camera. Trying to convince students to do the voxpop section of the documentary was next to impossible, but not impossible. Luckily I tend to surround myself with people who are very outspoken and will speak publicly on almost any issue they are experiencing.

After a very short conversation my friend was ready and willing to speak on the past conditions of the student’s activity centre. She was comfortable in front the camera, to the point and spirited.

When getting untrained persons to speak in front the camera, you as the director or videographer should ensure that they are comfortable and well versed on the subject. If your interviewee is uncomfortable it will show in your video. If they lack knowledge on the subject it will take more time than is necessary for the video to be completed and when you are shooting time is everything.

Doing voxpops in Jamaica doesn’t have to be annoyingly hard, you just need the right ingredients.

CS3 Blog 8 – Pre-Production: Our duties are our lives, sir.

It is coming down to the end of the semester and we are feeling the burn of final projects. Groups are being formed and group work is being handed out. Before the field work begins our group has a sit down meeting to discuss who has what task, how each task will be carried out and so forth. It is interesting the things I learned on this production. Such as the 1-2-3 steps we sometimes take for granted. 1 – Being the first official group meeting. 2 – being scouting and recce and 3 – being the production itself. Without 1 we could not have 2 or 3.

Our first official meeting was called to order right after the group was formed. Personally, I am not a huge fan of task meetings. They usually end up being very long and end in some sort of argument with at least one person not being happy with the task they were assigned. In my mind the meeting went something like this:

Captain: Aliceia

Me: Yes sir!

Captain: you will be in charge of the script and the vox pop. Can you handle it soldier?

Me: Yes sir! *salute*

Captain: Simone!

Simone: Yes sir!

Captain: You will help Aliceia with vox pop! Do you understand?

Simone: Affirmative. *salute*

Now this is not to say I see my group captain as a drill sergeant, she was actually quite nice. That was simply my mind’s way of turning a boring group meeting into something that would last in my memory. I say all this to say that in the business you will have meetings you consider “boring” or meetings you will not necessarily like that you will still have to attend. Just because you think a meeting is boring does not mean it is unimportant. Do whatever you must internally in order to get through the meetings, but make every meeting. Brainstorming can be a lot of fun, but to get to the brainstorming aspect you first need to decide among your crew (if the tasks are not already assumed) who will be responsible for which area of the production. If this meeting does not happen, production cannot move forward. First meetings are just as important as the first shoot.