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Savion Goes Viral with Romantic Dance Videos by Doniphan Blair
As well as filmmaking, Yoram Savion also performs, including poetry. photo: Courtesy Y. Savion
Yoram Savion busted into Oakland's cine scene in 2010 with the festival winning short "Golly the Rainmaker" but soon topped that with the striking dance video, "RIP Rich D," which went viral. Now he is doing or discussing Addidas and Red Bull commercials, not bad for a young man who was recently student-teaching video in East Oakland. A heartfelt visionary, Savion seems able to handle it.
Originally from France but with an Israeli parent and shuttling back and forth to California since he was a kid, Savion took one film course at UC Berkeley and began working at Youth Uprising, a state-of-the-art center in the heart of a tough East Oakland hood. "Golly" he did in 24 hours in association with Kash Gaines, Ben Tarquin, and Javier Ochoa, also called Yak Films, and a 24 hour film festival sponsored by the East Bay Express magazine. "Golly"'s distinctive look and feel earned it an award there and at the Oakland Underground Film Festival.
"RIP Rich D," which Savion shot, directed and edited, became a YouTube hit with 2.7 million views as of May. Although modest compared with a Justin Beaver .5 billion hitter, it is a more delicate and beautiful piece due to Savion's understated camera, the phenomenal stepping of the Turf Feinz Crew, the sweet sounds of Yung FX, Erk tha Jerk & COOP and its traditional romantic themes. It explores death and beauty in the commonplace, a street corner, 90th and MacArthur in Oakland— to be exact, as the cutaway indicates—where their friend died in a car accident.
Turf Feinz Crew is: No Noize (red jacket), Man (back jacket), BJ (striped shirt), Dreal (white shirt). photo: Courtesy YouTube
Savion's slight stop motion and Turf Feinz's dancing, replete with back flips and splts and mystical spins and moon walks, speaks to the best of both art and Oakland. We can see by their work that they are active dreamers, romantics who make beauty out of tragedy, who keep spirit soaring despite death.
"I say we need to stop the bleed," Savion recites, in one of his poems on YouTube, "We need a revolution, a seed of imagination... but the means must fit the ends... let's start with us."
"Turf dancing" or "turfing," as in Turf Feinz, is phenomena of note repelte with its own Wikipeida page. Originating in the Oakland "Boogaloo" movement of the 1960s, it draws on the popping, locking, and mimeing of breakdancing. Supposedly, the musician Jeriel Bey coined the term around 2002 from the acronym "Taking Up Room on the dance Floor," although it could also refer to different turfs or hoods, and dispute resolution through dance battles. Either way, the turf dancers Rawnay, Yun Shep, and Dav 2.0 were soon appearing in music videos by Bey's Animaniakz, Keak Da Sneak, and E-40.
Recently, Savion has been shooting numerous pieces wtih the two phenomenal French dancers, The Twins, who do the separate but related "new style" of France. Savion's YouTube of their appearance at the World of Dance event in Paris has also gone viral. The Twins opened in the Bay Area last year for the Cote D'Ivoire band, Magic System, and proceeded to do the local Africa circuit, including the Mission's notorious Baobab.
With The Twins' great looks, moves and doubling, and Savion's tqasty use of out-of-focus background, the trademark of the new high definition movies made on single lens reflex still cameras, and a few other subtle effects, the dance videos are scintillating. They also teamed up to do a commercial for Adidas, featuring impact triggers for beats which The Twins insert in their sneakers. Even in their concert films, however, Savion eschews the high gloss and Hollywood look for a natural feel. For Adidas, the Twins go to an outdoor bench, slowly insert their gizmos, and gently blast off. Savion and The Twins soon head to China to shoot a dance contest for Red Bull.
We caught up with Savion in Paris.
CineSource Magazine: Was 'Golly' your first film?
Yoram Savion: One of our first films, produced during the East Bay Express 24 hour festival.
Are you primarily a cinematog, a director, or do you do everything, edit, write, etc?
"I say we need to stop the bleed," Savion recites from his own work, "We need a revolution, a seed of imagination... let's start with us.". photo: Courtesy YouTube
I do everything.
You have a distinctive shooting style—out of focus background—how did you start that?
Having a great passion for photography, I always wanted to have the same look in my videos, the technology of HDSLR's [like the Canon D5 and 7] finally allowed me to realize this vision.
What do you shoot with?
Only Canon products.
Do you have problems with the need to use double system sound recording with the Canon?
We use digital audio recorders when we need good interview sound but just the camera mic for events.
How about keeping it in focus?
We don't have a focus problem.
Did you study film and where?
I never studied film, although I took a video art class at Cal once.
You seem to be especially focused on the dance video form, did that start with Turf Feinz and the dancing in the rain [YouTube dance video], or elsewhere?
Started with the Turf Feinz, long before dancing in the rain.
What was so special about that piece: the looseness of it, the rain, the memorial for a killed friend? Why do you think it went viral?
Savion associate, Ben Tarquin filming the New Jack Swing Brothers, another pair of master dancer brothers, in Tokyo (see video. photo: Y. Savion
It went viral because of 3 factors: the TURF dancing, which was unknown to the rest of the world; the music, which added to the emotion of the piece and conveyed the sad reasons of its making; and the technology. This was one of the first videos ever uploaded on YouTube shot with a Canon 7D camera, which came out a week before shooting the video.
Any thoughts on Oakland, its murder rate and how to deal with it?
It requires more than a sound bite.
Is there any thing special about Oakland, especially in Paris: does it symbolize anything like the Panthers, black America, good rap, Burning Man, multiculturalism?
It symbolizes African American culture in a political, cultural and sometimes fantastic way. It remains a source of inspiration world wide, regardless of people knowing that the inspiration actually came from Oakland originally.
What is the big thing in Parisian film or dance these days, aside from you and the Twins?
Don't know of any big things happening right now, we'll let you know, stay tuned!
Savion shooting with Yak Film Associate Kash Gaines. photo: Y. Savion
OK great. Have you tackled other genres, long form, narrative, documentary, etc?
Yes, we're working on a few projects that could lead to documentary or feature film platforms. We're looking forward to that.
What are you working on now?
Working on a new dance battle concept with Red Bull France in June and about to take off for Beijing China where we're shooting a big dance competition, Keep on Dancing.