Cole Bennett is a music video director from Illinois who began his career by driving an hour into Chicago to film local rap shows. His breakout video for Famous Dex's "Hit Em Wit It" garnered over 14 million views. Bennett runs the blog Lyrical Lemonade and is known for his distinctive animated line effects in videos. He cites Austin Vesely and Zae Production as inspirations for his run-and-gun style. Bennett's video for Famous Dex led to opportunities with more established artists, though he prefers working with younger independent artists where he has full creative control. Shooting videos in Florida for artists like Smokepurpp and Lil Pump had a similar feel to documenting the Chicago scene. Bennett

1. FMP Task 1A
By Louis Robinson

3. Dexter Navy
“Dexter Navy is a filmmaker and photographer. Across both mediums his aim is to create work that is psychedelic, cinematic and
at all times holds an authentic feeling.
Dexter’s career began at the age of 18 when i-D Magazine stumbled across his photographs on Tumblr and asked him to start
shooting for them.
Now a regular contributor to i-D it was through the publication that he would meet the musician A$AP Rocky, an encounter that
would prove to be pivotal to his career. Since then the pair have collaborated on numerous projects but it was Dexter’s video of
Rocky’s hit L$D that really put his name on the map, earning him a Grammy nomination for Best Video and an MTV VMA for Best
Editing.
In 2014 he held his first solo exhibition of his photography, “36”, at the Hoxton Gallery, London. A rising talent with a clear
aesthetic style Dexter is currently developing his first book of photographs and is working on a feature.”
https://dexternavy.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ274umjhFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtV6gGld_SY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNzc6hG3yN4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQI-o02JYU

4. As Dexter's career has sped from one success to the next, the constant has remained his allegiance to La Haine, Mathieu
Kassovitz's 90s black-and-white feature film that follows three 20-something lads' struggle to find their place in the politically
volatile suburbs of Paris. It's arresting and honest, depicting real life through the eyes of the youth. On watching the film, the
connections to Dexter's work are immediately apparent. Now 20 years old, the imagery in La Haine is still particularly relevant, it
captures a generation but also transcends it entirely. Its depiction of youth communicates a spirit of curiosity and passion and the
same can be said of Dexter's imagery. Although his work lives and thrives in the 21st-century ecosystem of the internet, it also
represents much more, because in a world of over-composed selfies they capture a childlike honesty and intrigue.
"I think youth is about how you feel. My granddad is 72, he has energy, he still plays football and he says he feels 17. It's not an
age bracket or a style, it's not about saying you're young, it's the way you think," Dexter explains. It's capturing that youthful
energy that has marked his success. Whether photographing rising stars for i-D or shooting critically acclaimed music videos for
A$AP Rocky, he's fast-becoming 'The Youth Guy'. "When we were young all we could do was change the channel on the TV. I
didn't have the internet as a kid, I had to use my imagination. Kids now don't have to imagine anything. They don't need to
imagine a tree with a flying horse next to it, they can find a picture of it." So how does being an 'inbetweener' impact the way he
works? "My style is not old but it's not new. Every time I take on a project, I look to shoot the opposite way to everyone else. I
shoot on film not because I'm nostalgic but because it gives an aesthetic and colours that I like and because it's different to
everyone else. I work with new people and I do things a different way." The recipe is working. Where previously Dexter's over-
active imagination was inhibited by shoestring budgets, now that teen spirit is something people are keen to get a piece of.
"Before I was doing everything with no money. Now I can make these things I'm imagining into a reality." They're playing by his
rules too: "Success for me is when people will hire you to do exactly what you want. Where they trust you to make a film the way
you want to make it. Luckily that's happening for me and I know it's not that common.”
Dexter Navy

