West Coast's Beats and Best

Our man Wes Mapes of Oakademy let us know that he was preparing his Clinton Hill spot to be a serious audio production suite, and wanted a video to annouce its launching. We recently got with him, and following piece was created with footage we shot at his spot and one of his blazing beats.

Like us, Wes is from the West Coast and a good friend of our business partner and friend Jullien Gordon. As such, he's obviously a friend of ours. Even though we got our hands on a 5D for the shoot, we didn't charge Wes a thing. And you said we wasn't the video production company of the people...

Let us know what you think!

Police Academy to the Cuckoo's Nest: Guttenberg's Back!

Duck Walls: 'Under-coverage in America Mental Health Care at it's finest. Chef Mickey Beans serves up the chow and more at this unstable group home, while the owner Dr Stern touches bases with the patients. Just long enough to get his fix.


In an effort to expand our capabilities and reel, BSB took on a serious gig: editing a TV pilot with producers lined up to see it, which was shot on the RED camera and stars Steve Guttenberg. The writer/director/producer, Robroy Mountjoy, explained the footage before us: he was shooting his feature film 'Duck Walls', but halted production after day one. Things needed to be worked out somewhere...

He was able to shoot four scenes that day, and a lot of takes.  For months he sat on this footage, and finally decided to see if something could be made of it. That's when he found BSB. Mountjoy told us that he could find funds, as the footage suggested, and decided to test and see if BSB could be his first stop post-production company. Well, that's a test we are up for any day of the week, for anyone interested.

BSB didn't have narrative storytelling on the reel, so when we were told that there would be no/little pay, we swallowed hard and agreed anyway. Little did we know that this would turn out to be a job we'd charge well into four digits for if we were charging. My people, my people, what we won't do...

The following trailer was quickly made on I-movie from the original 22 minute TV pilot made on FCP 6. Mountjoy met with an ABC producer, and they put on some focus group screenings to see what people thought before taking it to pitch to the executives. It was decided that more needed to be shot, and some characters better developed, yada yada, but people were really intrigued by the story idea and cinematic editing.

Instead of re-shotting for what might happen, Mountjoy is moving on to the next production... and yes, BSB passed the test and will be editing that project as well. Duck Walls will be going into TV Pilot festivals, and maybe some cable network will have the brains to put it on television. For now, tell us what you think of the trailer!!!

Wedding Crashing in Connecticut

BSB was contracted for its first wedding in the middle of summer. We headed out to a polo ground in Connecticut to bring the wedding of Matt and Robin to cinematic life. We didn't charge BSB wedding rates, but they still got more then what you see here. Man, what we won't do for the people... Let us know what you think!!! Please!!!

Soul, Sisters, Summits

While we were shooting a videography event on finances with a panel full of investors and bankers, we were approached by an Akua Soadwa, a banker with a heart. Besides doing some big time banking for the city government, Akua founded and heads the non-profit Gye Nyame Empowerment Project. The organization is committed to the education and advancement of people of Pan-African descent, and to developing their neighborhoods and communities with conferences, workshops, and other mediums.

The organization hosts a yearly event  that takes place in March, and Akua had footage she needed edited. BSB met with her, learned what she wanted the video to accomplish, and gave her the following video. Tell us what you think, and give the Gye Nyame Empowerment Project a shout and your support!!

Janet & BSB Music Videos: Anytime, Any Place

 The foot soldiers were scanning Brooklyn for organizations and people that might want BrownStar moving images, and one of them happened upon a Lyfe Benoit, manager at the great Brooklyn Spot Madiba. Lyfe let us know that Madiba already had videos for the web, but he wanted to introduce his team to us.

 One Way Entertainment's big artist is J-Eye, whose music is a great mix of hip-hop and r&b, fun and substance, and everything in between. Lyfe wanted to see what we could do with an event J-Eye had coming up at the Katra Lounge in the Lower East Side. If BSB did a good job, we could work together in the future. BSB agreed to the test (we love tests!).

BSB used the GL2, as this was an unpaid venture. Lyfe mentioned combining the footage we shot with footage from other performances to make a 'live' music video in different locations. BSB figured we just needed to shot at least one verse from the performance in true BSB form, and catch some decent B-roll footage. We did that, but we one uped it by making a whole music video as well. All this for free, making partnerships, and the name of the brand!!! And you tell me we aren't the production company of the people! Using what footage we had, the above video for his track 'Still in Love' was created.

 Let us know what you think!!