Spex - The New Beats Era

Some people are just born with talent! I met Spex (or Thrizzo) a few years ago through our good friend Jezz. He mentioned that Spex had an incredible flair for creating music and orchestrating tracks for the Hip Hop industry.  As fate would draw our talents together, I bumped into him performing on Yonge St., and equipped with my camera, I took the opportunity to start filming. The result was an interesting short about the drumming buskers who perform at Yonge and Dundas St., a popular location in downtown Toronto.  If you would like to check out the video, please click here and read our previous blog about buskering. 

After some time had passed, I realized a greater need for customized music for our clients. We had long exhausted the stock music out there and wanted to provide a much higher caliber of custom music to complement our videos and animations. If we were going to create a ‘cinematic’ experience, it was not only important that we could stimulate visually, but also through the power and emotion of sound. At this point, there was only one solution, Spex joining the Silverpoint team.

For the past few months working with Spex, I’ve realized that inspiration comes from many directions. I have always tried to keep an open mind, and I have quickly realized with the help of Spex, how visual ideas can inspire music, and how music has motivated me to test my visual art.

As with many things, words cannot describe what is best seen and heard. So I ask you to press play and enjoy one of the latest collaboration between Spex and Silverpoint Media. 

Keith

Final Chapter of Pure Street living.

Passion

1. A powerful and overwhelming feeling that strips you from reality and launches you into a hyper-state of being.
2. The uncontrollable desire that drives our existence

When I think of passion, I can’t help thinking about the arts. I have been a passionate arts-person for as long as I can remember. For now, though, I want to tell you about my past passion for dance, which until recently, had dwindled to the side to make room for photography and film.

With the joint production between Silverpoint and  living., a dance company based in Toronto and founded by Mario Fugnitto and Haley McPherson, both Keith and I got to dive into the world of dance again, on the contemporary side. We were delighted to work with two well respected dancers within the Canadian dancing industry. For me, however, it was like combining chocolate, whip cream and strawberries together in a bowl: simply delicious.

Revisiting the dancing world again, but combining it with my growing knowledge of the media world, allowed me to put two things that I cherish together. They compliment each other so well because dancers have a unique understanding of the way they can move their body to produce pleasing shapes and frames. Furthermore, professional cinematographers also have an understanding of shapes and framing which, when combined with dancing, allows for a lot of potentially nice shots.

When shooting a dance video, it is important to work alongside the choreographers to analyse their movement. This in turn allowed us to produce our own camera choreography because the movement of the dancers had to be complimented by our own movement. For instance, when Haley is in her white costume and doing a turn jump over Mario in the air, I chose to have a stable camera shot from a high angle off to the left side of center. This made the jump look bigger and gave it a bit of a concave look.

Keith was a great partner on set. With Keith on camera, I was able to concentrate on the camera position, shot list, and the dancers themselves. I had to act as the eyes for Mario and Haley and make sure that we had at least two good dance takes for each sequence.

Overall the final project was a success and I look forward to producing many more dance productions down the line with Silverpoint.

Jenn

Spex (Busker) Drumming on Yonge St.

Bumped into Spex, a local up and coming beat making artist from Markham, Ontario. He was on Yonge Street in his usual spot Buskering (the act of creating and performing music in a public space typically for money). Anyways, I caught him and another famous street drummer, Mike at the end of the night playing their final set. Upon chatting with him, Spex informed me of the controversial sound pollution law which preventing him and other buskers from playing amplified music. Months ago in fact, Spex received a ticket and a fine for playing his electric guitar on the corner of Yonge and Dundas; inhibiting him to do what he loved, creating music and entertaining the many fans and onlookers which had gathered outside Eaton Center to watch.

PETITION TO AMEND BUSKER MUSIC BY-LAW

CITY OF TORONTO BY-LAW

The by law says that City of Toronto does not allow sound systems of any kind whether it be amplifiers, boomboxes, speakers, etc...while a busker is performing their act. The reason for this is because they believe the music is too loud for people when the come to watch the show, or too loud for people that pass by the show. If the by-law officers catch buskers using sound systems during their performance, they have the right to seize their equipment and write the busker or buskers a ticket. 

I produced this video in support of all the street performers out there. Lets support all the talented artists out there trying to make a living.

Please goto this facebook link and support the Buskers.

Petition to amend Busker music by-law on Facebook

Also please check put Spexs youtube sight. He is an extremely talented artist and some of his stuff will blow you away. specifically, check out his itouch drummer - organ donner remix - AMAZING!

Spexs Youtube Channel

Also, please leave us a comment on your thoughts on buskers and the law against amplified music.