"Take a picture", in Ciyawo & Chichewa. Documentary & cultural photography from East Africa, with a few other things thrown in for good measure…

music videos

Making music videos

Shortly after the national elections here in Mozambique at the end of October, 2009, a local guy approached me and asked if I would be willing to help him produce a music video. Why not? I thought. At least it would be an interesting experiment if nothing else. I wanted to see a few things, namely “how would this musical artist want to shoot this video”? I aimed to offer little to no input and just simply try to shoot what he wanted.

Most African videos that I’ve seen tend to be extremely one-themed. Same folks dancing (usually in swaying choir format) in front of a mediocre background, at best. For this video, we hit up a local river, gas station, sports park, disco, my house and my car just to add interesting variety to the locations shot.

As this is a political music video, I didn’t want to officially add my name. I’m neither opposed to or in support of Frelimo, the ruling political party in Mozambique. I didn’t know what the song was going to be about (I’m still learning Portuguese).

Without further ado…