London-based artist Goya Gumbani recently released his debut studio album, "Warlord of the Weejuns," via Ghostly International. The album reflects his Brooklyn hip-hop lineage, as well as his generation of London jazz musicians.
Crossroad(s) marks the official video from the collection and features the artist sitting down for a series of interviews to discuss his new release. The sit down is part of a promotional package, but the setup allowed director/cinematographer Tobi Yussuff to capture unique footage of Goya voicing the track's lyrics, which would then become a music video with a behind-these-scenes flair.
Yussuff, who came on-board thanks to a connection with production company Brique Studios, says he always had black & white in mind for the look of the music video, which was shot in a single day at a studio in Woolwich, just southeast of London. As Goya prepares for his interviews, the crew works beside him, setting up microphones and assorted production gear. What initially appears to the viewer as a BTS or tutorial video, instead becomes a music-driven piece.
"I wanted it to look like something, where it's kind of like, 'Oh! This is actually a music video,'" says Yussuff of the concept. "Obviously, the motion blur and everything was just trying to kind of create a connection to Crossroad(s), because as you're crossing, there's a lot of movement going through."
The album rollout and its promotional effort set the stage for the shoot, but the idea for a music video would come later.
"He was already on a rollout for his album, and he just wanted to get things flowing, so I was going use it for BTS,” Yussuff recalls. “But [Goya] was like, 'You know what, let's use this for the actual video.' When he told me that, I was like, 'Okay. Go for it!’ That's a compliment."
Yussuff shot the material using a Blackmagic Design 6K camera and then edited the piece in just a single day. Much of the footage was shot in timelapse mode, helping to get the visual effect in-camera, with slight tweaks made in post.
"Anytime I think of timelapse, I like to change the speed,” notes the director. “I'll just get specific footage [as] timelapse, and then the normal footage. Because there was a lot of moving around going on, I was like, 'All right. Let me just record this on a timelapse setting. Let me just record that in case I want to use it later.’ It really came in [handy] because [it was] the base of the video in a sense."
In post, Yussuff used Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve to add additional motion blur on top of the original footage, being careful not to overdo it, but still deliver the necessary impact.
"When I edit videos, I like creating a bit of flair in the effects, but I'm not a big effects-type of guy,” he explains. “I like to create a story with it being clean and just a subtle bit of effects in it. Or, create it in a way where it's like, 'Wait! Was that an effect or was that natural?’"
In the case of Crossroad(s), one of the project's biggest challenges was creating the right dynamic, even though they were working in a limited space.
"I had to create a vibe of it feeling like there's a lot going on," he explains, "so that's me getting different angles, getting different motions — do this, get that, put the motion blur inside. So that was the challenge, but I felt like I've done pretty well."
While Yussuff has a background in music-video work, he's looking to expand his portfolio to include brands and ad campaigns.
"I'm writing a lot of like scripts and a lot of treatments that I want to potentially shoot for upcoming brands, or even pitch to brands,” he reveals. “I get a lot request to shoot music videos because I have more of a portfolio for it. I'm trying to go on the other side of the fence."