QUESTION ATL X UNREEL SESSIONS
UNREEL SESSIONS //EP. //WINNIPEG, MB
QUESTION ATL
“THE WAY”
ONE TAKE. LIVE VOCAL. NO FIXES IN POST. Malik Wilson has won more than twenty beat battles and built his entire production workflow through a screen reader. We gave him a room in Winnipeg, put cameras on him, and stayed out of the way.
// BY ERIC PETERS // DIRXECP
WHO IS QUESTION
Malik Wilson records as Question ATL. He is from East Point, Georgia, on the south side of Atlanta, and he has been blind since birth. He started freestyling as a small kid and was building beats by the time he was twelve, working out melodies by ear off toy keyboards and whatever was on TV before he ever touched a DAW.
Since then: more than twenty beat battle wins, trips to Grammy Week and SXSW off the back of them, and a run at the 2019 Battle of the Beatmakers in Toronto. He founded Blind n Famous, a collective of blind artists and producers spread across the US, Canada and the UK.
He is a founding member of RAMP’D, Recording Artists and Musicians with Disabilities. He works with Soulfood Cypher, a nonprofit that teaches kids to express themselves through freestyle. He plays in a band called Midair Decision.
That is a resume, not a story about blindness, and that order is deliberate. He has been clear in interviews that he wants to be received as a producer and an artist who is good at his job, not filed under a category. We took that seriously in how we cut this one.
THE ROOM
This one did not happen in the usual Unreel studio. Question was in town on a tight window, overlapping with another shoot we already had booked, so we built the session into a room at NO FUN CLUB instead of moving him across the city twice.
We really felt like the room had something unique for Question's session, that required to think outside of the box, since it moved outside of the typical style we shoot these sessions. The rooms textures were on point, and weren't distracting, as the whole idea is to showcase the artist, with simple elements.
HOW WE SHOT IT
The thing worth saying about blocking a session like this: a performer who cannot see the camera is not going to hit a mark you point at, and does not need to. You build the frame around where the performance actually lives instead of asking the performance to come to the frame.
ON THE WORKFLOW
Question produces using screen reader software, the same VoiceOver-class tech that reads a phone out loud, driving a full DAW by keyboard. He has also designed audio games for blind players. He has spent years arguing that accessibility belongs inside the product from the start, not bolted on after launch once somebody complains.
“WE WOULD JUST LIKE A CHANCE TO COMMUNICATE ON THE SAME PLAYING FIELD AND PLATFORM EQUALLY WITH EVERYBODY ELSE, AND HAVE OUR MESSAGE RECEIVED.” QUESTION, TO THE RECORDING ACADEMY, 2021
Unreel Sessions exists to put independent artists in front of a camera that treats them like they are worth the budget. That is the whole thesis. Question walked in, did the take, and the take is the point. Everything above is context you can have if you want it.
CREDITS
ARTIST QUESTION ATL — @questionatl
SONG “THE WAY”
DIRECTOR / DP ERIC PETERS — @DIRXECP
CAMERA ERIC PETERS
AUDIO MALIK WILSON
EDIT / COLOUR ERIC PETERS
LOCATION NO FUN CLUB, WINNIPEG MB
SERIES UNREEL SESSIONS
BOOK A SESSION
Unreel Sessions is a live-performance series out of Winnipeg — one song, one room, shot like it matters. If you are an independent artist with something you want captured properly, get in touch.
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