Screenwerks Interview

MikiWAR: How did all of you come together to create this?
Shecky Green: Video DJing has been around for a couple years. For some people it’s brand new. These guys are pretty much the best video DJs in the US. No disrespect to other video DJs. I actually first encountered 2nd Nature through our mutual friend DJ AM. Rest in peace. I was blown away from the first second I saw what 2nd Nature was doing. Turns out he has been doing it for quite a while. It took me a minute for me digest and rap my head around what he was doing. It’s still a very new art form and I think when people start to see what’s possible in mixing music, video, film, television, cartoons, graphics, and 3D animation together, the sky is the limit as far as what you can do artistically and creatively. What we’re doing here with Screekwerks, to make a long story short, we formed together organically because all of us have a very strong interest in this art form. So now we’ve come together and we’re making plans to do some big things in the weeks and months down the road. We’re building a website which is going to be called screenwerks.tv. We have some really exciting projects in the works with companies that have content and are looking to come in and re-energize it. One that I can mention now is Playboy. We have a big project going on with Playboy that you will hear more about through out the rest of the year. Playboy is a company that has 30 years of great video content. They’re coming to us to collaborate on the idea of re-energizing and repackaging it for a new generation. That’s just one example. It’s so wide open with what these guys can do. All of us by the way are into music. You’ll see when you watch Screenwerks, every guy kicked a different approach as far as the style of music. All of us are rooted in hip-hop. That’s the core for all of us, but we all have a wide taste in music. As you will see the creativity and art we put out is going to reflect a good knowledge of music, great DJing skills, and that extra level of creativity that the VDJ brings to the table.

MikiWAR: Let’s go through the location you guys are specifically at? Let’s start at home haha.
Steve1der: I’m from LA. I didn’t have to drive that far.
Jay E: St. Louis, Missouri. Born and raised.
Jordan Laws: A lifetime New Yorker.
2nd Nature: I live in the A, but originally from Detroit. We are wide range across the country, so we got it on lock.

MikiWAR: How do you guys stay connected with each other? Is it iChat? Skype?
Shecky: We’re all into technology, but Brett (2nd Nature) is like a superb technical genius. So, he leads the way. This is a relatively new collaboration between us five and we’re looking to do a lot of things. We’re looking to come up with new ways to communicate as well as express our work to the rest of the world.

Dainjazone: Do you guys have these videos to sell?
2nd Nature: A lot of us lately have been putting them out for free. We are all on vimeo.com. I know all my videos are downloadable. If you sign up for an account, you can just grab them all. Drop box as well.
Shecky: One of the goals with Screenwerks is not only show the world what this team can do, but to also create a community of like minded people out there. We are building in addition to promote and show our creativity, but really welcome in the whole world of DJs. Our goal is building a whole channel of really cool content and welcoming others to do the same thing.

Dainjazone: Do you guys have residencies as VDJs and do you step back to DJing the old fashion way?
Jay E: I resident at two spots in St. Louis; Club Lour and All Night Club. Every gig I do is video. I don’t remember the last time I did audio.
2nd Nature: Yea I’ve been doing video since 2004.
Shecky: It’s funny that more of the middle of the country is open-minded to videos where as some of the bigger markets haven’t caught on to the video movement. Some markets are more open to videos than others; New York, LA , Vegas, and Miami have been a little more reluctant so far, but that’s not going to stop us in terms of our plan. The kinds of projects we’re taking on are beyond nightclubs, even though nightclubs are apart of it. It’s really about creating a channel of entertainment that’s available to anyone.
Jordan Laws: We’re definitely going to take it worldwide. I’ve done a lot of overseas stuff and in general people seem to be more open-minded, especially in Europe. They let you take more chances. It's more profit driven over here: how many bottles can you sell? Overseas welcomes a lot of artistic creativity.

MIkiWAR: Has Serato's Video SL made VDJing easier for you?
2nd Nature: It’s easier for some people. I think for us we like to push the envelope. So, we like to go above and beyond. It’s forever changing. My setup has changed every year as far as gear, stands, drives, software; how I want my set up and what I want to perform. My normal setup is two laptops, a midi controller in the middle, video mixer on the side, two turntables and whatever mixer I can get.

MikiWAR: Are you guys looking to adapt to using midi controllers in your sets?
Jay E: I’ve messed around with it a couple times, but I’m not sold on it yet.
2nd Nature: It’s tough because it depends... If you’re a turntablist, you don’t have time to be playing with that stuff. That’s what’s great about Serato: you got your videos, one fader and it’s easy. I’m kind of all over the place when I do my shows. In a corporate show I'll have to incorporate footage and logos they give me and I can’t do that with Serato. I have to use another computer, which is why I have to use a video mixer. With that software I’ll want to use a midi controller because I don’t want to be clicking with a mouse all night. That’s why I say it’s always changing.
Shecky: These guys put so much work into their edits. What goes into doing one of these productions like you guys just saw is hundreds of hours of editing. You have to slice it down to the millisecond with so many layers of things going on….
2nd Nature:.. and rendering and pressing …

Dainjazone: Anyone married in here?
2nd Nature: Yea. We’re married to our craft!
Shecky: That’s the behind the scenes that goes on. So for the people out there watching this, not only is the technical DJ skill there, but it’s a whole other skill set to be a video editor and a video producer. There are various pieces of software that go into that.

Dainjazone: You got Shecky working on the next big move. When is the next move as a group? Where will guys be working together again?
Jordan Laws: It’s just us developing the site and the same way we came together, which was very organic, is the same way we feel we should grow. The fans will come. It’s going to be a natural progression. We know that everybody is an expert in their field and we will all come together. We’re just letting it happen.
Jay E: The only thing that’s on our mind right now is getting the website up…
Jordan Laws: And the Playboy party…
Jay E: And the Playboy party!!
Shecky: The first place you will see this stuff is on Vimeo. We have plans to have a 24-hour channel of content. Some stuff live. Some stuff recorded. That’s a part of the website we’ve been talking about.

Dainjazone: Why Vimeo and not YouTube?
Shecky: We find that Vimeo is a higher quality stream and it’s a higher quality video. You have more control over it in some ways than YouTube. We will also have a YouTube channel.
Jay E: They’re more lenient towards copyrighting.
Shecky: I didn’t want to say that, but yea. (Room laughs) I will say that we produce some of our completely original music too. I don’t know if Jay wants me to say this, but Jay is a well-known producer in the game. He has platinum hits left and right. All of these guys produce music on their own too. Another layer of this skill set is not only being a DJ and a video editor, but also a producer of music.

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