Roc Marciano: Downtown '81
with Director Jason Goldwatch
No, I mean, that's another example bro. We shot that in Pasadena. Yeah, I mean, we shot [Downtown] ‘76 first in, New York. So that was a thing we went out during the blackout and we just got lucky with the horses and the whole shit. Same thing about being open.1 That shit was crazy. When we shot Downtown, he was like, “bro, this is gonna be like ‘76.” And I was like, “I don't know! That's a lot of pressure, bro.” So this one was to take it further again. So we shot Super Eight which allows me….it was just me and him. [The shoot] was literally me and him. That was it. No crew, nothing. We had a driver for him. I was driving my own car, and had a backpack full of film. But to shoot on Super Eight allows us to go into these fucking Japanese Tea Gardens and not get sweated, shoot whatever we want and get on a train. So I just busted a lot of Super Eight and then went and did some research before we shot and found the bullet train. And then that led into some Super Eight Tokyo, Super Eight Japan [footage]. So now I'm finding the grade of film I’m shooting on. On the day of the shoot, we're basically shooting for the edit against the footage I already have. So yeah, that was in Pasadena. It was around the Rose Bowl, same thing. Case study in Pasadena, Japanese Tea Garden and then cut it against the Tokyo shit.
(on the meaning of the Japanese characters that flank his trademark chyron”
I have no idea. It was a documentary about the military that was made like the 80s.
He says “What's up” and we cut to the footage from the bullet train of a woman acting shy that I found. We went in knowing shots we needed. I try to punch as many gold watches into the front end of videos as I can.
So like all that stuff trying to build up the front. So it made sense by the time we got into his verse. But you know, I mean, when we signed him as a business owner on Decon, we signed Roc to a deal and we shot ‘76. Part of this sort of salesmanship, of getting him over to my company, was my business partner being like, “well, we're gonna go out and we’re gonna get a Jason Goldwatch video, blah, blah, blah.” Which is true, but then when we show up, I prefer to have no crew and I prefer to just….you get away with so much more when we get the least amount of people. So that being sold and I showed up with my camera on Super Eight for the first video and [he’s probably thinking] “Man fuck these clowns. They really sold me on this big video shoot and one dude shows up in his homie’s car. Then he saw it and was like,”oh, fuck.” And again that second video was just me and him. And we're laughing about it. He's like, “bro, I was so mad at you that first time.”
This was part of a much longer interview where Goldwatch gave many examples of how his openness to leaving room for unscripted elements helped contribute to his amazing career. Valuable lesson for the young video directors out there!