ALLBLACK is one of the most prolific artists to come out of Oakland. With his rugged, street-influence style and lyrics, his music content is unflinching to the realities of what many growing up in Oakland experience first-hand. As the cinematographer, it was important to get right into the lyrics to connect the viewing audience with the music that carries his storytelling.

As a crew, we visited ALLBLACK’s neighborhood on the set of a music video for one of his songs. We also visited his mother’s home, where we interviewed his mother, sister and brother, who co-signed his stories and authenticity. We also visited EMPIRE’s headquarters where we interviewed P-Lo, another bay area star who spoke on his song with ALLBLACK in the TY4FWM album and how that came to be. Several people contributed to this film and helped with both additional footage and interviews.

CAMERA GEAR

For this project, we used the Canon Cinema series. C300 Mark II and C200 handled a majority of the visuals, with an appearance from Canon’s latest C70 and Canon R5 in select shots. The lenses used were from Canon’s L series.

Drone footage was also used. Over the years I’ve collected stock footage of scenic views in Oakland so it made sense to borrow some of it for this film.

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