Can You Make Change?

The Beginning
After the success of the Revolution music video, an Oakland-based non-profit contacted Trevor to work on a series of music videos for a project centered around hip hop and civic engagement. Trevor agreed to work on the project, but only if the Napalm Clique could have a song featured on the compilation album. Trevor discussed the project with Unity and a week later, he, Tai Chi, and F.L.O. had written and recorded We Need A President. However, when they presented the song to the non-profit, it was turned down because the project had to be non-partisan. Trevor liked the song so much that he suggested that they just make a video for the song anyway, instead of releasing it through the non-profit.

The Song
While creating the song, Unity made sure to research the current state of Obama’s campaign to fuel his lyrical content. As a result, almost every line of Unity’s first verse is grounded in Obama’s own words and sentiments, often times quoting him verbatim.

The beat was created by Tai Chi, who also has the second verse in the song. Tai Chi wanted to create something that sounded like a regal victory song, similar to a marching band. The last line of Tai Chi’s verse even states, “That’s why we’re jamming with the band for Barack like he already won!”

The third verse tied the whole song together as F.L.O. self-identifies with Obama making humorous references to the fact that the Bush era is finally over. He concludes with a positive message, stating that none of this is about race or specific candidates, but just the simple idea of “voting for change”.

The Video
The video itself was as described in the Oakland Tribune as, “a multimedia celebration of the political candidate”, and there was definitely a variety of mixed media throughout. Unity’s verse had referenced a number of points from the A More Perfect Union speech, so Trevor thought it would be a good idea to include soundbytes and video clips from the speech itself while also mimicking the exact look of the speech for each verse. To achieve this, he would have to shoot each MC on green screen.

From there, everything else was shot on green screen. Trevor wanted to have maximum flexibility in terms of integrating other media and found footage into the video. The goal was to elucidate as many ideas in the lyrics as possible.

The real trick though was elucidating the vocal harmony of the chorus. The fact that chorus emphasizes the word, “We”, so frequently gave Trevor the idea of incorporating other non-rappers into the video to represent the sentiments of ordinary everyday people. To achieve this, he had 40+ people stand in front of a green screen, one at a time, to sing the chorus. None of these people had heard the song before, but it made their performances even more genuine.

After shooting all of these people on green screen, the hardest part began; the editing. Trevor had only conceptualized about a third of the visuals by this time, but in four weeks he was able to produce the remaining visual elements and release the video.

The Impact
The video was released on YouTube on August 21st 2008, and received almost 1,000 views just within its first day. By August 24th, it was in the Oakland Tribune, and on August 25th it appeared on the KTVU 2 Morning News.

Trevor brought dozens of copies to the Democratic National Convention, and even had a chance to personally hand one to Oprah Winfrey.

The video was toured at local schools throughout the summer and fall, and by late October kids all over Oakland were singing the chorus and convincing their parents and eligible friends to vote for Obama.

In November, the video won Best Video at the Vote Hip Hop Awards, juried by Talib Kweli and a number of prominent Bay Area artists and activists. Since then, We Need A President has continued to receive views and comments on YouTube.

Vote (Like It or Not!)

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:51:09 +0000

.: Press & Publicity :.

Yung Moses Says “Wake Yo Game Up!”

The Song

The Video

The Trip

The Impact

SMASH Technology

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:28 +0000

.: Press & Publicity :.

SMASH targets young minorities with keen interest in math, science

The Academy
Level Playing Field Institute’s Summer Math and Science Honors (SMASH) Academy works with high achieving, low-income high-school students of color from the Bay Area who are passionate about math and science. The Academy provides them with rigorous courses that will prepare them to excel in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields.

The goal is for these students to be admitted to top-tier colleges and focus on these fields. The Academy helps scholars achieve success in high school now and prepare them for future achievement in higher education.

The Classes
In 2006, Trevor Parham was offered an opportunity to design and teach the first every Technology curriculum for SMASH Academy. Instead of trying to teach computer science, he drew on his media production background to design a multimedia curriculum with an interdisciplinary approach to teaching computer skills, media production, and media literacy.

