Lil Wayne parties like a rockstar with labelmate Kevin Rudolf in a video that looks/sounds/feels like a multi-format smash.
Justin Francis, director: This project was unique in that the seeds of the concept were already in place before I came on-board. [The video commissioner] Jeff Panzer and [Cash Money co-founder] Slim had already begun collecting references and visuals before we even had our first conversation.
We discussed everything from The Who to Bruce Springsteen to The Kids Are Alright to a live performance of "A Milli" Wayne had done on MTV. What was immediately interesting to me was the challenge of lending classic rock iconography to a pop/hip-hop record.
The other challenge was to somehow make all of the disparate elements we discussed feel like they fit in the same piece. If you look at still frames of the video, it kind of looks like it's all over the place. But ultimately the guide was always the music itself. My main goal was to keep the imagery faithful to what was going on in the beat, no matter how incongruous each section might look in relation to the next.
Oddly enough, the lasers turned out to be the element that really brought it all together. Ihad the lasers sequenced to be in perfect sync with the synth pattern. And then I built the edit around how the pattern interacted with the beat. This yielded some abstract moments in the edit that I'm pleased made the final cut.
In the end I think the video works because it remains faithful to the music. We didn't fight the tune. Rather, we let the music dictate the visuals every step of the way.
--> watch "Let It Rock" or via YouTube
Kevin Rudolf f/ Lil" Wayne
"Let It Rock" (label)
Justin Francis, director/DP/editor | Jill Hardin, producer | HSI, production co | Robin Frank Management, rep | Jeff Panzer, commissioner
