A Production Challenge That Made Me a Better Creator

Notes From The Process

Maryann Koslowski

Let me take you back to one of the first big music videos I every produced

with KJ Creatives, the Juice James Millz-on-the-way heist extravaganza. To

this day, I consider it one of my favorite videos we’ve ever done.. and also

one of the biggest “girl, what were we thinking?” Moments of my early career.

The plan:

-A yacht

-A jet-ski

-Two different mansion locations

-A warehouse finale

-No budget

-All in one day

I mean seriously… ambitious doesn’t even begin to cover it.

And while the final product was incredible, the behind-the-scenes was basically a

crash course in “everything that can go wrong when you don’t have your pre-

production in order.”

Juice James - Millzotw

Lets start with the jet-ski. James fell off. INTO THE WATER. With TIMBS on. Oh

and did I forget to mention? He doesn’t know how to swim.

We had no safety plan. No stunt coordinator. Just vibes. Thank God he’s our

friend and not someone who would’ve immediately emailed their lawyer.

Then there was the part where we had no contracts. No location agreements. No

paperwork to ensure we wouldn’t get kicked out. Again, thank you to the universe

for giving us understanding homeowners.

Scheduling? A mess. We basically speed-ran time travel with how often we had to

adjust our arrival times.

And working with a larger crew? Phew. If you’ve ever tried herding artists

(especially rappers) into one place… it’s like chasing toddlers who are emotionally

attached to vapes and blunts. Nobody wants to listen, and everyone thinks

making a video is “easy”. Love them, but bitch please.

Juice James - Millzotw

But here’s the beautiful part: the video turned into everything we envisioned. And

the lessons? They shape every production I’ve done since.

A year later, we shot another huge video with Juice James, this time involving a

literal dirt bike stunt flying over him. And guess what? This time I was fully,

completely, 100% prepared.

Sometimes you need that one chaotic project to make you the calm, capable producer you are today.