2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Abyusif the stalwart of Egypt’s underground rap scene is an unpredictable dude. We wanted to shoot a film that would capture the rawness of his character and rap style. The video is disguised as a one long shot never stopping to catch a breath like the protagonist doesn’t either.

Background.

Abyusif is an underground rapper who doesn't believe in music videos- if anything he's opposed to everything that is "mainstream" but the reality is all the rising underground rap artists are dropping music videos every week. So he had to adapt to the times so he doesn't become old news. When he approached us, this was his brief verbatim: "I want to make a music video that looks like trash. I don't want it to be polished, hip, or in anyway showing me as celebrity. But I don't want it to be me just standing in front of camera and just rapping- that's a boring show. Make it raw and completely fresh but completely me".

Describe the creative idea.

We wanted to shoot a film that would capture the rawness of his character and rap style. The video is disguised as a one long shot never stopping to catch a breath like the protagonist doesn’t either. Abyusif is most famously known for rapping super fast, with no breaks- he's more old school than all his competition- so we wanted to use what he's famous for, "being nonstop", and make it the hero of our film.

Describe the strategy

There was no better way to make this film raw than to shoot amidst the madness of Cairo. To bring our idea to fruition, shooting a long shot film, would be absolutely difficult and totally staged if it were shot in the middle of the chaotic streets of Cairo. So instead of having people and cars as our background we moved the whole film a few meters up and made our background the beige lifeless buildings of Cairo along with the big blue skies- making for a much easier background to create a what would be disguised as one long shot.

Describe the execution

We had little to no budget. Because of the small budget we had also very little time because the lighting could make or break a one shot film. We shot the film in 9 hours and then shared it on social media a few days later but through Abyusif's page. We didn't promote it because he doesn't believe in paid advertisements. And with no spending with no spending in no time we got an insane amount of buzz.

Describe the outcome

Reach: 82,169 Link Clicks: 12,444 Reaction: 765 Plays: 110,000