An Interview with the directors behind "House of the flying daggers" Video

[tical2000]

At their best, the Wu-Tang Clan conjure a diabolical alternate universe made up of kung fu, crime, and coded wordplay. It's no wonder that it took a brilliantly animated video for Raekwon's ferocious single "House of Flying Daggers"-- from the eagerly anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt II, out September 8-- to provide the most potent visual representation of the Wu aesthetic in many, many moons. The clip's stars (Rae, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface, Method Man, GZA, RZA, and J Dilla) are hip-hop superheroes. They can't be held back by mere reality.
"House of Flying Daggers" features illustrations by 1000styles and animation by Ryan Johnson and Drew Taylor. We recently spoke with co-directors Erick Sasso, 20, and Brian Wendelken, 19, about the genesis of the video. Students at Long Island's Five Towns College, the directors originally met Rae while working crew on a day-in-the-life promo video for the rapper. After exchanging info, it wasn't long before they were working 20-hour days on the video-- and the hard work paid off. Click on to read about Raekwon's eerily prophetic ways, the visual inspirations behind "House of Flying Daggers", and the generation-spanning cult of Wu:

Pitchfork: How did you hook up with Raekwon in the first place?
Brian Wendelken: First of all, Raekwon is like the wisest guy I've ever met in my life.
Erick Sasso: Yeah. It's so weird-- he's like a prophet. When we met him, he pulled out this Maybach umbrella that comes with the car, and we're just like, "Oh God, this guy's so Hollywood." And then it started pouring 20 minutes later. It was ridiculous.

Pitchfork: Did you guys hear the song before you made the video?
ES: Yeah, Rae played us the song and we wrote a treatment and came back to him with it. He wanted to incorporate the movie Five Deadly Venoms and we thought to bring some wise men in and put a little twist on it. We asked him who the wise men in the video should be and he said, "You gotta do J Dilla and RZA."

Pitchfork: That's interesting because there seemed to be some serious static between Rae and RZA about the last Wu-Tang album.
ES: I think that was just a brotherly love thing. I mean, we needed RZA to do the voiceover for the beginning of the video and Rae got us in touch with him within a couple hours.

Pitchfork: How involved was Rae in the making of the video?
ES: Rae sat with us for hours just explaining what Shaolin and Wu-Tang means to him and how it's a dynastic cycle. He knows what he wants. He'll say, "I'm thinking the boots and hand wrapping should have more of a 'Super Friends' feel even though you should keep with the kung fu aesthetic and have them dressed a little bit more like Ninja Scroll." He told us what to watch and we watched everything a million times: Martial Arts Essentials Vol. 1, Shaolin Challenges Ninja, House of Traps, all the Shaw Brothers stuff.
We've dealt with artists who don't really care, but I could call Rae at four in the morning and ask him how he felt about one of the hookers in the video having a bushy vagina and he'd be like, "Yeah man, throw it in there." I spoke to him almost every day for the six weeks we were working on the project.

Pitchfork: The video is extremely violent. Was that an issue while you were making it?
ES: Raekwon wanted it to be graphic. He said, "Let's make it something people are going to talk about." He trusted us to use our bizarre imaginations. So we didn't worry about censorship. It's 2009-- we knew this was going to mainly be seen on the internet anyway.

Pitchfork: How long have you guys been Wu-Tang fans?
BW: My whole life.
ES: Yeah, 36 Chambers came out when I was four years old and my brother made me listen to hip-hop when I was really little. I remember visiting my brother in college when I was a kid and noticing a few guys with Wu-Tang tattoos and thinking, "What the fuck is that about?" It really is like a cult. It's not a gimmick. People know the kung fu movies. They live this shit.

Pitchfork: Within the Wu-Tang Clan, Rae has this cool, calm, and collected vibe of a guy who's always five steps ahead.
ES: That's exactly what he's like in real life, too. In a kung fu movie, he'd be the guy who sits back and calls shit in a battle, like, "Yo, watch out. Check the flank on the left."

Pitchfork: At one point in the video, a homeless man eats a cat. That's fucking crazy.
ES: Yeah, we wanted people to be like, "Did that guy really just eat a cat?!" I was looking at a Wu-Tang forum today and there's 30 pictures of people mimicking the homeless guy's cat-eating pose from the video. This one guy made it look like an album cover. It's hysterical.
I remember Rae said we should have some crazy characters in kitchens skinning cats and I was like, "Well, what about a guy eating a cat?" He just sat back and stroked his goatee and nodded.


"House of Flying Daggers" video credits:
Directors: Erick Sasso and Brian Wendelken (ChainGangProductions.TV)
Animation: Ryan Johnson and Drew Taylor
Illustration: 1000styles
Producer: Larry Bernardo for LB Productions
Assistant Director: Ben Chacko
Animation Consultants: Bleu Bailey and Ramon Sosa for Lost Cause Studios
Lighting Tech: John Rosario
CG Supervision: Jason Ortiz
Production Assistants: Mario Mascetti and Woo Kim


from: http://pitchfork.com/news/36396-dire...lying-daggers/

[tical2000]

[Tecknowledgist]

Originally Posted by tical2000

ES: Yeah, we wanted people to be like, "Did that guy really just eat a cat?!" I was looking at a Wu-Tang forum today and there's 30 pictures of people mimicking the homeless guy's cat-eating pose from the video. This one guy made it look like an album cover. It's hysterical.

hahahahahahahha

and lol @ "some guy"

[YungSunny]

Tsa made his mark