F.A.M. Interview with Music Video Director Derek Pike

DEREK PIKE is a 21-year-old director born and raised in New York. A once nationally ranked snowboarder, Derek’s filmmaking career began when he would shoot and cut snowboard videos of himself and his friends. For the past three years he has attended the prestigious NYU film school, and has directed over a dozen music videos, and short films. Most recently Derek has directed “Anxiety Attacks” (Tame One) for Amalgam Digital, and the highly anticipated “24k Rap” (J Dilla feat. Havoc and Raekwon) for Nature Sounds.

So, how did you get your start in directing? Was it something that you always wanted to do?

DP: Not really. In high school I went to snowboarding school. That was my thing. I was on the path to becoming a professional snowboarder. Then I started filming my friends and I snowboarding, and putting that [footage] to music. That’s how I transitioned into music videos, because I had been cutting up snowboarding and skateboarding footage to music already.



Do you still snowboard?

DP: I still snowboard recreationally, every once in a while but right now I’m focusing on directing. Right now [I direct] music videos, eventually I want to get into commercials. Film is the ultimate goal.

Describe your creative process. If an artist comes to you and says “hey, I’ve seen your work, I want you to direct this video for me.” What are the steps you take to get that process started?

DP: Usually the artist will send me the song or the record that they want me to shoot the video for. Depending on who it is…if it’s for a label… usually I don’t talk to the artist, just the label. I’ll hear the song, they’ll send us a treatment, and I’ll read the treatment. But if I’m cool with the artist, then I’ll talk to them first and see what they want to do with the treatment. Sometimes they have input. In most cases though, they just say ‘do what you think is best.’ I’ll write something, and if it’s what they want then we’ll be okay with it. If not, they’ll just tell me what they want to change. Usually an artist will have some kind of feedback.

Do you prefer to have creative freedom or do you prefer to have something more structured where the label or artist comes to you and says, ‘This is exactly what we want.’?

DP: It all depends. I actually do like to hear what they have to say first. I want to get what they envision, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be that cool. That way I won’t go completely off direction from what they were looking for in the video.

What’s your favorite piece that you’ve worked on thus far?

DP: Probably the latest video I did with the Kid Daytona and Bun B. I just did a video with Saigon. It’s called “Fatherhood”. That’s not out yet. That might be one of my best videos. It’s a simple video. Me and Saigon are cool. He asked me to do this video, and we shot it. It was real easy, just me and a minimal crew. The song he did is about his daughter, so it’s real nice. We got her to be in the video. She’s only 9 months old. So, it’s a cute little video, kind of a different look for Saigon.

When can we expect that video to be released?

DP: I know his album drops October 6th. So, it should be around that time.

You recently directed a video “Anxiety Attacks” for Tame One. What was it like to work on that?

DP: That was a fun project. We shot that… kind of a long day… in downtown Manhattan, outdoors. It was a real good time working with Tame One. I really enjoyed that one. He somehow got a hold of my cell phone number. He asked me if I could get a 6 pack of beer for the video shoot. He was entertaining the whole time. Through the editing process he was texting me or calling me and asking me how it was going. He wanted to see the cut before everyone else. That’s just Tame One.

You are 21 years old. Do you ever find that people underestimate your talents upon meeting you because you’re so young?

DP: I think before people hire me sometimes they don’t realize how young I am. If they don’t do their research, they are like, ‘WOW! How old are you?’ I started doing videos when I was 18…19… a lot of underground videos for underground artists, and they would expect me to be around their age… late 20’s. And I’d show up, some kid. I think when they first see me, they are like ‘Damn, who is this guy?’ You know? ‘Stop pulling my leg here.’ But, they are happy with the final product. They trust me. And now it’s different. I’ve been directing more videos lately, so they don’t look at me like some kid like I can’t do anything. I have some respect now. I also went to NYU film school. And that’s actually a pretty good selling point surprisingly.

Are there any artists that you would like to work with in the future that you haven’t worked with already?

DP: A lot of directors always want to work with the “Kanyes”. Well, maybe not anymore after the whole “Taylor” incident. (laughs) I want to get into pop videos as well. I’ll work with the Miley Cyrus’ and the Britney Spears’. Hip-hop is just one genre that I’d like to be involved with.

What advice would you give to aspiring directors and filmmakers?

If you want to do it, get a camera and do it. That’s the best advice I can give. When I started getting involved and getting bigger artists to work with, that was really the moment that I stopped caring about what everyone else was doing. Rik Codero just signed me to his production company, Three21. I found a big following in what he was doing because he’s the king of guerilla filmmaking, guerilla music videos, and that was the path that I was trying to go down. I look up to guys like him. And once I stopped caring about what he was doing and what everyone else was doing, that’s when my stuff started getting better. Basically, just don’t worry about the next guy. Just do you. Focus on your own craft and your career, and it’ll happen for you. Get a good camera too. I’d say shoot with anything, but get a halfway decent camera. They’re not that hard to get anymore. Buy it, or even rent it for the day. You’re work has to look somewhat professional for it to be noticed. But you can be creative with anything.:.:.:.

For more information about Director Derek Pike, visit www.derekpike.com and/or www.three21media.com. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/derekpike

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