In the real world, Modapit has seemingly come out of nowhere, presenting a parallel between his real-life aspect and the character he portrays in the media surrounding his music. Questions of being an industry plant are unavoidable, but if the music is good, the point becomes rather moot.
Modapit released their first single, “Dancing,” in January, and followed it up recently with “Falling In Love” along with yet another music video. The idea behind the project is to present a cohesive and interesting story that asks as many questions as it answers, and so far, that goal hasn’t been missed.
With the release of the music video for “Falling In Love” last week, we caught up with the video’s director, David Guillermo Borges, to ask about the creative direction and actual process of filming the video — how it came together, the challenges they faced shooting in the desert, and what the future holds for Modapit.
In addition to Borges’ involvement, the video also features an impressive cast and crew, including choreographer and performer Tiffany “Violet” De Alba who has worked with Cirque Du Soleil, Diddy, and Usher, as well as Russel M. Corpis, Kendra Hagan, Dantriell Houston, Stephanie Brodie, and Bohdan Tkachenko.
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When the Modapit team first sent you the song, what was the first concept in your mind as to how you would set the setting for the video?
The song was sent very early in the process, at the same time Dancing was sent. (And a few others.) The goal was to create a single story line but still have music videos that felt very different from each other. We immediately knew we wanted to shoot in a desert setting to create a drastic change from ‘Dancing,’ which takes place in the city. All these things together added to the first few ideas.
How many different versions of the video did you draft before you settled on the final concept?
I wouldn’t say different versions of the video, but a couple different things changed as we started producing it. One of the things was the wardrobe and make up. At first we thought about buying things we felt these characters would wear, but Gabriella, our protagonist, and producer said she’d be happy to create the costumes herself. Best decision we could have made, she hand made every single costume and chose the color red to represent love. Another thing I’d say changed was the story line and where in the video certain things happened, making the final project even more fascinating to watch than our first cut.
Clearly the being in the sky is meant to represent Modapit — who do the dancers represent? The motorcyclist?
In our story so far we know Modapit has something to do with the “spaceships”. The motorcyclist is the main character for our previous video Dancing, she’s been on a quest of finding the “real” Modapit, who she believes has answers about what happened to her sister. She has brought the mask of someone that was probably an impostor to this group of almost a religious cult in hopes of being accepted into this place floating in the sky. I believe the dancers represent our connection to artists. The motorcyclist would represent us trying to become a part of the music scene. Modapit would represent a different kind of artist, one that I believe is not after fame or fortune but more about getting people together.
What was the shooting process like out in the desert as far as working around weather and lighting?
The weather in Vegas was incredible when we landed, but a couple days before the shoot it started to get really cold and wet. We had about 15 people booked for this, a scary feeling thinking you’d have to reschedule. But somehow like the beam of light shining out of the modaship, the sky opened up that morning for a few hours allowing us to film the dance part of the video, only to get impossibly cold that afternoon. Call it luck, or a blessing but I believe this video was supposed to happen that day. I do love Vegas and can’t wait to come back in May for Moda’s first performance.
Is this story over?
The story is not over, we have yet to really meet the sister of our main character, who was teased in the What is Modapit trailer. We also want to show people what it would look like if our main character met the real Modapit and got answers about her sister.
