![]() “He’s just like, ‘Oh, here’s a guy and I like his stuff. “I think he’s interested in talent, and I think he sort of doesn’t care about whatever the rules are,” he says. Quinn identifies a similar instinct in Snoop. This is why they’re on social, this is why they want to be creators to begin with.” “They’re super open-minded to the idea,” Kaiser adds. That extends to Westbrook’s growing roster of clients, including Derulo, Keys, and Serena Williams. “I think he looks at Instagram and YouTube and TikTok as ways that he can experiment creatively with the best artists in the world, which is what he always wants to do,” Kaiser says. Lukas Kaiser, the senior vice president of content at Westbrook, sees parallels between Smith’s VFX collaborations and his early days as a rapper in the ‘80s, when remixing and sampling were the name of the game. “And he really kind of blew those doors open, in my opinion.” ![]() I’ve been trying to do this for so long with other clients of mine,’” Stephens says. Stephens, the only artist interviewed for this story who hasn’t worked with Westbrook, recalls Smith’s 2018 “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” appearance with a drone camera as a turning point. Smith and Westbrook are regularly touted by local creators as VFX pioneers on the mainstream stage. The end results range from the silly to the sublime to the just plain ridiculous, be it Smith getting flicked into a tree by a giant-sized hand to Jack Black, overflowing in a Speedo, flying into view as Iron Man and commencing a thrusting dance routine with smoke flares. Though the pool of VFX artists remains highly specialized, the skills required aren’t so far removed from basic video editing - attainable with hours of YouTube tutorials and loads of patience, especially in the editing process. “The fact that it’s 4K and I can shoot in ProRes on my phone is insane,” he says. who comes from the advertising world, says the iPhone 14 was especially important. Peter Quinn, an Irish-born VFX creator based in L.A. The rapid advancement in smartphone technology, particularly in the last couple years, has only helped. Postproduction is generally done in Adobe, with Lightroom and After Effects. On occasion they use a 360-degree camera. In most cases, all these creators need is an iPhone, possibly a DSLR camera, a tripod, and sometimes lights. The technology has become both increasingly sophisticated and easy to use thanks to advances in smartphone capabilities. who specialize in visual effects, or VFX, a type of augmented reality video manipulation. Richards had been thrust into a burgeoning subset of visual arts creators in L.A. “Seeing him in person was one of the best moments of my life,” Richards marvels. The next day, in July 2020, Smith’s production company, Westbrook Media, reached out about working with Richards on the promotion of the star’s next film, “Bad Boys for Life.” He submitted a list of ideas and come August, found himself in Smith’s living room, preparing to film three videos for social media with little more than his phone. ![]() People were sending me messages,” Richards adds. He ran around his apartment screaming in disbelief. Smith had re-created a viral video of Richards’ in which he jumps rope with his iPhone, using a camera duct-taped to two swinging extension cords. “I got an Instagram message that was like, ‘Will Smith just tagged you in a post,’” Richards recalls. In two years’ time, he accrued 20,000 Insta followers and 1 million on TikTok. One hundred of them a day - the limit allowed by Instagram. With dreams of one day shooting music videos, he began direct messaging minor celebrities and athletes offering to do free video work. Jesse Richards, fresh out of college in Iowa, had moved to Los Angeles in winter 2018.
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