So it’s my first time going to film at the studio. I’m expecting to see a luxury building. The entrance is in a backstreet area of Brooklyn. You would never know who’s here. Which I believe is the purpose. So I go inside and have my camera and gear all ready. Atlas greets me with a “What’s up!” And begins to tell me what to do. My job is to basically catch as much footage as possible of what !LLMIND is doing. It could be making beats, conversations in the studio, and be ready when an artist or special guest comes in the door. It’s almost like reality tv show without all the drama.

The footage is used for his website and social media. He also told me what not to do. I am not here for music, video strictly. In the past they had someone who was not doing their job efficiently.  He would book the sound rooms making beats and recording stuff. They had to let him go. I told him no problem I have my own studio at home and ready to work on video.

I began to get my gear together. I placed my mic on top of my camera and my camera on top of my stabilizer. I was ready to go. It’s time to begin my 8 hour stay. Here we go, I opened the door to studio A. !LLMIND was inside working on a new beat. I couldn’t believe I was in the presence of an amazing producer. I am now basically getting the chance to see how a professional makes beats for free. Which is basically a tutorial that would cost a couple hundred dollars.

He stood up and gave me a dap. Mind you, the environment is very relaxed. I can wear what I want. He ran down what Atlas told me and sat back down and got to work. Now I try to use my camera but he keeps the it in the studio. I wasn’t sure how to go about trying to get more light in the shot. I raised the ISO and brought down the shutter speed. I opened the aperture as music as I could. Which my lens at the time reached only an f stop of 4.8. Now the shot had too much noise with the high ISO but then no light when it was lowered.

I got my light out of my bag. Now that light was a very bright LED light that ruined the ambiance of the room. The room was dark but was lit with a spinning party light, two computer monitors and a fake palm tree. At first I didn’t understand what could be done to make the shot better with the lens I had. But for that day I used my annoying bright light.