The Audacity of Dope

Super dope, though I recommend you peep it in HD on Vimeo right here.

As I was saying, the talent in the 206 is immense right now.  I meant to put this on TAOD when Ryan first sent it to me, but I failed.  Thankfully, 2DopeBoyz posted it up and reminded me about it.

In Ryan’s own words:

All summer I’ve been working on my thesis project to graduate from the UW. It’s another still-image motion picture like the 2Pac Vs. Franz Ferdinand mash-up I made last year. It features Macklemore and a few other people you may know (list below). Take in mind this is version one. Between limited access, finances, etc I couldn’t really pursue a lot of the ideas I originally envisioned in efforts to make it epic. I feel like the music got there more than the storyline. However, we may do an improved remix of it for the VS. (Macklemore/RyanLewis) EP featuring Mack rapping and a revised production more like a music video, shot with actual video.

It was shot entirely with regular still-image cameras (Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3), batch-edited in Photoshop and produced in Final Cut Pro. The music was probably the biggest Pro-Tools session I’ve ever ran. Although it samples the original Fake Empire’s piano and backing vocals, everything else was recorded live over numerous sessions.

Thanks a ton to everyone who helped:

The National – Fake Empire (Sample)
JkoePhoto.com (Jason Koenig) – Photographer
MazagranPhoto.com (Johnny Valencia) – Photographer
Myspace.com/Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) – Main Actor
Tricia Davis – Actor
Kevin Veatch – Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Engineer
Andrew Joslyn – Violins and plucking
Zach Fleury – Main Drums, Percussion
Jonah Peters – Percussion
Ryan Lewis – Music Production, Photography, Film Production, Drums, Key Strings, Organ

We shot 100 + strangers portraits who choose a sticker that pertained to an organization/company that has either consumed them or acted as an alternative means of communication to operate with society.

Group Vocals –

P Smoov (Mad Rad)
Rosanna Veatch
Zach Fleury
Sol
Xperience
Macklemore
Anna Clausen
Isabella Du Graf
and more.

Also, Ryan has been working with a dope MC/vocalist named Symmetry for about 3 years now and I believe they’re just about to drop their full project for the masses.  Here’s a taste:

Symmetry / Ryan Lewis – “Fireflies”

Fireworks over the Bird’s Nest during the Closing Ceremonies

The Big Picture followed up their excellent shots of the Opening Ceremonies with a set of wrap up pictures from the Olympics.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The star of the Games, Usain Bolt, dusting the field in the 200m.

Lolo Jones after her heartbreaking loss in the 100m hurdles.

Australia’s Matthew Mitcham still can’t believe he won gold with a flawless final dive in the 10m platform.

Inside the Bird’s Nest during the Closing Ceremonies.

You can see the rest of the pictures in high quality here.