Soca artist Kevin Lyttle recently teamed with Miami-based director Raymond Castellon to create a new video for his track, Slow Motion. The video was shot on location in Cuba and has a tropical, Carnival feel, with lots of dancing and traditional costumes.
"This was one of the best — if not the best — video experience I've ever had,” says Lyttle of the shoot. “There were no props or choreography needed because of the authenticity of the Caribbean setting and the natural rhythms of the people."
According to Castellon, who is also a recording artist, in addition to being a director (
www.elVIPdeRaymondCastellon.com), the video was shot in just one, long day. The crew would set up the location to their liking and spend approximately two hours shooting that set. They’d then rearrange things for another shoot and spend another two hours capturing footage for that scene. This went on several times over the course of the day and into the night.
“We created every environment: the main performance, the car in the back, then whole with girl walking,” Castellon explains.
A Red Dragon camera was used for the shoot, with much of it being captured hand-held. A crane was also used for shots such as the overhead angles. Pedro Vasquez served as the DP and the editor, cutting within Adobe Premiere.
“I like to use a lot of handheld,” says Castellon of his music video work. “It’s connected to the people, especially in music videos. I love to shoot raw and simple.”
The 3:13 edit took approximately two days to complete, and very little had to be done in terms of color correction to achieve the final, festive look.
“The colors are the same [as the shoot],” says the director. “It was beautiful that day — the color correction was not too much different. It was very smooth.”