5. Though he may not have been fed an internet-based diet as a child, his adolescence was played out on social media. "I'd only put
up a couple of pictures on Tumblr and then I had all these people hitting me up. I just started enjoying it so much. Once I'd got
10,000 reblogs on one picture, it made me hungry to get my stuff all over the internet." This network has been Navy's making:
"Tumblr was like my own magazine, that's how people found me." Six years on from that first post, social media and Dexter have
grown up together: "All the work that has changed me has come through the internet. If someone wants to ask me a question
they just ask me. I'm always hitting people up online."
This issue, Dexter has photographed his own IRL social network. "I've just shot people I'm friends with, people that I'm
surrounded by. There's Lucien Clarke, who I haven't worked with before but I met him when I was shooting Supreme in Paris
recently. JME and King Krule are great musicians that I really like. Jamie Isaac I just shot a video for. They're people I admire." And
what's in it for Dexter? "Every time I do something, I'm learning. For me, all of this is school to make a feature film. Every job I do
is a test for a scene in a film, to figure out the light that I want, the colour I want."
Born and raised in Notting Hill, Dexter is endlessly inspired by the world outside his window: "In West London you have such a
mixture of people. All these second generation kids have been brought up here but with parents from all over the place; the
West Indies, Morocco, Iran. There is this amazing mix of languages, energies and cultures. Everyone has a story and everybody is
willing to tell it - and I talk to everybody!" So will London be the Paris to Dexter's La Haine? "I think people would expect this
West London Kidulthood from me for my first film but it's gonna be based in Egypt and it's all gonna be in Arabic. Land like that is
incomparable to any set I could ever build, from the pyramids to the place my dad grew-up." Though Dexter's heart may lie in
Notting Hill, he's headed for bigger things and if the last six years are anything to go by it's going to be quite the coming of age
story.
Dexter Navy

7. Cole Bennett
Raised in Plano, Illinois, Bennett and friends his would drive an hour into Chicago to check out the emerging rap scene
lead by Chief Keef and Chance the Rapper, finding his way by shooting video of live shows. When he transitioned into
music video – last year’s video for Famous Dex’s “Hit Em Wit It” has over 14 million views – he soon found himself
working with a mix of established names (King Louie, Lil Bibby) and young upstarts. He currently runs the blog Lyrical
Lemonade and has thrown shows in Chicago. “I just don’t want to make music videos,” says Bennett, “I also want to
create and explore different sides of things.”
Austin Vesely was Cole's main inspiration that made him want do videos. He stated “I remember meeting him one time,
thanking him; and everyone around him – Chance, all them – were like, Austin never gets recognized”. Cole has also
said that another one of his main inspirations for the run-and-gun type of video was Zae Production he says “he paved
the way shooting videos for all of these guys”.
When asked about where he got his unique ideas for his line animations Cole said “I was at DePaul University during
my Sophomore year and I was studying for some big final. Me and my friends just drank a bunch of coffee, ready to
work. I was like, “[I’m] so zoned right now, I wanna learn something.” YouTube tutorials is how I learned everything. [In]
the Mac Miller video [“Welcome To America”] there is this line animation and I was always so intrigued every time I
watched that. I stayed up all night and learned to animate and by the end of the night I had a fully animated video. It
was really sloppy, but I was really excited.” Cole became known for his line animations within his music videos this is
what really blew Cole up into the spotlight and helped him progress his business and clients work.

8. Cole shot videos for a lot of local artists who never really ended up reaching stardom within the music industry. What really got Cole
into the stuff that he’s known for was when he started to work with Famous Dex who was a huge sensation in Chicago. Cole has said
that “thing about Dex is that he had this flavor to him and he had this energy to him that nobody had ever seen, especially coming out
of the Southside of Chicago. I eventually did a behind-the-scenes video for him with one of the directors that I know well. After that I
had I did animations for a Soulja Boy video and Dex had saw and he was like, Yeah I need you”.
In a rolling stones interview Cole was asked, After that video dropped how did things change?
“I was being hit up by like all the Chicago artists I grew up listening to: Lil Bibby, King Louie, all those guys, and I was able to work with
them, which was incredible. I went to L.A. and shot with Soulja Boy in person, shot a video with J $tash, which was really cool for me
at the time. From there I wasn’t really trying to work with too many big artists, I kind of liked my pocket in working with these people
where I could have my full creative direction on. You know, you work with these big artists, and I’ve worked Riff Raff to the Migos, but
it’s nothing like working [with] these younger guys who trust me. It’s been a pleasure working with guys like [Smokepurpp] and [Lil]
Pump,and you know having a full hand and creative touch.”
What was the difference between shooting local Chicago artists vs. going down to Florida and shooting some of those younger kids
down there?
“Honestly, it was really similar in a sense cause people like Smokepurpp and Lil Pump, they’re hugely influenced by guys like Chief
Keef and Famous Dex. They’re the ones that created the whole, “Let’s shoot a video in a basement, shot in slo-mo, cut it up and make
it look cool.” When I went to Miami and worked with Smokepurpp and Pump and those guys, it was a similar vibe, and that point I had
already created my name for being known for effects and things like that. … I just ran with it.”
Cole Bennett

