Interview with 'Nuthin But a G Thang' Director Dwight Patillo (Death Row, Dre)

[CHUCK KNOXXX]

All you death row heads should appreciate this...from egotripland.com

http://www.egotripland.com/behind-the-video-making-dr-dre-nuthin-but-g-thang-dwight-patillo/
Filmmaker Dwight Patillo is the producer and co-writer of the recent indie feature film, Cornerstore, but the Detroit native’s initial big break in the motion picture business came via his work with Death Row Records during the legendary gangsta rap empire’s glory days. Teamed up with production partners Ben Bazmore and Al Stewart at Nu Vue Films, Patillo worked on all of Dr. Dre’s music videos from his landmark LP, The Chronic, getting his first taste of the music video-making process with one of the most iconic of the era, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” Recently, Dwight spoke to us to share his memories of meeting Dre, taking “notes” from Suge, infamous beer dousings, and other recollections of life on Death Row.

How did you come to work with Dr. Dre?
Dwight Patillo: Around 1990, I was starving to death directing theater in Minneapolis, so decided to take a shot at [the movie business in California]. I had a friend from high school [from Detroit, Ben Bazmore] who was talking about starting a company to produce music videos, and then eventually film. So I went out there and hooked up with him. We struggled doing other jobs on films. He was doing grip and electric work. I was doing craft services and PA-ing – just to get by until we got a break. He knew a guy named Chris “The Glove” Taylor who was a DJ – Dr. Dre’s DJ. And we ended up meeting Dr. Dre that way.

Once we met Dre, we kinda kicked it, and realized that we had the same tastes in movies. So we kinda built on that – we’d vibe on different scenes in films and debate about which films were the best and whatnot. This was between the time Dre was in N.W.A and his first solo project on Interscope. So, you know, while kickin’ it one day Dre told us that when he got back on that we were gonna be doing his [next] video. Of course, that did not happen – because the next video he did was for “Deep Cover.” I don’t know who did it, but it wasn’t us. So we were all heart broken and disappointed – whatever. The next thing you know we get a tape from Dre and it was his single. He said, write up a concept to this. And that single was “Nuthin But a ‘G’ Thang,” and after that the rest is history.

[Getting into the business] was the reason we were in California. But the whole [process of] meeting Dre never seemed forced. It happened organically. And I think that’s why he trusted us enough to take a chance on a couple guys who hadn’t done anything yet.

What was your official involvement in “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang”?
Dwight Patillo: I was art director on that project. I also supervised the post-production. And – as a part of the company, Nu Vue Films – we wrote up the treatment for “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” We bounced it back and forth with Dre, got something that we liked. After that, the next question was, who was gonna direct it? So we basically said to ourselves, that’s gonna be the end of our run if they bring in another director who’s gonna want to bring in another production company, and we’re out the door. That’s when we started plotting, and we said, let’s get Dr. Dre to direct the video and we’ll just step him through it, talk him through it. We’ll bracket him and make sure he gets through this thing. That way we can stay in the loop. And it worked. It was a collaborative effort, completely. We were all learning on the fly. We knew enough to help him and he knew exactly what he wanted to see. So it worked out fine.

How was Dre as a first-time director?
Dwight Patillo: He was the corny-meter. Ben and I would make suggestions and he’d be like, “Nah, that’s corny, let’s do it this way.” [laughs] Because he was true to Compton. I wasn’t from Compton, Ben wasn’t from Compton. So we let somebody from that area take the lead because they knew best. That’s only common sense. But Dre was a natural as far as the directing went. As far as communication between him and the director of photography that’s the main thing that we smoothed out. That was our main role. By the end of it we wanted people to know that Dr. Dre directed it. That’s why we ended up with the Chyron over the actual video that MTV objected to. It said “Directed by Dr. Dre” and [MTV was] like, no, you gotta take it off. We couldn’t take it off but we could blur it out.

But why did MTV object? It’s actually one of coolest parts of the video when that comes on screen at the end.
Dwight Patillo: Because then everybody else would have done it and it would have become a free-for-all for people to put their own advertisements [on MTV] without paying for it.

