Hard Road Tour Documentary

When I started doing videography in 2014, one of my goals was to carry out a documentary production. Now thanks to the Earthkry band and my editor Alwayne White, that is what I present to you today. 

Last year September the manager for Earthkry band, Tara
Johnson, expressed the need for documentation of the band’s local tour,
entitled “Hard Road Tour”, which would start in October and she asked me to
record their tour, it because the guys were already familiar with me and I had
previously captured their EP cover and other promotional photos and videos.” Of
course I didn’t hesitate on the thought of doing this tour with the guys: they
sing great music, they’re down to earth and we have excellent work history.  Of course by the end of the tour I also had to
edit the footage and as a result it was a full Jik-Reuben Production.

The tour started October 6th and and saw us performing at various venues across
the Kingston and St. Andrew area as well as Montego Bay as seen below in the
flyer. It was an interesting experience as each time the men performed, I could
see growth in various aspects; growth in brotherhood, their skillset, passion
and of course growth in their fan base. After a few YouTube and Instagram posts,
I started receiving messages from people on Facebook and from friends in
Europe, asking “Who are these guys and when are they coming to Europe, they’re
amazing”!

A buzz was growing, and the guys were getting better, so it
was no surprise that certain promoters started noticing and requesting them to
do more shows and as such, after a whole month of touring locally, the guys had
to start planning a part two of the tour entitled “Hard Road Tour Continues”, which
was done in December. This brought the guys outside the city of Kingston once
again to now bless the people with their roots rock reggae in the parishes of
Portland, Negril, Mandeville, etc.

This second installment of the tour also reunited the band
with their original drummer, Kieron who unfortunately, due to prior
responsibilities that he couldn’t reschedule, had to be off the island. With
the band complete with all original members, together the Earth could finally
make its loudest cry and the music got sweeter. With every venue the audience
multiplied and this had me in awe. 

Technical Details: 

The Equipment I used for the tour was very minimal, but was
not limiting at all. I used a Canon 60D to record the footage, coupled with both
a Canon 17-55mm 2.8 USM IS and a Tamron 70-200mm VR USM lens, Manfrotto tripod
and a Benro video mono-pod.  For sound, I
used onboard mic for general coverage and a rode lav mic and shotgun mic for
interviews.  I tried to implement as many
elements of cinematography that I’ve learnt through reading and watching online
tutorials to ensure that when it came to editing we would have really nice cuts
and scenes to work with.  I recently
acquired an editor by the a name of Alwayne White, a really talented young man,
and who of course, hails from my Alma Mater, St. George’s College High
School.  He along with guidance of Tara
and myself got the editing finished two months after the tour ended. It was indeed
a great process seeing the footages come to life as one single piece.

I hope you guys really enjoy the Documentary. Don’t be
startled by the time stamp. Once you start watching you’ll be surprised it finished
already.  

PS: There is a treat after the
closing credits. So, without further
ado here it is:

-Jik-Reuben, The Visual Ninja, 2016

Bless