Patrick Lawrence is a filmmaker, drummer, and artist. Patrick is available for various film and video projects, including, but not limited to, music videos, promotional videos for corporate or commercial clients, and more. Please use the contact form to get in touch and check out the portfolio here.
CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION
6.8.13 TEAR OUT THE HEART "Coffin Eyes" Live Music Video
I had the amazing opportunity recently to revisit some of my first few music videos and sort of fix some issues that weren't a part of my skill set at the time in which they were first released...
Basically, I pulled a George Lucas.
Last week, OPTION//CONTROL made the tough decision to change their name to Vice Vega, a decision that finally opened up the chance for me to make some of these crucial fixes, while also having the ability to premiere the videos to a whole new fan base.
Some things you may notice, is the difference in frame rate on "Saw Her There," the video now plays completely at 24fps, instead of the variable rates which were seen in the original. We consciously made the choice from the beginning to have the video seem like it was shot from different perspectives all at the same party. Unfortunately the end result was something of an embarrassment for me ever since. Finally you can view the entire video, the way it should have been seen.
For "Falling Star," I was finally able to add moving text elements via motion tracking. I had originally wanted the logo of the band and other text to be floating within the cityscape during the first few minutes of the video, but unfortunately, I was not skilled enough to pull it off at the time of its release. The new effects were both to mine and the band's liking, so it will be a permanent fixture from here on out!
All videos also include my updated tag at the end and new Vice Vega logos.
Yesterday, after 3 months of work, my first ever Rap video hit the halls of YouTube. Chocolate Mylk and Scrambled Eggz is the comedy hip-hop act of James Hargove and Jayson "KoKo" Bridges. The pair have worked together for years and wrote the music for Nelly and Tim McGraw's smash hit "Over and Over."
"Until the A.M." is the first video and first single that the group is releasing under the name Chocolate Mylk and Scrambled Eggz. Talk about making the video first began in July 2011, but with the birth of Jimmy's first son and my work on OPTION//CONTROL's "Falling Star" (which Jimmy and KoKo wrote the beats to) taking place in August, the video was pushed back to the beginning of October.
It was Monday, October 10th. The St. Louis Cardinals had skated their way into the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers and after a Game 1 loss, they were looking to make it even in Game 2. As exciting as that was, we just so happened to be shooting the video at Gettemeier's Bar and Grill in Florrisant, MO that night... so needless to say, our environment was not going to be ideal. Gettemeier's could not have been more pleasant to work with, they gave us the full run of the bar and even let us film the video in their brand new patio section, which had yet to be opened.
Having never made a rap video before, I was unsure of which route I should take with "Until the A.M." I could stick to my guns and make a full out mini movie, much like "Falling Star" or I could make it an all out party video, in the vein of rap videos I've seen in the past. One such video was Three Six Mafia's "Stay Fly," which formed the basis of my video concept for "Until the A.M" The group would arrive at an already amped up bar/club and pretty much spit each one of their verse's amongst the extremely drunk and rowdy patrons. Thankfully the Cardinals winning their Game 2 match against the Brewers helped the to elevate the party atmosphere in the room. In fact, if you look closely at some of the TV screens in the video, you might catch sections of the game.
We only had the one night to shoot the entire video, which included 3 separate locations, all along North Lindbergh in Florrisant/Bridgeton, MO. For the rough task, I called up one of my favourite partners in crime, Ashley Alcamo, to help assist. direct the video with me. Ashley and myself have worked together numerous times now, and every single time, she does not fail to see a unique angle or imaginitive vision that I might have missed while being completely flustered with production. The energy of video, speaks for itself and I don't want to give too much away, but by 1 a.m. that night, the magic of Cardinals game was beginning to wear off and the bar patrons had begun to stumble home. After one final shot of Jimmy and KoKo doing some chocolate milk shots off the bar, the video was a wrap.
So far, a lot of people have asked me about the Burger King... It's become apparent that he was definitely the star of the show. BK, was just one of Jimmy and KoKo's friends who agreed to dress up and drive them around in a real taxi. He was game for any rediculousness that I asked for and I greatly appreciate that. His dedication to his friends and willingness to have a great time on cue, definitely come through on camera.
Enjoy the video, check out Chocolate Mylk and Scrambled Eggz and hopefully there will be another video on the way soon!
Not really press for me this time, but its important to talk about how my dudes OPTION//CONTROL have landed a featured articles on the website Kings of A&R.
So why is this so important Patrick? Well, it's cause it's the next crutial step in the band's journey to acheiving a major label record deal (which would be pretty sweet, right?). Kings of A&R is an industry site that basically keeps labels in the know about who is coming up and making waves independantly. I'm not good at descriptions, so here's how they explain themselves:
"Throughout the last decade, Kings of A&R has helped hundreds of artists worldwide land licensing deals, endorsements, publishing deals, and major record deals with companies including Disney, Lava, Atlantic Records, Universal, Warner Brothers, EMI, Epic, Virgin, Republic, J Records, Island Def Jam, Wind-Up, Roadrunner, Mercury, Interscope, A&M Octone, Glassnote, Columbia, RCA, and various indie labels.
