- RETRO1920
- 3 min read
SO8.2020
Thirdy is finally here. This one was for the culture. I had a poster made to make the flick look more official and if I ever put it up on Amazon Prime for more traction. I hope you all enjoy the premiere. Feel free to hit me up on instagram or by e-mail and share with me some of your favorite moments.
Originally, my first idea was to only follow Dropz and get history... doing a documentary on his rise. Once we understood the exposure this doc might get from other things he and Miami had lined up in the upcoming years the documentary started to evolve. Still Dropz story was to be at the forefront. It was the most compelling, the most accessible, the most honest, the most intimate.
As he plugged me into the culture we started to realize the potential in the niche documentary we were presenting to the world and knew we had to branch out a bit but go deeper... Low key no one has done a cinematic feature documentary on battle rap.
I felt with the loads of content I was going to get it might be best to do webisodes to get the day in the life of artists outside of the ring. I wanted to pitch it to a network. After tons of research and entering a few film festivals, I found the best bet would be to produce my own project first. I needed to do the ground work on the subject, without a cosign.
I went back to documentary style editing with intentions to send to film festivals once it was done. I knew at some point I had an opportunity to get more voices and this would keep the element compelling. I pictured at some point following Bigg K for an episode to see if we could go to his old cell block and interact with former inmates he used to freestyle with on the yard, but I didn't get a chance to contact rep or K in a timely manner.
Once I had about 60% of content I needed I thought of the idea of rounds segmenting the documentary much like a battle rap... Round 1 The Come Up of Florida battle rap, Round 2 - It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop what is going on outside of the ring or octagon, and Round 3 - What's Ya Life Like... chapter titles to mirror angles rappers take in a battle rap.
For Round 2, I had contacted Daylyt, MyVerse, Dizaster, Saynt, Jae Millz (before his return), Dumbfoundead, Babs, Ms. Fit, Jayblac and Progrest amongst others. To my surprise half of the people I hit up were on board, but due to time constraints and scheduling conflicts I had to narrow down the 1st series of Thirdy to what you see today. My only regret is not having enough female representation in my first volume of the documentary, but being a male it was hard to navigate this space without a middle man or woman to vouch for me. Some dudes are creepy and I understand women keeping their guard up through unsolicited e-mails.
I want to thank everyone who gave me an opportunity to tell their story, especially Dropz. Without Dropz this was not possible. He was the first one to trust my vision. I also want to thank AYNT for the score of this documentary, without the score the documentary has no life.
I'm hoping down the road I can add at least two more volumes to the Thirdy documentary and make it a trilogy. I have a lot of love for the culture of California. Although I did Florida justice in Vol. 1, I hope Vol. 2 can focus on another state or region such as California and get different voices in the mix (women, etc...).
Thank you for viewing the documentary in advance. Hopefully I have more creative endeavors in store for us this year. There would be no Thirdy without Dropz. He was the cosign I needed. Thank you for making this possible and helping to create a format ( a lead subject, and narrator) that I can fall back on for volumes in the near future. 3-0
Film Notes. Director: RETRO1920 Producer: RETRO1920
Film Score: @AYNTJTC Consultancy: Shaydrian Jackson, Jazmine Mickey Interviewees: Dropz, Bruce "Ooops" Franks Jr., Goddie Lumenati, LOSO, Jonny Storm, Drect, Wrekonize, GullyTK, Lush One, Killahsiz, Quis, and Don Marino.
8.10.20
safe travels,
- MCMXX
