Author: Emily Bell
Four Occidental students participated in a film shoot for rap artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ music video of “Can’t Hold Us” on Sunday. The shoot was the second of two held in Southern California with open casting calls advertised on Macklemore’s Facebook page. Both Ryan Lewis and Macklemore, who are slated to perform at Occidental’s Springfest on March 7, interacted directly with the extras, offering direction during filming, taking pictures and offering signatures to those who wanted them.
“You could tell that they were very appreciative. We were all thanking them for taking pictures with us and they were like ‘No, thank you for coming,'” Dakota Chisholm (first-year) said.
The Facebook casting call asked fans to submit photographs of themselves to a producer’s email address. Chisholm saw the casting call on her Facebook newsfeed and decided to apply.
“You just had to send in a picture of your face and a picture of your full body in casual, unique outdoor weather party gear and then they just emailed you back,” Chisholm said.
First-year Claire Tolman participated in both video shoots. The first was filmed in Oxnard, California and the second at the Fiji fraternity house at the University of Southern California.
“The first one was like 25 extras, it was cool because they remembered us and we got to talk to them,” Tolman said. “The second time they were letting people in who were just walking by…it was a way bigger group.”
Although Ryan Lewis directed both shoots, the extras had a lot of freedom during filming.
“You were really free to do whatever you want, I thought they would place specific people in specific areas but it was more free with less direction,” Lindsay Opoku-Acheampong (first-year) said.
The Sunday shoot lasted four hours, and there will be more filming opportunities in the future. There have been casting calls in other cities including Seattle, where the collaboration between Macklemore and Ryan Lewis began.
“The whole thing, just being there around a bunch of cool college-age kids, being around people who were having fun was my favorite part,” Opoku-Acheampong said. “It was just a really cool experience to say ‘I was in a Macklemore video.'”
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