Kings of A&R has been recognized as a music industry leader by UK’s Financial Times, CNN, Billboard Magazine, Spin Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, as well as daily newspapers around the world."
Keep supporting your local music... no matter where you are, you never know when your best friends' dreams may come true.
-P
Update on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 11:00AM by
Patrick
I forgot to mention... I've put together an awesome team of cameramen (including my dude, Casey Watson) to film OPTION//CONTROL this Saturday night at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO. They will be opening for Ludo (formerly of Island Records). Expect an interesting little live video, just in time for the 1 year anniversary of my first OPTION//CONTROL video for their track "Dominator."
The first collective release by the band in almost two years, sees a handful of recent tracks from their single releases, including the hit song "Falling Star." Also included on the EP are the tracks: "Back To Me" and "Ready To Go."
You can pick up the EP, figuritively speaking, digitally from iTunes at:
At 10:01 am on 10//01//11... the NEW OPTION//CONTROL Music Video for "Falling Star" debuted online!
Earlier this year, I set out with a goal to make a sexy video, for an even sexier band. I wasn't sure where this orgasmic video would end up taking me, but I knew I had to do it. It had been the culmination of many years trying to become an amateur filmmaker that ultimately always fell flat on its face. On the verge of graduating college and finally owning my own professional camera equipment, I knew that the time had come and that the band I needed was OPTION//CONTROL. When I made "Saw Her There" with OPTION//CONTROL back in February, needless to say it was an eye opening learning experience. Since then, I have seen business pick up faster and faster (especially after I got my shit together and went completely HD) and I couldn't be more thankful for all the opportunities presented to me.
So fast forward to this past July... enough time had passed and it became clear to everyone involved with "Saw Here There" that it was time to make a new video. We set some very strict guidelines this time around (no people, less performance, more band) and began hammering out a storyline that at one point involved a CGI Craig Hamilton on a shooting star. The band settled on the track "Falling Star," which was co written by local St. Louis producer, Jimmy Hargrove. A more dramatic departure from our previous video, we all knew that the entire look and feel had to be less orgy and more emo... but totally NOT emo, if you know what I mean. We settled on filming in Clayton, MO instead of Downtown St. Louis, since we wanted the location to have a non-geographic landscape (nothing that would give it away).
On Sunday, August 28th, 2011, principal photography began for "Falling Star" on what would become a 3 day shoot. I knew I couldn't pull this off by myself, so I invited my good friend Ashley Alcamo to help A.D. the shoot. Ashley and myself had previously worked together on University of Missouri - St. Louis' Spring 2011 production of the Vagina Monologues ("Any One of Us"). The biggest chunk of filming took place on the first day, which included hauling an upright piano through the streets and back alleys of Clayton (a la Bruno Mars) and having a performance on rooftop... with no permission. Let me take this opportunity to tell you that I like to play dangerous... and having an entire band play the same song over and over for 3 hours in the middle of a small city, with no permit, was as thrilling as it gets. It was like we were all bad children, waiting to see when our parents were finally gonna catch us... But no one did. At one point, someone with a name badge strolled through the set and didn't say anything. We thought for sure that we had been busted, but when 45 minutes had passed and no one had come to stop us, we chalked it up to the guy was probably just looking for a place to hit a joint.
At the end of the first night, we knew we had a winner and in my opinion, I think we could have just done the whole video with the amazing performance footage we got on rooftop. But, we moved on to Day 2 at the Vino Nadoz Wine Bar in Richmond Heights, MO. Even though we decided early on that there were to be NO PEOPLE in the video for "Falling Star," we felt that we needed an atmosphere to place the band in, one that was more fitting of how they normally spend their nights. So we invited a smaller amoun of people (who WANTED to be on camera, this is key) to come out to the wine bar and just hang out. We had a great turn out and everyone had a blastky, getting drunk and just hanging out with the band and crew. Even my other video darling Kyle Jordan Mueller came out and kept my fiancee entertained during the filming. Probably the ease and fun about filming this scene for the extras was that no one was being asked to make out and wear underwear the whole time... which, there's nothing wrong with that of course.
Day 3 saw us on another rooftop, this time in the Central West End of St. Louis. The sundeck of this penthouse apartment served as the dusk and dawn shots that you see in the pre-chorus and finale of the video. The crazy coincidence of this scene (which needs to be shared cause its so fucking cool), is that the sun going down over the city, is actually Clayton, MO - where we had been filming the previous two day. Of course leave it up to the universal and spiritual guru of OPTION//CONTROL, Matthew David Brown to realize the coincidence as it occured. From there we headed over to Washington University, where we filmed the final few shots of the video that ultimately all fell on the cutting room floor... of my basement, as it were.
So where do we go from here? OPTION//CONTROL is making some crazy strides this fall and have picked up a few key shows that can help catapult them out of the local St. Louis scene. I couldn't be more proud of them, for they are more like family to me every time we get together. As long as the response from "Falling Star" is as good or better than "Saw Her There" was, I would expect to see us have another go around on the small screen.
If you like this blog, leave me a comment, let me know. I want to know exactly what you guys wanna hear about!
Patrick
