Seen First on DELUX
The last time I was in East Saint Louis, I was shooting a music video for J. Coates in Frank Holten State Park. It was between 8-9PM, and I was walking to a recreation area holding a giant cardboard cutout of Chuck Norris. Only a few minutes walk from my car, I was quickly interrupted by blinding spotlights operated by the local police, who were convinced I was carrying a sex doll into the woods.
Three years later, I’m now working with the cousin of J. Coates: Anthony Lucius. Suffice to say, I am not well-acquainted with our neighboring city that shares a same name. In early March on a dreary, drizzly day, I met up with Anthony Lucius (sans any cardboard cutouts) in Fairview Heights. Due to my unfamiliarity with the area, I wanted him to give me a tour of places of importance to him that would serve as the backdrop for scenes in our upcoming music video Err’day. I grabbed my camera and threw on a pancake lens to grab some test footage while we were out.
We spent the next several hours driving and shooting, acquiring enough video for me to edit a small treatment that would be used as a screen test. Back in my office at Nebula Coworking, I pieced together the segments that we shot, filling in the blanks with title text so that the narrative played out in full. After watching the “finished” product several times, I really liked it. I sent it over to Anthony Lucius, and he really liked it. We agreed that this would serve as the official video for Err’day, and we premiered it on March 20th at Anthony’s live performance as part of SofarSounds St. Louis.
Videos don’t have to be perfect, but they should be thoughtful, and they should represent the artist, and importantly for me, the city. I invite you to watch and share this piece of Anthony Lucius and East Saint Louis. Thanks for reading/watching!
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