Stig: Stay the Same III

In the foreground, on the left side of shot (if Alex is right handed), stands an easel.

The right side of shot is Stig stood in the background rapping.

The camera is locked off.

It is a classic scene of an artist painting a portrait.

The twist is instead of painting the subject, the artist creates a picture or different images based on the words which the subject raps.

We see the hand of the artist frantically drawing these images at 8x speed. The canvas is angled so Alex's body never obscures the canvas though we see his speedy hand/arm dot around as he draws. 

Stig, however, raps in real-time.

The images are in sync with the words. 

We make the room decor very stylized so the shot is busy and cool and Stig can use props to keep things interesting... Stig does a number of costume changes.

In relation to the track's theme, we have proper artists (Stig and Alex) who are constantly changing and evolving (Stig's clothes, position in shot, manner etc... and Alex's hand which uses the methaphor of extra-fast movement to show how he's working at a different speed to normal people and his work evolves on the canvas). The work he creates represents the lyrics of Stig and reiterates how others (those depicted on the canvas) stay the same.

If anyone thinks that single locked-off shot would be too boring then we can easily have separate close-ups of both Stig and the drawing using a 2nd 5D which a guy that luke, freddy and i work with says we can use. 

*** Technical shiz: as the camera is locked off we can film Alex drawing over the course of 30mins which is eight times the length of the track = Stig is not in this shot. We then film the exact same shot without Alex and the easel, but with Stig in shot doing his thing. Then the most basic blend in Final Cut of the two shots creates an image where both are present. Simply speeding up Alex's shot by 800% means everything is in sync and Alex has time to draw stuff.  To work out the sync timings we just multiply the timing of a lyric by 8 and make sure Alex has drawn a particular image at that equivalent time. No need for green screen or VFX or anything.

Options for Alex to decide the best medium to work in include: whiteboard, canvas, paper / drywipe, pen, paintbrush, spray-paint... etc.

The composition would be different but these are the closest references i can find jus now:

This test vid shows the technique and a rough idea of composition. The left screen is only playing at 250% not 800 as proposed. I didn't have time to get enough footage to make it so speedy. Some one touches the camera at one point which gives you a good idea of what technique is being used and also how precious the set up must be. The lighting isn't controlled hence the line running through it but this would be easily erased with the right lighting and a slight touch up in post.

We could easily work timings so Alex and Stig interact to reinforce the illusion of them both being there together. The canvas would be a lot bigger and the room would be a lot bigger so Stig has space to walk around. Also the scene would be a lot darker to match the track's tone and filled with appropriate props.

This test is literally just to give a concrete idea of what I'm talking about:

Only dead fish swim with the current, 

I wont play the game

Im tryna find a balance,

They’re tryna make their name

Im nothing like the rest

Im tryna break away

But the more things change

The more THEY stay the same

Prepared for war, I’ll dig my heels in

& take the strain

Fuelled with passion burning brighter

Than a naked flame

I want to see things improve

But wont wait in vane 

Cos the more things change

The more THEY stay the same

As far as im concerned, the whole world can die twice

Leave me the fuck alone so I can write rhymes

We wont ever see no justice in our lifetimes

They keep on getting richer while we struggle on the side lines

9 times out of 10, they create the zeitgeist

the whole world some how convinced that they have like minds

but great minds don’t think a like they think differently

So that’s why your public opinion don’t mean shit to me

I’ll never fall down,  im all out for victory

Only those who win the war get to write the history

I’ll march to a different beat, til I got blistered feet 

Its not a metaphore, I mean it literally

An individual is something I insist to be

I put the real me in every single little bit of speech

Inner visions got switching to a vicious beast

Walking the British streets, talking with my gritted teeth 

Verse 2

Back on my bullshit, back on my grizzly

Pen & a pad & hip flask full of whisky

Back to the big leagues,

Back to looking for an opportunity cos I’ll be damned if it miss me 

Back to the drawing board, nose to the grindstone

Off the map into my mind’s own time zone

Brainstorm chaser, rhyme flow cyclone

3^rd eye open to truth, im a do me

Yeeeeah im right back at it

Fuck an open mic, I want it right back damn it

I control a crowd something like black magic

Its that manic, a cause a nation wide mass panic

& give a fuck if its dead or not

I’ll be hip hop til my body gets left to rot

Til the flowers grow wild on my grave,

Until they wither in the winter & the very last petal drops

The wall behind Stig will have 3 stages from the Ascent of Man but stencilled on the wall as The Ascent of Rap/Hip Hop... with for instance the 1st stage being Kool Herc crouched on all fours over turntables, the next stage being Run DMC in Adidas, the 3rd stage being Biggie, and then instead of the fully evolved stage being on the wall Stig is stood in it's place to show him as part of Hip Hop's evolution opposed to the track's theme that "the things change, the more THEY stay the same".