Let's start last October, I had been hit up by Ross Festenstein who manages Justin Blau (3LAU - producer/DJ) and he wanted me to go on tour with 3LAU and film the whole tour. Prior to this I had been offered to be flown to Abu Dhabi to film my friend Eric Silverman compete in the World Championships of Flowboarding. I told Ross about this other job and that I was sorry to turn down the chance to film Justin and he simply said, "I don't blame you, I would do the same thing. There will be another chance to work together."
Fast forward to April, I went on a midwest tour with Justin and we instantly became friends. He loved my video style and said, "You have to come with me everywhere." Uh yeah, Im down for that.
This opportunity gave me the chance to leave a job I had for over 4 years. It was a great job that paid my rent, gave me health benefits, but really constricted my creative side. I remember being at the holiday party that year and the owner telling me, "My goal this year is to find a way to utilize your talents before someone steals you away." I ended up betting on myself since I had this new freelance client 3LAU (and his team) who believed in me. When we were on this tour I told him about my idea of leaving and he agreed it would be a good idea and he could foresee me getting a lot of work after just working for him around a week.
Enough back story.
I got to LAX, Friday morning an hour before my flight as usual, just enough time to make it thru security, snag some McDonald's and then hopped on my flight to New York City. When I landed in NYC, I hit up Nick who is Justin's tour manager, he suggested grabbing a cab so I could meet them for dinner. $68 later I got to our hotel called Dream that was located in the meat packing district. The place was super hip and had two beds which was perfect for jumping back and forth...yes I am 30. I quickly showered and made my way to one of my favorite restaurants Catch (epic seafood place). Walking over I noticed Justin and Nick just ahead of me, so I bolted towards them and put my shoulder into Justin's back and kept going and then turned around to see Justin's face looking identical to a deer in headlights. When he noticed it was me, he busted out laughing. "Dude, I thought you some asshole trying to start a fight." It was hilarious. We got to Catch, ordered drinks, and just about everything on the menu.
After dinner, I jetted back to the hotel, grabbed my camera gear and cabbed it to this club called Pasha. Nick and I went down to DJ booth to get everything set up. Nick, is this clean cut on top of his game guy. He was rocking a full suit like a lawyer and looked like a totally baller. When we got down there I was scooping things out when I took a step back and fell down some stairs. It was dark and honestly who puts stairs in a dark corner.
The set who so freaking hot. It was an instant sweat fest. Justin killed as always. The fans were going crazy. During his sets, I tend to grab fans phones and snap cool pictures then give them their phones back and they just stair at me like I gave them gold.
After the set, Justin made time for some fans outside and got pictures with them, after that we went back to our hotels to crash.
I woke up around 9am (went to be around 4am) said bye to Nick and then start editing a recap for Justin's social media before going to the airport for a 1:40pm flight to Toronto. It was like 10 o'clock when Justin text me asking if I could come to his hotel instead of my hotel at 11. This is typical Justin move...running behind lol. So I cabbed it over, grabbed some coffee with him, turned on the camera and we rolled to the airport. Got to the airport, and checked in (Justin upgraded his seat, leaving my alone in the back with some sketch ball watching me edit the whole hour flight). Once we landed we got in the car, went over the recap, then he got to work on his set.
It was my first time being in Toronto, and me being me. I had Googled all the places to explore near my hotel downtown. In the car to the hotel I had my face pressed against window with my camera in hand ready to capture the downtown skyline...turns out the hotel was in the middle of nowhere, not even close to downtown. HUGE BUMMER!
After dropping our gear at the hotel we went to the festival. We watched Milo & Otis while waiting for Justin's girlfriend and her friends. While waiting, a bunch of people recognized Justin and asked for pictures. Then comes this kid with no shirt sprinting by yelling "Dude I loved Lake Life." What the F ?!?!?! 5 minutes later Justin's crew of friends show up, we grab Graham from Milo & Otis and start making our way to the main stage when this guy comes running after us yelling "Hey wait up !!!" I figured it was another 3LAU fan wanting a picture when he says, "Rory oh my gosh, I am a huge fan of your videos, they are so inspiring." I am completely blown away to be in another country and have people recognize me from my work. It was the coolest experience ever. I asked to get a picture with this guy named Brandon.
