Like You - SFInvictus Dance Music Video Trailer

This is a trailer for a web/tv/video series. It's a sci-fi martial arts story set in neo-San Francisco.
www.sfinvictus.net/
[Edit: I wanted to add that I had a torn ACL, LCL, MCL, & Meniscus when all of the dancing sequences were shot in one day. Also, there was no music on-set, aside from my phone in my back pocket & wireless earbuds. I danced to the CD track & mixed the live versions in while preparing the audio for the video edit. Any part of the improvised horn, organ, or theremin instrumental where I seem like I'm dancing to the music is actually creative video editing.]
I have so much to say about why this video took so long for me to make & publish. I have grown so much in the process, that I don't regret a damn thing.
This is my most important work. What I was put on this planet to do. I'm finally giving myself permission to go for it & put it out there. If nobody else likes or understands it, oh well. I had to do it. I loved every second of it.
Stop doing things that are meaningless to you. Be your most authentic self. Show your true colors. Live your life, in the moment, for you. Life is too short for you to be anything less than happy, honest, and whole.
None of these places were chosen at random. They all have great significance to me.
The song is "Like You" by Giovanni Di Morente and El Radio Fantastique. I first asked Giovanni if I could make a video to go with his music as a teaser trailer for "SF Invictus" five years ago. He generously said, "Yes, use whatever you like from my entire catalog," and invited me to some of their shows.
On September 6, 2015, I happened to be housesitting for some folks who left their car behind when El Radio (yes, I am aware of the bad Spanish grammar) were playing a show in Sonoma County, opening for a legendary New Orleans brass band.
On February 25, 2017, El Radio played a show at Amnesia (a small nightclub on Valencia Street in the Mission DIstrict that our friend used to be a co-owner of) and I revisited the idea, by showing up with a camera. This time, armed with a monopod. I loved the lighting, but it still wasn't enough.
I was very sick & had some mishaps & surgeries throughout 2017. I was not allowed (by my doctors and trainers) to lift more than 10 pounds for over a year. For long periods, I could not stand, walk, or use both of my hands properly. It was very difficult to afford to stay in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
In late-November, my cinematographer friend, Tom Krymkowski, had a few days off from his corporate day job and offered one of them to me for an artistic project. We filmed most of the dancing sequences in one day. I made my own costume, props, did hair, makeup, choreography, and carried all my gear in a backpack. Miriam Nakamoto, the Muay Thai champion was our driver, leaving Chinatown. The Chinatown footage was out of focus.
On December 3, 2017, we re-shot the Chinatown sequence.
In 2018 I had more surgeries. I was invited, by the owner, to train at Khabib & DC's gym. The guy who made the archival system for the UFC asked to make a documentary about me as a martial artist. The owner/head MMA coach of Khabib & DC's gym/team/academy asked me to make their UA-cam channel. From 2018 - 2020, I filmed Khabib's training camp for Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Tony Ferguson (the last one) and DC for Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis. I found out DC's Manager & Head Coach, (the co-founder of the gym/team/academy) has the same Wing Chun lineage as me. I asked him to manage me. DC, Luke Rockhold, Cain Velasquez, and now Khabib all retired.
Khabib said he wants to be free. I feel set free to do what I want, because I no longer doubt whether or not I'm a "real martial artist." I don't feel like I can't miss out on the opportunity to be a tiny part of history by being allowed to witness his secret, closed training sessions. I will miss the Dagestanis and Kung Fu Panda, training w/an actual MMA army storming through, but in these post-Covid times having 75 international fighters in one room is not sustainable.
Music in the time of Coronavirus is nostalgia for tiny, packed indie nightclubs. I don't even like crowds, but I miss dancing. I miss old folks congregating on park benches to survey their grandkids in the playground while teens practice skateboard tricks on any slab of concrete nearby.
[Archived Video. Edited & originally published: 2020-11-03]
Every music video starts with the music. I took the CD version recording & mixed in the horn improv from the festival recording, and the keyboard/organ/theremin instrumental from the nightclub show to make one long extended remix.
I don't know how I'm going to fund producing this story, but I know I'm going to make it. The same way I make all my other videos: By any means necessary.
For the full story go to: www.sfinvictus.net/
This video is monetized to Giovanni & the band by their music publicist.
#SFInvictus #ElRadioFantastique

[@nfnjosh7673]

🗽🌏Our music will Definitely have a Place in the music industry fam🔥‼️‼️