Ian Wolfson

Directors case studyfor

Who is he?Ian Wolfson (Rex Arrow Films) is an independent filmmaker best known for his collaborative work with independent hip hop artist, Mac Miller. Over the past three years, their collaboration has amassed 400 million views online, as well as broad exposure on the MTV, VH1 and Fuse Networks. Through his company, Rex Arrow Films, Ian has also worked with dozens of other artists including Nelly, B.o.B., Bun B and Freeway.

Rex Arrow Films. Rex Arrow Films is the production created by Wolfson not long after he collaborated with Mac Miller’s successful album “Blue Slide Park”. This is just a compilation video made by Ian Wolfson as a look back at his favourite work during 2013.

Common Techniques

Often in Wolfson's videos you will find mirroring of the image to distort the picture on screen; for example in “Clarity” and “One Last Thing” by Mac Miller this editing technique is used throughout. This technique helps to set the overall tonality of a music video, fitting to the song.

Another technique he uses often is called warping. Again to show the distortion in the song and in turn distort what is actually happening on screen, creating a certain mood and atmosphere for the song. Like in “Star Room” and “Watching Movies” these songs have a very dee double meaning therefore the warping helps to visual distort the ideologies.

Another idea used often is the concept of hanging lights that distort the setting around the artist. Videos like “Star room” (that I have already shown) and “I am who am killin’ time” along with “Loud”.

Another common idea is the use of neon paint in his videos, this is my favourite idea of his. This concept allows to open up the audience to the psychedelic feel of the music. Songs like “Loud” and “Frick Park Market”use this to a very high standard.

As you can probably tell by now he works widely with the artist Mac Miller. But as said earlier he has worked with other artists like The Susan, which are an indie rock girl group. Videos like Home clearly represent how his techniques do not just stick to Mac Miller within the rap culture.