The Ghetto Matrix

The rapper AZ recently put out a low budget music video for the song The Hardest featuring Styles P and Large Professor. Now typically this kind of news would go unnoticed and definitely not be worth the time of mentioning. The song could be described as average at best, nothing really stands out on the track at all, but the video is what's interesting. The video features two new and very popular forms of street art, light writing and laser writing. Both techniques have been pioneered by the organization Graffiti Research Labs, an organization dedicated to providing the street art community with open source technology. Also featured in the video is an advanced filming technique known as bullet time filming. Bullet time filming is the effect featured in The Matrix where an image will slow down or pause as the camera cycles around said object at a normal speed. The problem with bullet time filming is that it is a highly technical process, because achieving such an effect with a regular camera would be impossible computer programming must be implemented. In other words, a bullet time camera rig can cost up to $100,000 a day, a bit too pricey for a low budget rap video. Graffiti Research Lab was then approached with the idea of creating a way of achieving such an effect for a minimal price. These Graffiti Engineers were able to design a camera that would achieve the desired effect for under $8000 and it only took 2 days to make. You can see AZ's video for The Hardest below.



As with all GRL projects, the camera is open source technology. For instructions on how to build your own bullet time camera Click Here.

For more project by GRL visit http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com/