The Rotor Blog
New Rotor Collection Features In Latest Just Charlii Video
Go behind the scenes as our Head of Content Graham shares how Rotor Videos ended up collaborating with Director Asher Rosen and Just Charlii on her new video for Take Note—and how you can use that footage for your next video, too.
At Rotor we believe in talent. We develop exciting new technologies and partnerships to simplify video production so that all artists can reach and engage new audiences with their music.
But one area that we don't often talk about is how we create our stock of footage. Every time you make a video with Rotor, you get the opportunity to use some of our bespoke library of video clips. These aren't some random collection of videos available everywhere online. Instead, we work with the most talented new directors, animators, and artists around the world—carefully commissioning them to creatively produce, edit, and colour grade an endless stream of fresh exciting video content for your music.
Rotor x Just Charlii
Earlier this year we began working on a brand new concept to bring you a super high-end collection of footage. Working again with young director Asher Rosen—the creator of our Skate and Waterblade collections we developed "The Fit."
"When I discovered the idea for this story," says Asher, "it came as both a single image and a fully formed narrative—a plus-sized dancer liberating a ballet rehearsal. But without Rotor's belief and generous support, that important story would never have come to life."
We knew this was a special concept and when we showed it to rising R&B talent Just Charlii, she was excited to use it for her track "Take Note".
"I wrote Take Note when I was really struggling with my identity," Just Charlii previously explained. "I feel like today it's very easy to get caught up with what's online/ who's online/ what they're posting. Naturally we compare ourselves to what’s being put out. We also pay a lot of attention to what people think of us as people or our appearance, which leads to us adapting our ways to please people we don’t even know. The main reason behind this song was to express it’s okay to pay attention but just not to let it become you...only to Take Note.”
With Just Charlii on board, we had the exciting and completely unprecedented opportunity to co-create content for our amazing Rotor customers directly from the same shoot as a super talented artist’s music video.
To bring this concept to life, we added two more major talents to the roster: cinematographer Hamish Anderson (@hamish_anderson_dp) to shoot the footage and the super-talented Marco Ruben (@marco__ruben) to play the lead role.
Once we had dancers Busola Peters (@getlowbus), Samuel Baxter (@samuel_caleb), Fern Grimbley, and Yeji Kim on board, it was time to start rolling.
All of the footage was shot on the cinematic ARRI ALEXA Mini Cameras (the same cameras used on Blade Runner 2049, Joker, and Game Of Thrones). It was then cut and edited into our Rotor collection The Fit, alongside the official video for Just Charlii.
“Rotor understood our creative ambition from the start,” says Asher, “helping us bring in the best international talent to make this possible. I hope the final result helps and inspires users who want to broaden the typical standards for what a dancer looks like and promote diversity in their own music videos.”
Sound like the right fit for your next video? Log into Rotor, upload your track, pick Cinematic as your editing and effects style, and select clips from The Fit to make your own amazing automated music video from this great new footage.
