The Hype Magazine interviews Dale Rage Resteghini

“Dale Resteghini is regarded as the most prolific Music Video Director of the modern era and is known around the world in industry circles as being the only Music Video Director in the history of the medium to amass over 100 ROCK Videos and over 100 HIP HOP Videos from his total of nearly 700 Music Videos in less than 10 years.

“Rage” (the nickname his relentess pursuit of perfection has earned him) has worked with a stellar list of diverse artists of today such as Akon, Nicky Minaj, Fall Out Boy, Pitbull, Diddy, Soulja Boy, Ice Cube, Flo Rida, RZA, TI, Method Man, Redman, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Guns N Roses, Tyga, Camron, Hatebreed, Mudvayne, Li’l Wayne, Game, Keyshia Cole, Bun B, Birdman aka Baby, Lil Jon, Snoop Dogg, Too Short, DJ Khaled, Cypress Hill, Ludacris, DJ Kay Slay and many others during his career in music video. Always ahead of the curve and the one setting visual trends, from his color to his dynamic visual approach to filming, he’s often mimicked by his peers and is the one to look too for an indication of whats about to be the ‘next big thing’.

Resteghini has global appeal, and as such has helmed projects in locations such as: USA, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Argentina, Spain, Chile and other parts of the world.

Nominations for his work in Music Videos have been recognized by MTV, BET and VH1.” (Linkedin.com)

The Hype Magazine contributing writer Dylan Berry of Creator Collective delivered this exclusive interview:

Tell us about your first introductory to the biz and how you got started. “What was the pivot moment that put you in the game”.

MALE STRIPPER!!! I answered a radio open call while I was working as a trash man for my home town!!! Yup!!! After spending some time ‘away’ as a young man, I was able to focus on building my body up and getting tough for what lie ahead…I came out and I thought I looked good and low an behold…I had about 300 women throwing money at me. I have this to say, MAGIC MIKE was lame by comparison in terms of the story. That being said, that taste of adrenaline connected with me and it lead to me working as an actor which lead to me realizing my life long love of ‘movies’ was attainable. Now I was on sets for film and TV shows with STARS and I thought wow!!! And then I got behind the camera into production and then it just snowballed. There ya have it. Brutal honesty!!!

Your style has defined an entire genre of music video filming. How did you define this style.

Big question! Well let me confine the answer as this has the potential to become a novella when you start talking about that sorta thing. TONY SCOTT. Tony Scott films such as REVENGE, TRUE ROMANCE, MAN ON FIRE, DAYS OF THUNDER, ENEMY OF THE STATE, CRIMSON TIDE, TOP GUN, DEJA VU, SPY GAME and others just completely resonate with me visually more than any other of the greats. This subject is a matter of opinion and for me? The way he brought his scripts to life visually? Long lenses, crushed colors and was able to nail the nuggets in the dialogue and the nuances of certain mannerisms etc to me he gets a small nod over Ridley his brother which is essentially a tie…maybe because some of his bigger films were out when I was coming up in my teen years? Perhaps. Maybe because his films more so than others had KILLER scores and soundtracks too, and anyone that knows me, know that I’m supremely aligned with having to have an amazing score as well as song placement. I know exactly what I want to hear and what I want to see and HOW I want to see it. Being a Director is being able to make definitive choices in an infinite sea of choices.

In your career and over 700 videos, how do you keep your work fresh, inspired?

