South African Music Video

[Julian Gerretsen]

Beautifully shot music video featuring South African rapper "Jack Parow*" and South African electronic band "Die Heuwels Fantasties" (Literally: "The Fantastic Hills").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uzEeN_Mnw

Aside from being huge in South Africa, they are popular in Europe, especially the Dutch speaking Netherlands.

FYI: Afrikaans is a derivative of the Dutch language, with many similarities. A South African Afrikaans speaker would largely able to understand Dutch and get by relatively easily on a visit to the Netherlands, and vice versa.


Production Details

Camera Format: RED One (M)
Director: Thomas Ferreira
Producer: Rachel Young and Tendeka Matatu
Production Budget: R55,000 (Currently +- $8,300)

The budget should have been significantly higher but benefitted from a lot of favours from suppliers and locations wanting to contribute to the production.

Rachel is pulling together the lens list used on the shoot for me which I'll post up later.


* Jack Parow is not a play on Captain Jack Sparrow... Zander Tyler, the artists real name, has used the "Jack Parow" persona since the mid 90's. It is based on the name of the Cape Town suburb of Parow, bordering on the suburb of Bellville, where Jack grew up.

 

[J.K.Dibbets]

wow! Super nice. Always had a big laugh about his cap in previous clips. I speak Dutch so this is really funny language. It's actually pretty hard to hear the lyrics, it is more like listening to an entirely different language that you don't know and regognising Dutch words in it. Afrikaans sounds so beautifull in a special kind of way.

Really love your consistancy in light and grade true all the different shots. It looks perfectly high end and I adore that you get such a vallue at this tight budget Julian! What was your part of it? Operator? If I had to name one shot that looked particullary awsome than I would say...the establishing shot in the church, just perfect...that one was in my mind all day during filmschool today

Hear more and more people get to know Jack Parow here in Holland which is nice...something different.

 

[roryhinds]

lekker

 

[Julian Gerretsen]

Really love your consistancy in light and grade true all the different shots. It looks perfectly high end and I adore that you get such a vallue at this tight budget Julian! What was your part of it? Operator?

Hi JK,

Sadly I had no part in this. Being a RED shooter myself, it was recommended to me by someone else in the industry, so I contacted Rachel at Ten10 Films to get the details.

I totally agree... I particularly love the church shots.

I've just finished up a RED music video for a local band and should have that up in a few weeks, so watch this space!

 

[Julian Gerretsen]

A rough literal translation of the lyrics for those who are interested....

BETWEEN STATIONS

I've lost many things in my life and never found them again
I've told my mother many times that I'm not a child anymore
Life is too hard and I don’t understand the point to it anymore
I'm standing by a big pile of wood but I don't have a flint anymore
I'm feeling cold on my own
I just need is a little bit of warmth
Everyone around me is rich with love
And once again I'm the poorest
Some days I feel like I'm starving to death
There’s an empty space inside me where I hide in the darkness
Im broken inside like all the toys from my childhood
If I should walk away today all my things would fit into a tiny case.
I'm just looking for a moment to wash the ash from my body
But the soldiers on the wall keep bombarding me with tear gas
I lie under a patchwork blanket and try to add squares, pieces to the story
But theres a angry man next to my bed and he tells me stand strong
So I pull the the blanket over my head and lie with my feet sticking out
And walk the long road ahead in my fathers oversized shoes

Chorus:

When we reach the end of the long road next to the railway line
There's just darkness up ahead, I stand and tremble
It's getting darker and I can only hear silence
Hold my hand close by your side
Do you still love me?
Will you find me at the gates of heaven?
*
We hold onto each other tightly but the fact is
No one can ever trully be yours
We write letters to each other
But we never really read them
Because there is always a loser in Russian roulette
I have to go out, I need to work
but I'm sitting hopeless in my bed
I walk around and seek a place to sit in empty buildings
I try to find myself in alcohol and empty relationships
I sit and write poetry but they never become an art
And I scream at the top of my lungs at night
With my head buried in my pillow
I lay for hours in the bath tub with my head under water
I sleep late every morning cause the world can wait till later
So I walk to get away from my feelings
I become empty
With actions without any meanings and reasons
I sit alone on the point of the diving board
Again I find myself praying for a place to sit alone
And I wait for someone to jump up at the same time
But my feelings are digging deep inside my conscious

Chorus

As we stand at the end of the long road next to the railway tracks
There's just darkness up ahead, I stand and tremble
It's getting darker and I can only hear silence
Hold my hand close by your side
*
I've won a lot and I've lost a lot
many times I felt life suffocating me
many times I've sat at the top of a mountain edge
many times I have sat right in front in church
I think back to the past and my grandmothers farm
I want to be there again chasing sheep with my little sister
I want to sit on my granddad's lap and hear stories of the past
I want to run through the grass till my knees go weak

Chorus

We stand and listen to God and the Devil fighting over our soul's
The heart ache is over
In the end, the only thing I want to hear from you is...
…that you want to stay with me forever
Will you find me at the gates of heaven?

 

[J.K.Dibbets]

haha awsome that you posted these lyrics, nice to see those combining with the clip, that makes some choices more obvious.

 

[Clint Lealos]

First off, I love Jack Parow and RedUser a lot. When I saw this thread it was like two worlds collided Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but still. I really glad you posted this Julian. It looks like they have a really good team of folks already making these videos. I like all his videos, but this one is by far the best. And thanks for posting lyrics. I speak English and a tiny bit of Turkish, so generally I only understand his songs that are heavy on the English. It just makes me like him more.

Favorite Jack Parow lyric:

"Ekke's original, ye's a copy
Ekke's a flash drive, ye's a floppy"

Also, Die Antwoord is a pretty awesome South African hip hop group. I think we are gonna see more from our South African friends in the future of hip hop. Thanks again for posting Julian.