EM: From my understanding, you just got finished with a shoot. Who were you working with today?
CD: Today I was doing some freelance work for Universal Republic. I do a lot of freelance work. Today was some Rock stuff for Florence and the Machine, but pretty all I do is Hip-Hop.
EM: Now Lets take it back, tell me about your introduction to directing music videos?
CD: Well I’m originally from the Boston area and that’s where I went to school. I moved down to New York and interned for Focus Features, the film company for a little bit. I was trying to make films and on a whim I started shooting for some guys I went to school with who were in a group called Radix. My manager now, Jonathan Master, saw those videos and took me under his wing and started managing me. So through shooting, hustling, networking and working with Jonathan, I started to take it more seriously and well the rest is history.
EM: What your first professional job and who was the first "bigger" named artist you worked with?
CD: My first professional gig was for Emilio Rojas. I do a lot of his videos. It was him featuring Skyzoo and the video never got released. The first bigger named artist that I worked with was for Camp Lo feat. Styles P, On Smash/89 of Crime video. So for me that was a kind of a turning point from me just like doing it to, now this is getting serious.
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| Emilio Rojas X Sympathy for the Devil |
EM: Well speaking on videos not getting released, what are some of the reasons a video may not get released?
CD: Good question. Well, there are a lot of reasons a video is not released. Maybe it’s a time issue and the project is not relevant and the artist doesn’t want to drop it. Maybe you shoot it and the label decides not to drop it. There is a lot of politics that can go into it. I mean it rarely happens, but it happens.
EM: With Today’s technology a lot of people are now able to shoot music videos, can you explain the difference between that and actually directing a music video?
CD: I can give you my opinion, but it’s such a thin line. These days with the technology you can pick up a camera and if you know how to use it right, you may get an opportunity and you can get some crazy shit. On the other hand you can have formal training and go to college for it and learn how to light and do those things.
I’m a purist so obviously I would stress to have formal training because the quality is always going to be better. It’s like anything else, if you look into it and do the research and you can become the best at it. At least that’s how I look at it. I would never knock anybody for picking up a camera because that’s how I did it. Everyone has to start from somewhere.
EM: Now you mentioned earlier you went to film school to do films, short films and things of that nature. Are you still interested in pursuing that side of the art?
CD: Yeah, I think that’s definitely part of the plan. I think what has changed for me was doing Hip-Hop. You see everyone has a different road. If you want to make feature films there are all kinds of things you can do. For example, you can make short and go to a festival, but my route was making music videos. The cool thing about it is that I love Hip-Hop and I love the Hip-Hop industry so there is no pressure to what I’m doing. We are already working on more commercial stuff, shorts and bigger named artists, so it’s going to happen. As of right now as long as I’m eating and creating art I’m good. I’m not sweating the future because I know it’s going to happen.
EM: So lets talk about Restless Films. Can you give us a rundown of an average day at Restless?
CD: Its just kind of a run and gun gorilla style, it’s the opposite of a nine to five. I’m up to 4am editing and trying to wake up as early as possible the next day. I’m on Hip-Hop time. I’m usually up in the morning prioritizing everything…I just got a ton of shit going on, tons of emails, tons of project, tons of this, that and that. I just got to prioritize because everything has got a different process, so for me organization and having a grasp on where everything is at all the time is key. If I didn’t have a way of managing that I would lose my mind.
EM: What are some of the deciding factors on choosing whom you work with?
CD: First of all I’m lucky enough to be in a place where I can kind of pick and choose who I work with and if I have to pass on a paid opportunity I can still get by. Usually my manager Jon Masters A&R’s all of my web series. We usually decide together on who I work with.
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| "The cool thing about it is that I love Hip-Hop and I love the Hip-Hop industry so there is no pressure to what I’m doing." |
EM: Can we talk some about your website collaborations? Which sites and what are the projects?
CD: The First one was with www.hiphopdx.com and it was the 16bar series and is exclusive to the site. 16 Bars is straight up commercial style, black and white, slow motion, with artists spittin 16 of their own.
Second is www.nahright.com, the one shot music video series. For me this is a huge part of my identity as a music video director, because my style is very simple, very minimal and very creative as opposed to shoot a bunch of performances. That was important for me because that series was a way for me to get more access to bigger artists. I was able to work with Jay Rock through the one shot series.
Third is on www.thisis50.com, the “this is hip-hop” series. That’s just more interview style. I just kind of sit down with an artist and they tell me what Hip-Hop means to them. So for every artist I ask, its always a different thing. Then I take that and put a spin on it. It uses graphics as the words and over the course of the video its just normal graphics and it culminates to all the words they are talking about. All these you can check it out on www.courtdunn.com
EM: So what’s next for Court Dunn and Restless Films?
CD: Man, there is a lot going on. I’m feeling super excited on where things are at. I feel like I’m on the verge of some really big stuff. Every couple years I drop a reel of all my work. This time I got Dante Ross to present it. It’s got testimonial quotes from several different people like Talib Kweli and Styles P to name a few. It’s pretty much a wrap of my work from the past three years, so that was very exciting. So everything is getting real busy and I’m staying positive.
EM: Any last words?
CD: Shout out to my manager Jonathan Master and all the people in my camp. I just want to create art, be different and respect the art.
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