ODB — BROOKLYN ZOO

Right after college, I became a director assistant and treatment writer for directors Diane Martel and Brett Ratner at Rat Productions. Brett just got hired to direct "Money Talks" starring a new Chris Tucker. Diane was a hot new young director at the time which was the Golden Years of Hip Hop. Nas was king... RedMan was Funkoroma and Wu-Tang was nothing to F*/K with. The first video I worked on was "Brooklyn Zoo" — Ol' Dirty Bastard. We filmed in Chinatown during Chinese New Year... it was like filming in a war zone. One of my assignments was to get the whole Wu-Tang Clan Chinese food during the dinner break. The Wu didn't like what craft service had provided for the video crew. "That food looks like swine!! Wu-Tang don't eat swine!! You trying to kill us?" Papa Wu questioned Diane. Diane looked at me and said, "Elijah, go get PC from Gina the producer, and get the Wu whatever they want." All the local restaurants were closed because of the Chinese New Year. M80s, Pineapples... all types of fireworks and explosives were going off, and here I am, block to block looking for a restaurant to cook the Wu-Tang Clan's dinner... and believe me, you don't like to see Wu-Tang Clan hungry, especially Ol' Dirty Bastard! After looking for an hour, I finally spotted a restaurant that looked open. It was the only restaurant that had their neon sign on... so I figured it was ok to walk in. When I walked in, the restaurant was empty but in the middle of the dining room, there was a large round table that sat two Chinese mafia families having a Godfather-type meeting. I could tell because two suited thugs pulled out their automatic guns as soon as I walked in and pointed them at me. The hostess thought I was a cop because of my walkie-talkie from the video set. My walkie-talkie was going off... the AD on the set was calling for me on the walkie: "Elijah, what is your twenty?" I didn't respond. Everybody was confused... they didn't know if I was a plain-dress cop or not. I told the hostess that I needed large food for the Wu-Tang Clan and I can't go back to set without their food! The hostess ran back to the table and whispered in the ear of one of the heads of the family. "Do you know Wu-Tang?" the head asked me in a deep Asian accent. "Yes, they're a couple of blocks away... we shooting a video for Ol' Dirty Bastard," I said. The guns went down. They ended up making the order — turns out they were big fans. Walking back to the set, I'm seeing the aftermath of the Chinese New Year celebration... the streets were covered with firework paper, enough to reach my knees — like kicking leaves in the Fall... complete war zone. After I finally got back on set and told Wu the story, they were so happy to see me with six bags of Chinese food for them. Soon as I walked into the smoke-filled trailer... they all cheered with pure happiness. I had a closer relationship with the infamous rap group after that. There weren't many video directors back then... There was Hype Williams, Paul Hunter, Ralph McDaniels, and Diane Martel. We were bidding for videos every week... writing treatments, submitting them back to labels, waiting for an answer. We won some... we lost them. Video budgets went from thirty thousand to a hundred thousand. After the success of the Brooklyn Zoo video, Diane won an award for the Method Man and Mary J. Blige video "All I Need." This was a big song at the time... Sean "Puffy" Combs was making his mark as a producer and remixed the song... which became a hit record for Method Man. We shot the video at the drug capital in New York City and my childhood neighborhood... Washington Heights. This is the first video where I was able to co-direct Mary J. Blige in a scene. The producer of the video had to pay off each Dominican drug dealer on the blocks we were shooting a day rate for each day we were shooting — since we were messing up their business by bringing our big generator trucks, movie-style trailers and adding a lot of attention to their place of business. Washington Heights buildings have unique architecture and amazing views like no other neighborhood in New York City. Being a location scout came with the job... we always loved shooting at locations that gave us that Martin Scorsese feel. After a couple of takes, Method Man and I got cool for two reasons. One, I was his stuntman in the video... and two: when he lost his gold fronts on the set. After tracing back his steps... guess who found them. When that video aired... Diane Martel became one of the hottest video directors in the industry. I absorbed and learned a lot from this bizarre genius of a woman... filming, producing, framing, editing, and how to run a set. Since I was always with her on set, the rappers assumed I was pretty important... which led me to be always in charge of the talent on each video. Bringing them off and on the set was my responsibility at times. After a couple of videos under my belt, I moved to Brooklyn. I found out "Source" magazine was paying photographers two hundred dollars a shot. My rent was six hundred dollars in a studio in Crown Heights. Paper for paper, I started taking photography a little more seriously. While other photographers were taking more paparazzi-style club shots for the "Source"... I was shooting more intimate moments with the artist.