Eventually MTV did start crediting directors.
Dwight Patillo: Right, but after the fact and as a part of their set up so they would remain in control of it. There was some envelope pushing political things around then – especially around that Death Row thing.

It’s one of the most memorable videos of its era. Obviously, the song was huge, but the video made just as big of an impact. Why do you think it resonated with people so strongly?
Dwight Patillo: I think it was because we went out to capture as opposed to stage. And even though things [in the video] were staged, we just tried to keep it as loose as possible and get the little nuances that just popped up and happened. Nobody knew that Warren G was gonna be doing what he was doing in the video at that time. The little kid [that you see in the video] actually just got into the moment and was grooving to the music all on his own. No one directed him to do that.

This was more or less a slice of life type of thing. How much, if anything, was based on your guys’ own experience hanging out with Dre?
Dwight Patillo: None whatsoever. When we hung with Dre it was always at his mansion in Calabasas, and at a Hamburger Hamlet or somewhere eating. Places like that.

Was the final version more or less faithful to the treatment you guys drew up?
Dwight Patillo: It was very close. Not a whole lot of that changed. We ran into some problems with the misogynist tilt of the video towards the end when they pour the beer on the girl. That was one of the main problems with that one. But [Death Row] fought for it, and they kept it in. We had a problem with Warren G rolling a joint in the background that we had to take care of. We had to blur out a bunch of marijuana leaves on hats. Most of the problems came in post-production where we were basically being censored by MTV.

You mentioned how they doused the girl with the beer. What was the inspiration for that?
Dwight Patillo: Um, that… I think that was actually dumbed down from something much worse. I can’t remember what it was, but I think we had to fight for her just to get doused with beer. But see, a lot of [those sort of suggestions] weren’t [from] Dr. Dre. A lot of this came from Death Row itself. Suge [Knight] would have a way of giving you the subtle suggestion, and you’d take your cues from there, basically.

[At the same time] we wanted the ghetto essence to come across. And I think Dre was more of a proponent of that [general tone], because he didn’t want the snooty stuck up people around. He was trying to keep it real and keep it true to the hood. And, “This is how we do people like that in the hood” basically was the message of that [scene].

Same with the fridge full of 40 oz’s?
Dwight Patillo: That was in the basement of a house. And we were trying to figure out what would make it as excessive as it could be and still keep it ghetto. It looked really hot once we got it together. It actually took like 13 takes to get that shot. D.O.C. caught a little hell for that because of how many takes it took for him to do it.

One of the other things that’s always stood out about this video is the way Snoop came across as almost shy. His rhymes are so commanding on the song, yet in the video his eyes never really look into the camera.
Dwight Patillo: He kind of introduced himself to the world [the way] you would meet a complete stranger. He let ‘em in slowly, like it was a relationship between people as opposed to, “This is how I’m gonna be when I’m seen on camera.” It almost seemed like the more he did it, the more he became accustomed to it. The first couple of times you don’t know the guy, but the fourth or fifth time you become more familiar. I think that’s what his relationship was like with the actual public, not just the camera, and it just continued to develop that way. And that’s why people always wanted more of Snoop.

Death Row had so much mystique – this hugely successful label, with Suge being such an unforgettable, intimidating figure. From your experience what was true to that public image and what was different?
Dwight Patillo: Well, from my perspective it was pretty much reported fairly accurately as far as his intimidation tactics, and the persona that he had, the street cred that he had. He had a nation of people behind him, suddenly. And he fed into it and he loved it hisself. And it was just something that escalated out of control.

From your time working with the label did you feel as though something bad was inevitably going to happen involving Death Row at some point?
Dwight Patillo: Oh yeah, that was the feeling. [laughs] It wasn’t something that came and went. It was something that progressed and never stopped once the progression started. It was like a snowball that just got bigger and bigger and bigger till it was gonna explode. There was not an ounce of surprise at anything that [eventually] happened. Not even the Snoop shooting, any of that.