10. Lone Wolf
Wolf aka LONEWOLF is a videographer from from Hammond. Wolf grew up with his parents, him and his dad used to
wake up early before his mother and he’d watch movies like Good Fellas, a Bronx Tale, Scarface, and Friday. The
classics. He really feels like that shaped his childhood. He went through every phase possible from being a die hard G
Unit fan to listening to The Devil Wears Prada and Taking Back Sunday. He used to sell PS2 games and WWF
wrestlers at lunch and was always considered the “class clown”. He says he couldn’t complain about his childhood.
Wolf claims he realised he had creative talents as he said everything has always seemed very natural. His brother got
an old Canon camcorder for his birthday so he used to make skits every day. They would write and act them out and
have thier friends from the block get in on it too. Many years before the Youtube days. He actually wanted to be an
actor before anything but making and editing together videos took the best of him. He just always loved creating and
making things come to life for others to enjoy too.
Wolf has stated that what got him into shooting first was “from shooting those skits, but as I got older skateboarding
took over my life, so I almost always had a camera with me. From there, one of my boys from high school who made
music asked me to shoot a video so I said why not. It’s kind of crazy how i just stumbled into my passion at an early
age.”
Wolfs first big video was for Forsure by Lucki. He reached out to wolf on Twitter and that’s how “Leave With You” and
“Options” came about. He’s always showed nothing but love ever since. And after that he met Adot through his friend
Freako. From there he reached out to Freako’s manager to shoot a video for freako and that’s where he met Adot.
Wolf would love to be known as a great filmmaker. He said he wants “whoever to see his work to have felt impacted or
leave with a different mindset than they had before”.

11. CLM Agency. (N/A). Dexter Navy Photo. Available: https://www.clm-agency.com/photographers/dexter-navy. Last accessed 25th
March.
i-D VICE. (14 Jul 2016 ). Coming of age with Dexter Navy. Available: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/a3gmn5/coming-of-age-
with-dexter-navy . Last accessed 25th March.
Aesthetica short film festival. (6 November 2019). ASFF 2018 film library. Available: http://www.asff.co.uk/asff-2018-film-library/.
Last accessed 25th March.
Dexter Navy. (N/A). Dexter Navy. Available: https://dexternavy.com/ . Last accessed 25th March.
Dexter Navy. (2015). Dexter Navy. Available: https://vimeo.com/dexternavy. Last accessed 25th March.
Partizan. (N/A). Dexter Navy. Available: https://www.partizan.com/director/dexter-navy. Last accessed 25th March.
Lyrical Lemonade. (2018). Cole Bennett | 2018 Music Video Reel. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Mbc2gHk54.
Last accessed 25th March.
asapmobVEVO. (2016). A$AP Mob - Money Man / Put That On My Set ft. A$AP Rocky, A$AP Nast, Yung Lord, Skepta. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ274umjhFY. Last accessed 25th March.
J'von Keller. (2017). Stussy x Converse Ad (shot by Dexter Navy). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtV6gGld_SY. Last
accessed 25th March.
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12. Bibliography
A$AP Rocky. (2018). A$AP Rocky - A$AP Forever (Official Video) ft. Moby. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNzc6hG3yN4. Last accessed 25th March.
A$AP Rocky. (2019). A$AP Rocky - Kids Turned Out Fine (Official Video). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQI-
o02JYU. Last accessed 25th March.
David Turner. (2017). Cole Bennett, SoundCloud’s Favorite Video Director, Squiggles to Success. Available:
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198767/. Last accessed 18th July.
Nico Rud. (2017). Get To Know Lonewolf: Your New Favorite Videographer. Available:
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