Featured: Mills Miller

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Mills Miller is going to be the man behind some of our next videos for the illRoots x K-Salaam & Beatnick album and hopefully some of your next projects as well. An incredibly talented and humble director that came up under some of the greatest and is now about to make his mark on the world. We've seen some talents come through the ranks in the past couple years and this guy is next.iR: How did you get your start?
Ian: I would say I officially got my start at Partizan NY, the production house that houses directors such as Michel Gondry, Phillip Andelman and Nabil. I started there as an intern. While I was interning I had the honor to camera operate on a Michel Gondry video for mega artist BJork. That was a learning experience all in itself. But all the while I was interning and in school I would still be scrounging up my own work doing more videos than just the projects school required me to do.

iR: If you could redo a classic hip-hop video which one and why?
Ian: Man that’s a good question my favorites are Pharcyde 'Drop' directed by Spike Jonze and Redman 'I’ll Be Dat' directed by Lil X, both were perfect. It’s funny you ask that because that’s something that I’m actually working on now called the spec series. My first spec was Kanye West- Street Lights off his 808’s and Heartbreak album, it involves doing present artists music videos that I like and older ones as well called the “spec throwback”, next up is Nas -I Gave You Power. But if I had to choose I would have to say Nas “I Gave You Power”, because I feel the song has a strong message that I would be able to convey. I am actually getting ready to shoot that video soon. Kanye liked Street Lights lets see how Nas feels about this one if he gets the chance to see it.

iR: Weapons of Choice (What equipment do you use?)
Ian: All of my shoots are shot on High definition cameras with various lenses, setups from wide angles, 35mm lenses and lens babies. I would love to shoot on film but shooting on HD nowadays gives you a much quicker work flow and you still maintain great quality.
iR: One common misconception about shooting video?
Ian: A definite misconception is that it’s easy and that there is a formula to it. Shooting a video is technical but once you get that down, it’s all about how you’re going to stand out. You have to find a way to stand out among the rest creatively.

iR: Other than Music videos what are your aspirations?
Ian: The ultimate goal is to direct feature films. I’m actually in postproduction on a feature length documentary titled Behind Those Books right now with producer Kaven Brown in association with the urbanbooksource.com. I also just completed my first film entitled Calamity featuring upcoming actors Omar Knight, Ameena Dove, Craig Rivela and Stepheny Stephens; it’s a short film with my writing partner Jason Lopez.
iR: Who inspires you daily?
Ian: My mother is my inspiration, as well as family and other artists, its so much talent out there. When I see any art. It can be another video directed by my partners Ted Huff or Pain Rivera, a painting, a web design or any illustration that motivates me and gives me new ideas or another new way to approach a project.
iR: Why the name Mills Miller?
Ian: Mills came from a childhood name that I was called when I was younger. My name is Ian and could you believe people even cut that short. They would call me E so they wouldn’t have to pronounce Ian. My last name is Miller so they started to call me E. Mills and it just stuck, as I got older. I incorporated Mills Miller together because it sound smooth and that’s how I brand myself. Plus it’s easier to pronounce and remember..[Laughs]

iR: Who gave you your first shot to shoot their music video?

Ian: An artist named AVE, who is good friend I actually grew up with. He had a nice buzz going for himself at the time and I was in my last year of college and he needed a video to promote with his mix tape that was hosted by DJ S&S. So his manager and him approached me to do the project and I jumped on it. That was my introduction to the Internet as a director because the video was spread all over the Hip Hop blogs at the time.

iR: Give me one example where you ran into one of most difficult tasks in your life and after moving past it what you learn and how you applied it to your business practices now?
Ian: One of the most difficult tasks I would say was quitting my job. I quit to pursue my passion, which is creating. It’s not a good feeling getting up for work everyday and you literally feel sick. I resigned right before graduation. It took a lot for me to go to school fulltime while working full time. Majoring in film required my time outside of class to coordinate and schedule shoots dealing with real people and their schedules, which sometimes can be hazy. But doing that made me strong because especially as a filmmaker you have to be persistent. The work just doesn’t come to you. You have to go out and get it or create your own work.
iR: Lastly what can we look forward to next from you?
Ian: You can look forward to a lot more music videos that I have on deck, as well as the release of the documentary Behind Those Books and the short film Calamity real soon. Visit www.millsmillermedia.com to stay updated on whats going on with my team and I.