Trevor hired a long time friend, Simon Robertson, who had a background in game design and interactive media, to co-teach the course. Together, they taught the SMASH Interactive Media Lab, and it was rated the best class of summer.

After the success of the first year, Technology expanded into two courses, and in the summer of 2007, Simon and Trevor taught Creative Media Lab and The Game Project, a game design course with a focus on creating Serious Games. In just a few weeks, the students created a game design document for a role playing game depicting the distractions and challenges students of color face on their path to graduating high school.

In the summer of 2008, Trevor finally had a chance to teach video production to the SMASH students, and appropriately named the course, SMASH VideoSMASH Video was the first course to give SMASH scholars an opportunity to express themselves using video. The course was a favorite among the 2008 SMASH Senior class, as it gave them the freedom to express their unique views on the world. Students used Final Cut Express and Flip Video cameras to create a variety of documentaries, silent films, and Public SMASH Announcements (PSAs).

The Videos
Of the 60+ videos created in that five-week period, the sixty second PSAs stood out amongst all the rest. These Public SMASH Announcements wrestled with a series of issues that students of color face on a daily basis, ranging from female body image to college acceptance rates. The content for each video was determined solely by the students, and they scripted, shot, and edited everything on their own… in less than one week.

The Impact
Since the release of these public service announcements, the Founders and staff members of Level Playing Field Institute have shown them all over the country at variety of events, including corporate and academic audiences; Google, Cisco, UC Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore Labs just to name a few. The videos have also served as a centerpiece for a number of fund raising events, creating even more opportunities for underrepresented students of color to enroll in SMASH Academy. These courses have essentially provided young students of color a chance to create videos that not only raise awareness of relevant issues, but they also raise money to further their causes and their futures.

My Inauguration

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:00:35 +0000

A short film about Trevor’s experience at the Inauguration with the new $25 Obama bills. Most of the video was shot (and photographed) on a Canon Powershot G9… a great little camera, but not exactly the biggest and highest quality camcorder on the market. Trevor was actually working on another documentary while he was out there, and this was just all the footage he took during his off time… turned out it was enough to make a short film.

This video represents a change in the way that many people look at video production; you don’t have to a have a big camera or a big plan… just keep it rolling and be creative with whatever you’ve got.

Revolution

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:08:49 +0000

.: Press & Publicity :.

Oakland Post Interview

Filmthreat - Hollywood Black Film Festival Award Winners

View Related Media Clips

The Revolution music video was created by Eklectyk Creative Media for the Napalm Clique. The song lyrics and the original interview with Fred Hampton Jr. inspired a short story about the power of using hip hop in the classroom. The video blends imagery of history’s revolutionaries with a vision of present day hip hop, reminding us of the necessary connection between hip hop and social change. This project is more than just a music video; it is a teaching tool that leverages music and video to engage us in a dialogue about the obligation we have as hip hop artists.

The Beginning

The Song

The Video

The Impact

We Need A President: Behind The Scenes Commercial

admin — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:00:31 +0000

Tai Chi of the Napalm Clique gives a breakdown of what’s happening on the set of the We Need A President music video shoot.

VOTE by Yung Moses

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:05:03 +0000

Music video for Oakland hip hop artist Yung Moses. The video was featured on CNN within a week of its release online. Shot entirely in the Lake Merrit/Grand Ave area of Oakland. Directed by Aled Ordu

CREATE PSA

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:00:53 +0000

An example PSA for SMASH Video’s Assignment #4

The video features a short poem about the value of creativity. The word CREATE is turned into an acronym with the follwing messsage:

Change
Reality
Everyday
Achieve
True
Enlightment

Created by Trevor Parham

Fred Hampton Jr. on Revolutionary Hip Hop

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:12:09 +0000

Original interview with Fred Hampton Jr. conducted by Unity Lewis and Trevor Parham. The interview was later sampled in the track Revolution, and then re-synced with the video for the Revolution music video.