LEFT: Director Jason 'Jay Will' Williams behind the camera. - Contributed
RIGHT: Baby Cham and Alicia Keys doing a special shoot with all their supporters on the set of the video for 'Ghetto Story: Remix Part Two' in Kingston, July 2006. - File

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

At one time Jamaican singers were heard and not seen. Now colourful, energetic, reality-driven, fantastically imaged Jamaican music videos of varying quality are adrift on the airwaves, as Jamaica has seen a boom in the number of videos being produced by local artistes.

Once the only way to steal a glimpse of your favourite artiste was to be at a huge concert, such as Reggae Sumfest, Reggae Sunsplash and Sting, as well as a number of other stage shows. Now the artistes are in your face with sometimes beautiful and oftentimes nonsensical music videos.

It is without a doubt that, visually, the Jamaican music industry has blossomed over the years, and now there are Hype TV, RE TV, FIWI TV and countless video countdown programmes there to assist its growth. More so, some believe that Jamaica has bloomed as a prime site for music video production.

With an exceptionally beautiful landscape and a flourishing dance industry, it is no wonder that foreign artistes have gravitated towards Jamaica as a mecca to film music videos. Recently, videos by the likes of Alicia Keys and Willie Nelson, as well as the soon-to-be-released feature film License To Wed, starring Robin Williams, had extensive footage shot on the island.

According to Jason Willams, popularly known as Jay Will of the 'Game Over' signature, "I think Jamaica is becoming bigger and bigger in the music video scene as far as location is concerned. I think people come here because they can get a whole bunch of different feels. There are so many different looks - the tropical beach look, the desert look, a sweaty club feel. In other places there is only one look. People are also coming here for talent as well, energy, a lot of different things. It's a good mixture down here."

In the past few years Will has produced well over 60 music videos for the likes of of Biggie Irie from Barbados, English star M.I.A. who recently shot a video for her song Boys in Port Royal, Shaggy and numerous other Jamaican artistes. He also does work with Excel, recording in England and many other companies. Will believes that Jamaica should, in fact, be packaged to offer the island's services to the world.

In a recent report on BBC News entitled 'Music video booms in Jamaica' (http://news.bbc.co.uk), it was noted that numerous international artistes have become drawn to the island to make music videos. The report asks rhetorically "Why is M.I.A. shooting her latest video on a faraway Caribbean island? 'Hey, the Jamaican cats are the best dancers any day,' says her assistant, a young girl in a frilly pink dress who sashays away to check out the young dancers gyrating under a scorching sun."

Music video destination

"M.I.A. is just one in a long list of musicians who are flocking to Jamaica to shoot their latest music video these days. The island, home to reggae and dancehall, has become the music video destination for stars as diverse as Willie Nelson, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Shaggy, Sean Paul, and Damian and Ziggy Marley, children of Jamaica's reggae superstar Bob Marley. Jamaica exploded as a music video hub three years ago as digital film technology drove down costs - the island, birthplace of reggae, already had the music and the jive. Some two dozen music videos are shot on the island every week, all produced for anything between US$5,000 and US$15,000."

However, for famed director Ras Kassa, aka 'The Guru', while there has been an increase in the number of local videos made by local artistes, there has been a decline in persons coming to the island to make videos. According to Kassa, there are definitely more persons wanting to do music and film-making locally and, as a result, there has been a boom in the music video industry. "Just like in the music industry where we make more records than anywhere else in the world, we are making more music videos," Kassa said.

However, when it comes to international stars and film directors coming to the island to make videos, Ras Kassa sees an obvious decline. "I think it's a thing of the past; people used to make more. Now there are more Jamaicans making music videos in Jamaica. Some persons who have probably made a video here might come back again. Little X, people like that, used to be here all the time. It definitely used to happen," he said.

According to Kassa, after 9/11 the international budget for making music videos fell. As a result, people are making videos for a lot less, which means less money to travel and shoot in various locations.

Most of the international artistes who have shot videos in Jamaica in recent years have in some way borrowed the music of the island. Among these are Willie Nelson, who filmed I'm a Worried Man with Toots Hibbert, and his version of Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come, and Alicia Keys who was on a remix of Baby Cham's Ghetto Story. Otherwise, Kassa says, international artistes are not coming to Jamaica just to film here.

Nonetheless, the music video industry is providing the entertainment industry with yet another viable option. The flourishing industry also keeps a lot of trained film-making talent employed in a country where feature film-making is still in the early stages. In the BBC report Carleene Samuels, a video producer, commented thatthe industry provides jobs for the aspiring directors and producers.

"As long as the music industry thrives here music videos will thrive as well," Samuels commented. In the same report Brian St. Juste claimed that "Music videos sure keep a lot of people employed. Many of these people are talented people trained in international schools."

And the creativity of, and high demand for, directors such as Jay Will and Ras Kassa are proof that Jamaican talent extends to the realm of music videos.