Later that night, some amazing Canucks took us to Justin's set at the Guv...DOWNTOWN...finally got to see Toronto. It was super dope. We got to the club, Justin is playing his set when DVBBS shows up and hops in the booth to rage out to their song 'Raveology.' We got some epic footage and called it a night.
Back at the hotel it was about 4am. I knew I could crash and get a hours of sleep before waking up and going to the festival. But I knew it would be good if Justin posted a recap to his social media to get his fans hyped for the festival...so...I pulled an all nighter and cut a sick recap. The next thing I know its 7:30am and I am super delirious. I decided to go for a few mile run to McDonald's to grab hotcakes and an ice coffee.
That night reminded me of how much I loved touring with Justin and getting to create with him. He always would say I was crazy for pulling all nighters to work, but I didn't see it as work, I simply saw it as me getting to do what I loved and to put the icing on the cake, get paid to do it.
That day at the festival, I made it there a few hours before Justin since I stayed at the hotel and he stayed with his lady. I figured I would walk around and snag some b-roll shots and get that out of the way. I went to the main stage and watched Martin Garrix play. I saw his manager Michael (Ross's roommate oddly enough) and went over and said what up. We hung out and watched Martin for about 40 minutes before he was like, "Hey could you possibly snag a few shots of Martin for us ?" I said sure because I liked Martin's stuff and Michael was a cool guy. I asked him what he wanted and he said, "Go where ever and get whatever you want." For the next 20 minutes I ran around like a chicken with his head cut off and get the shots I needed. The set ended and I started packing up when I realized that my screw and washers to my glidecam had falling off. I started freaking out.
I ran back to Justin's trailer as he was arriving and was ready to put my fist through the wall. I told him I lost a screw and he began to panic. I told him don't worry because I would figure it out. I had about 45 minutes to figure it out. I ran over to festival's crew station, talked to this tatted up guy and told him what I was looking for. He returned with the right size screw but it was too long...he went to cut it and I was left to wait his return. We he returned 5 minutes before Justin's set time and the screw was still to long. We didn't have time to cut the screw again. I quickly grabbed 6 Red Bulls opened them, slammed one, and ripped off the tabs and used them as washers to make up the difference of the long screw...it looked ugly but it worked. Justin saw me running to the stage with a smile and knew things were ok. I was running so fast that I coulda beat Usain Bolt in a race...Im being sarcastic.
His set was epic...35,000+ people !!!! Even though I got great shots with Martin, it was nothing compared to what I get with 3LAU. Justin and I are so in sync with each other that we know each others every move. We never bump into each other. We feed off each other's energy and and give the fans what they paid for. Justin doesn't care what I do during his set because he knows whatever I am doing is for the sake of an epic shot for his brand. During his set, he tells the crowd to go crazy for me and I stand on the DJ booth like a rockstar swinging my hands to pump up the crowd. I crowd surfed twice during his set to get unique shots.
After the set we hung with the other artists and celebrated a great performance. Then it was time to head out. And as we were heading out this girl comes up to me and is like "Hey how are you?" I immediately start laughing and say, "You act like you know me or something." And she says. "Are you a DJ?" I was like nope and just laughed at how stupid that was.
When I got home I received a bunch of awesome emails from 2 people who found my email address and said they were fans of my work and loved that I crowd surfed with my camera and a GoPro in my mouth to get shots. The best was a tweet from someone asking about my shirt that said "Im not a whore but my camera is." Crazy that they paid that close attention to me to read my shirt I had made.
That trip was special to me because I realized how far I had come since leaving my job 4 weeks prior. I was a guy with a dream of working for himself and it was coming true. My hard work was allowing me to travel to another country (btw the people of Canada war some of the nicest people I have ever met) and work for someone who I actually listened to. I have been blessed with a great life and at times I take it for granted but after a weekend like that it makes me realize how good i have it and why i put so much pressure on myself...because it could all end tomorrow or someone better could take my place, so thats why I pull all nighters and put my body through hell...I want people to get what they pay for.
This is dedicated to anyone that follows my work...its you that makes me continue to create.
Check out 3LAU's recap:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=731329233579653
Check out Martin Garrix's recap:
http://instagram.com/p/rQ3RAow_7D/?modal=true
NYC x Toronto (August 1st - 4th, 2014)