“Hotel Atlanta Incidentals” Part 2: Meeting Your Idol That You Never Knew

“Hotel Atlanta Incidentals” Part 2:
Meeting Your Idol That You Never Knew by John M. Ellison IV

Since this is winter, the days are shorter; nightfall is at 6 PM and this Atlanta night is freezing. As I’m walking out of the mansion, I noticed this older gentleman who was doing the smoke bomb effects earlier in one of the scenes of the video. I see him leaning on the rail facing the pool. Puffing on a cig and sipping on some coffee for the sake of warmth, I asked him what he did on set. He said he was the art director of the video. My eyes lit up I said “oh cool, I’m a cartoonist and the missus is in school for graphic design.” He said “great.” A second passed and I awkwardly got out “I’m down here helping out the guys in Dru Hill doing some behind the scenes stuff.” He gave kind of a affirming “oh good, you’re not some rapper trying to shop a demo” look.

I asked him what videos he worked on and he mentioned “Like about 2,100 of ‘em. I’ve worked with Three Six Mafia, Too Short, Lil Wayne, Juelz Santana, Gucci Mane, Outkast.” He mentioned he did the Bombs over Baghdad video and tons of others as well. Honestly, he had me at Bombs over Baghdad.

He asked what degree the missus was going for and I said a B.A. degree. I asked how important the degree was, in reference to the missus and how she stresses herself out when she gets a grade lower than expected. He said “Well, art school doesn’t hurt honestly. But, the main thing is talent. You can spend all the time in art school you want…but if you don’t have it, then you don’t have it.” He said as the smoke and condensation evaporated into the Atlanta sky. I asked him the career aspects with a degree in graphic art were and he gave some good answers. Pretty much that needs imaging, they need a person. I felt relieved and wanted to do some drawing myself at that moment. He talked about the toughest thing with getting the degree was the humanities. Not that they were tough, but just distracting. But, the courses were useful in the long run though. He gave a good piece of advice about dealing with clients that I never would’ve thought of.

I asked him about some of the technical aspects about the video we were working on and he mentioned that this is a fairly common video shoot. I asked him about his music clients, he said “A lot of prima donnas, drug addicts and some were quite professional. He confirmed one rapper to be an annoying pip squeak.

In fact a friend of mine did some engineering for this creep. I’ll give you a clue to the identity of the rapper in question. He’s a New York rapper that shares the surname of a prominent guitar player of the late 60’s early 70’s. Also a few guys that aren’t in “jail” but in rehab actually. This was quite an eye opener, really. We spoke about stuff like Last.fm site and music sharing websites as well.

It was one of those moments where I really regret not bringing my business cards the missus made and printed for me. Not for the sake of a business contact, but to keep in contact with in general. I got his website address though. I went back out to the van to check over footage with my mom and the missus.
I mentioned that I ran into this cool guy, by the name of Tim Barrett. The missus “Marked” out and said how important he was and that she’s a huge fan. Seriously, if I knew…I would’ve gotten an autograph.

http://www.timbarrettdesigns.com