I can remember talking to Snoop and Daz. Snoop was sitting on the steps of his house tying his shoes. They were about to go to the swap meet. And this was when “‘G’ Thang” had just [blown up]. I tried to explain to him at that point – I’m like, bro, suddenly it’s not like it used to be. You can’t just go runnin’ to the swap meet by yourself anymore. He basically said, what, you think we can’t handle ours? And I was like, no, that’s not the point. I know you’re going to handle yours. And right now you can’t do that anymore. You gotta get people to handle that situation [for you] if it occurs, or whatever. And eventually situations like that caught up to [him]. But it was like one of those things where you just stand by helplessly and watch it crumble. What it could have been and what it ended up being.

What memory stands out to you from the whole production and post-production process after all this time?
Dwight Patillo: Being in the editing house still putting blurs on the hats and t-shirts and whatnot, trying to do fixes when the video actually played on BET. We were sitting in the lobby and it came on the video countdown show. I think it premiered at #9, or something like that. That was just a real special moment that I guess any filmmaker that was new to California and new to the game would appreciate.

And based on how well “‘G’ Thang” was received you got the chance to direct the “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” video?
Dwight Patillo: We got a budget to do both “Dre Day” and “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” back to back over a weekend. The same three days, and one pick up day for “Lil’ Ghetto Boy.”

That must have been an insane production schedule.
Dwight Patillo: It was ridiculous

[CHUCK KNOXXX]

cont' from: http://www.egotripland.com/behind-the-video-dr-dre-lil-ghetto-boy-dwight-patillo/

THIS IS PART 2 OF A 2 PART INTERVIEW: Previously on Behind The Video, filmmaker Dwight Patillo recalled how he came to meet Dr. Dre and work on one of the most iconic music videos of the ’90s, Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” Teamed with production partners Ben Bazmore and Al Stewart at Nu Vue Films, Patillo worked on all of the music videos from Dre’s landmark LP, The Chronic, even directing the controversial, cameo-heavy “lost” clip for “Lil’ Ghetto Boy.” Here, in Part 2 of our interview, Dwight discusses prison riots, funeral shootouts, and wrecked campers, meeting 2Pac, and Nu Vue’s last days on Death Row. The muthafuckin’ saga continues…

READ BEHIND THE VIDEO: DR. DRE’S “LIL’ GHETTO BOY”… AFTER THE JUMP…

Coming off the success of “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” what was the biggest challenge facing you guys making “Dre Day” and “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” – both of which were actually shot over the same weekend?
Dwight Patillo: After “’G’ Thang” we were still in a struggle at that point. Nobody was ever on time. [For whatever reason] it was so important for up and coming hip-hop artists to not be around when they were supposed to be! So it was real difficult to get through the production, but we did. That was our main thing – making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be at the right time. And having enough stuff to shoot if they weren’t around to at least get through the video.

[With the “Dre Day” video] Dre was very, very pissed at Eazy-E at that time. It was the middle of the fray and this was the first [shot fired] after everything that had culminated through the N.W.A era, the Jerry Heller situation, and all of that. This was his first public visual blast of how he was feeling at that time. [Comedian] AJ Johnson was [cast to clown] Eazy-E. He caught a lot of flack from the [Ruthless camp] because he did that. The next time he saw us [after the video came out] he was basically saying, “I can’t hang out no more. I’m friends with those guys, and I’m friends with Dre, so I don’t know what to do.” But I don’t think it was too seriously threatening.


You mentioned in Part 1 of our interview, that you had issues with “‘G’ Thang” as far as having to blur marijuana-related images. But “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” is on a whole other level with guns and violence. Where was it possible for this video to be aired at the time? And what was the struggle like to get it out there?
Dwight Patillo: Well, that was the battle brewing between the power of Death Row and the power of MTV – and [Interscope Records'] Jimmy Iovine in the middle of it. So what Suge [Knight] pushed for was to make it as hard and as ghetto [as possible] because that makes [the label's reputation] bigger. You know – the harder the hood, the bigger they are. And so he kind of went [extreme] on the violence end of it. I really didn’t want to take it that far. But what ended up happening was MTV banned it. They said, “No guns, period. We can’t do it.” So it ended up going to [pay per view video request channel] The Box. And shortly after that The Box [banned it]. And it was just too hot to be released at that point. So it became this little ghetto secret kinda video. Its [banning] caused it to have a longer shelf life now. Back then we were so busy, we had moved on to the next video and all that. There was supposed to be a re-edit. I don’t know if it was [the result of just being] stubborn, or not wanting to spend more money, or what, but we never did the re-edit. Which was a huge hit for me. That would have been my directorial debut and it would have aired everywhere. But because it was so violent it just didn’t quite work out.