For me it was a long slow climb from even how long it took me to even get into the game. So once I did it wasn’t like I went to the top and started doing 500K videos. Nope. Not me. Not my story. I started at the bottom long before Drake. I had to do about 30 to 40 super low budget HARDCORE and METAL videos for 1K to 5K ON FILM before I cracked thru. Im not mad at that though. I learned my lighting, my lenses, my gear etc. etc., the ENTIRE PROCESS that way and due to that Im still working today where a lot of my peers have had to move on. So by the time I reached one budget level, I was striving for the next, then the next and finally I got to the top. And a lot of the stuff I had sone in rock and metal I used in HIP-HOP and then ‘others’ (I wont snitch) started to rip my lighting and my approach visually. I was largely self made and a bit older than a lot of the directors who came out of film school or were someone’s ‘protege’ (YUCK) hate that term, I had to not only bring down big dawgs like Hype and Lil X and Bryan Barber on my own, then I had to contend with their ‘proteges’ who had zero skin in the game by comparison and the way the nepotism and back door money husltles went with the label commissioners and their friends who had ‘production companies’ they didn’t wanna hear nuthin’ about a guy named RAGE doing their artists video because that meant that they were not gonna be able to eat from that budget. So I had to fight a lot to be able to not just work, but to work with STARS which is where the BIG MONEY WAS!!! And so I fought with my TALENT and my WORK!!! That inspired me. Eventually though, after 2008 when budgets were tumbling and I saw what was happening, I decided to leap off that bridge before it came tumbling down and set roots for film, TV and new media and it worked!!! That was the motivation…to get to my features!!! Oh I also got to be the first Director of the last generation to break open the doors to filming in London with some of their stars of the time by signing with a big UK rep who found me on MYSPACE of all places!!! That served me very well!!!

In what ways bad and good has the music industry changed your industry.

Its been a blessing and a curse. Music industry execs used to control music like drug dealers and cartels control what drugs hit the streets and what they charge. When the game went viral they no longer had the power. They went from making 10 bucks for every CD and Tape sold to making 39 cents from a 99 cent download. So after decades of making BILLIONS overnight they got crushed and they’ll never recover or at least be what they used to be. In the wake of that catastrophic mishandling of our digital age…tech in video has grown by leaps and bounds and well now videos can be done for free. Not that free means good, but look at the audio, rather listen to the audio. It’s laregly crap from a quality stand point by comparison to yesteryear…and if kids are ok with crap audio they’re seemingly ok with crap video content that has little or no lighting and little or any artistic aesthetic utilizing lenses and lighting etc etc and simply put, if you were to compare top videos of 10 and 20 years ago to todays??? WHAT??? Today’s videos wouldn’t stand a chance. Take Madonna’s biggest videos VS Gaga’s or Perry’s or MJ’s vs Chris Browns…not even close…Guns N Roses vs Fall Out Boy etc etc

We know you are working in film and TV now as well. Tell us about what you are doing to expand on what you have built.

I was fortunate to come up in a time when videos could make you a house hold name and a name within the community due to the fact that videos were ONLY seen on MTV and BET for the most part. So people saw my name virtually every day for seven years through one video or another and because it was by design NOT TO BE BOXED into a genre I always was bouncing from a ROCK video to a HIP HOP video…which was so much fun…no one else has had this success and I take a lot of pride in that. That duel dynamic got me cred with studio executives in Hollywood as well as agents and managers and now I have legit respect and cred with a lot of this town as well as projects in legit stages with some of them. That is the definition of hard work and being smart about the moves I made. I kinda had play this game disguised as pawn under my King’s cloak and well…I’m getting there…in the meantime…Ive enjoyed enough success to have been able to build a successful bi coastal presence and business.

How do you win?

WATCH ANY ROCKY MOVIE AND LISTEN TO LL COOL J’S MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT…REALLY REALLY LOUD!!! lol Well that’s one way!!! One wins by GETTING IN THE GAME, then STAYING IN THE GAME, then MAKING BIG PLAYS IN THE GAME…if you get knocked back, fumble, turn it over, miss a goal or a shot or strike out once in a while IT DOES NOT MATTER!!! You have to DEFY ALL THE RULES!!! You have to say FUCK YOU ALONG THE WAY SOMETIMES!!! You have want this more than ANYTHING ELSE…you have to be willing to outwork the others and out hustle the others and when they’re sleepin’ you have to be working!!! You want a vacation? You want to relax and go to the game? Good go ahead…I’ll be on set or in the lab working!!! YOU HAVE ONE LIFE TO LIVE!!! ALWAYS BE YOURSELF!!! NEVER GIVE UP!!! AND MAKE IT COUNT!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Vg4uyYwEk (@ 1:10 mark)

@REELRAGE

Written by: Creator Collective