In September, rapper Tyla Yaweh released a music video for a joint track with Chris Brown called City of Dreams. A Ukrainian team of director Artem Shapirenko (Shapxo) and editing director Mykyta Bereg worked on the video. DTF Magazine talked to them and tells about the making of the music video in more detail
About the proposal to create a music video
In his comments to DTF Magazine, Artem said that about a year ago he met one of the producers of the American production company DreamBear, who in September this year offered him to write a script for City of Dreams.
According to the director, when he got the opportunity to shoot the music video, he decided to involve mainly Ukrainian specialists: editing director Mykyta Bereg, stylist Mari Siviakosha and her assistant Kostya Goncharuk. Ukrainian digital artist Oleh Bilobrov worked on the opening 3D sequence.
‘Artem called me and told me that he would be shooting a music video for Tyla Yaweh and Chris Brown in two days in Los Angeles and asked if I was available. He immediately clarified that the project needed a quick edit because the time frame for post-production was very tight. The video was to be released a week after the shooting, — Mykyta Bereg said. — The very next morning I was already sitting on the plane and closing my previous projects so that nothing would distract me from working on the music video’.
In the music video you can see items by Ukrainian brands Anoeses and Zhilyova.
About the work process
The final script for the video was approved 72 hours before filming began.
According to Artem, he was inspired by the title of the track City of Dreams while writing the script, but ‘didn’t want to show the city through the clichés of rappers with parties, smiles, tall buildings and cool cars’.
‘I showed it in a more surreal way. In the story, lightning strikes the Tyla clock, causing time to stand still. All the people in the city become motionless, and in every single mise en scene their sins are highlighted: who is surrounded by money, who fights for love, and who, although he looks like a sinner, has more faith than all the other people around him. With this story I wanted to portray the transience of time and encourage people to enjoy their lives without losing the moments’.
Mykyta added that some visual moments from the music video appeared by chance, not only before the shooting started, but also during the process or afterward.
‘For example, the idea of a dollar bill with a portrait of Chris Brown instead of Benjamin Franklin flying out of an ATM came about when Artem and I were in a cab on our way to the set. And the moment with the magic stars flying out of the frame with the broken car into the frame with the city (time code — 1:00) appeared already during the editing’.
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Artem explained that the most difficult part of working on the video was the timing — the team was given four days to prepare for the shoot.
‘In the US, the music market is usually very tight in terms of timelines — the project was approved on Sunday night, and we were already shooting the video in Los Angeles on Wednesday. A-level artists come on set for only a few hours, so we were allotted two hours for the process of working with Chris. I think this is one of the reasons why big artists’ music videos are perceived as very similar and become noticeable only when directors work 24/7’.
In August, the Ukrainian team presented a performance project at the Burning Man 2023 festival.
The installation was created by artists Oleksii Sai and Bohdana Kosmina, and the figure became the first Ukrainian sculpture to take part in the traditional burning of figures at Burning Man, for which the festival organizers annually select about five works out of more than a hundred presented.
We told you more about the project
Artem explained that the most difficult part of working on the video was the timing — the team was given four days to prepare for the shoot.
‘In the US, the music market is usually very tight in terms of timelines — the project was approved on Sunday night, and we were already shooting the video in Los Angeles on Wednesday. A-level artists come on set for only a few hours, so we were allotted two hours for the process of working with Chris. I think this is one of the reasons why big artists’ music videos are perceived as very similar and become noticeable only when directors work 24/7’.
In August, the Ukrainian team presented a performance project at the Burning Man 2023 festival.
The installation was created by artists Oleksii Sai and Bohdana Kosmina, and the figure became the first Ukrainian sculpture to take part in the traditional burning of figures at Burning Man, for which the festival organizers annually select about five works out of more than a hundred presented.
We told you more about the project in our article.