Unlike Dre’s performance and slice-of-life based videos that preceded it, “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” presents a pretty serious narrative.
Dwight Patillo: We wanted to [dramatize] a crew rolling on the street, and the stuff that they were into before one of ‘em ended up in jail. It’s like a cycle. We start off in jail where we see [the main character] go through his thing and die, and then another guy starts the cycle all over again.

Dre and Snoop, though, only appear as these floating heads superimposed over the action as it unfolds. Was it planned that way?
Dwight Patillo: That was an intricate little thing that we wanted to do, but we didn’t get exactly what we wanted. What I was looking for was the feel of [Dre and Snoop] coming out of the background to the foreground – like how things in the ghetto will take you from the foreground to the background. As the heads come closer the color was supposed to drain out of the rest of the picture. But this being my first video, we shot it the wrong way to be able to drain the color how I envisioned it. So we just said forget it, let’s leave ‘em black and white. People say it’s eerie and ghostlike. It was a very dark video, which was kind of pushed into being made darker through suggestions [from Death Row]. [laughs]

What do you recall about shooting the prison riot scene? There’s a moment when a guy actually gets thrown over the jail balcony.
Dwight Patillo: [When we shot that scene] the guy barely hit the boxes that we had set up [below to cushion his fall]. He wasn’t supposed to hit the railing. If you look at it closely you can see the railing bend or buckle. When he flips over he’s actually supposed to fall face forward. I don’t even think the flip was even supposed to happen. The dude broke his nose on the fall. But he jumped up bloody, saying, “Let’s go again, I can’t get it better.” But we were like, nope, just go home – thanks, have a nice day. That was the scariest part of the whole video, I think – watching him. Everything hit the ground except his head. His head hit a box, everything else hit concrete. So, yeah, that was a one-taker.

There’s also a pretty violent funeral scene. What do you remember about that?
Dwight Patillo: The first take of that [scene] we did without anybody knowing that guys were going to come in and spray the church with machine guns. And it was a thing of film legend. We actually didn’t get to use that first take because we had some technical errors – the camera was too shaky. The one we ended up using was a far cry from it. I wouldn’t suggest doing that, though. I caught a lot of heat. [laughs] [The extras] were not very happy with me. Thank god that was the last shot we were gonna do before lunch, and we were done with extras for the day – because if they were still around it would have been a very long day. But again it was my first time around. I was pretty green at the time.

Nate Dogg (RIP) is also featured in that scene.
Dwight Patillo: That was Nate Dogg’s first video – it’s the first time I’d ever seen Nate Dogg nervous in his whole life. After that first take, dude was like, okay, I got it now. That was the first time it became really real for him. ’Cause before that with Snoop and everything his nose was basically pressed up against the glass. Until that point, then it became, wow, this shit is really real. And I think he went through that [realization] on that set right then and there. Lady of Rage is in the scene too. She’s one of the girls crying in the chorus.

And there’s a ton of cameos throughout the entire video.
Dwight Patillo: We had Lil’ Half Dead – who was Snoop’s cousin, and had just got signed to Priority Records – mainly because he was Snoop’s cousin. He was Lil’ Ghetto Boy. He’s the one who’s in prison when the video opens and jumps into the riot. In the riot, there’s a lot of people in there. But the main people who I remember, and who were just so cool throughout the whole thing, was the Boo-Yaa Tribe. [With everybody else showing up late for the shoot] I was like, maybe it’s just a Black thing because the Latin [sic] cats showed up on time, bro! [laughs]

Daz is in the video, The Twinz, Kurupt, Big C Style, Little C Style, Lee Mack – who was a Western Avenue legend old school pimp from back in the day. We just tried to get as much authentic Compton – Long Beach flavor as we could. We figured after “‘G’ Thang” the closer we could stay to that the safer we would be because people liked that video.

I also met 2Pac on that shoot. I asked him, of course, if he would do a cameo. And he said, yeah, he would if he was gonna be around. But at that point one more person to wrangle wasn’t gonna get the video finished. When I met him I had a feeling about him too. Cool person and all that. But I just kinda had a vibe that he was one of those people who was like a shooting star. Like get to know him now, because it just didn’t feel like he was gonna be around for a long time. I don’t know if that’s intuition or whatever. That’s just what I felt. I said it then: that dude – his fire’s burning really, really hot.

What surprised you about the process of working with these guys?
Dwight Patillo: There’s a weird thing with that video – the overtones and Compton toughness wouldn’t allow people to run. Nobody wanted to run in the video. Even in the face of [staged] murder or death. [laughs] It was like, dude, in this scene a guy is coming at you with a gun: you would try some evasive movement. But nobody wanted to ever act scared, nobody was no punk. Even the guy [that we cast for a scene with a prostitute] got the fever. That was one of our sound techs that we wound up throwing in a suit because somebody’s homie didn’t show up again. [laughs] In that scene the girl is actually supposed to shoot him. And he was too cool to pretend to die. It’s like, dude, I need your eyes to get wild like you’re shot – if that doesn’t happen we don’t know if you got shot or not, we’re not really sure what’s going on. And quite naturally that’s what ended up happening. We didn’t know what was going on because he was too cool to die. So it was real prevalent – that whole [attitude]. [These guys] were on top of the world. Compton was it, Long Beach was it. And it came across. Even with people that were standing around watching the shoot.

You worked on subsequent videos for Death Row, like Snoop’s “Who Am I?” Apparently, there were some on set issues with that production?
Dwight Patillo: That was the video that we ended up having a riot on. Fab 5 Freddy directed that. I started out as the first AD [assistant director].

What happened?
Dwight Patillo: Well, I can only tell you what I remember. Which was getting to the set [of the video], which was a public park in Long Beach. I got there, got out of the car, and somebody came to me immediately and said, listen, there’s something about to go down in the trailer, they’re about to fight. So I look at the trailer and I’m like, wow, this is gonna be the longest walk/run of my life. [laughs] I’m runnin’, trying to get there. And as soon as I get there the fight erupts in the camper. They tear up the camper that we had rented for the video. It was assorted members of Tha Dogg Pound and some other Long Beach crew, I think. And it spilled out of the camper just out in front, and that’s when a gunshot went off. And then the 200-250 people around scattered. And I can’t believe nobody got hurt. But the police deployment was probably about 30 cop cars. And, of course, we were shut down for the day. That’s when the whole “us being the Death Row in-house-video people” started to slip away from us. It just got too big for us. It was just getting crazy. It didn’t slip away at that moment, but we were on our way to our end pretty much.

Looking back then, what are your reflections on this period of your career?
Dwight Patillo: It was a launching point that was difficult to excel further than. It’s like you start off messing around with one of the biggest hits, and one of the biggest [turning points] of an era, and you’re right in the middle of it. Pretty tough to follow that up. [laughs] But it was a fun ride. It gave me a lot of experience in the business that I use to this day to keep me afloat in situations. I’m definitely battle tested because of it. Yeah, I’m not too worried about anything happening on a set that I can’t deal with.

[The Predator]

Good reads, those guy get props for those timeless classic videos.

MTV were a bunch of little censoring bitches.

[Slightly Less Sleazy]

Started reading but I realized I should watch the video again first I don't remember no dancing kid or whatever.

Thanks for posting seems interesting!

Edit: here it is haha Snoop himself was just a kid look at him

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_qkP8SvHvaU" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/_qkP8SvHvaU</a>

[dexter]

good work

[HighEyeCue]

good read

[Black Excellence]

great read.

[Mista Rosa]

Cool read, thanks.

[bouli77]

thanks. nice interview.

[doggfather]

cool, thx

[calilove213]

appresiete this playa im gona read it before i go 2 bed!!

[Dre-Day]

nice interview.

the dre day video is awesome