Scott McCullough: Prince’s Visionary Director
Scott McCullough has worked with many clients during his extensive career as a director and cinematographer, but few as iconic or revered as musical legend Prince. As a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he describes being “discovered” by Prince in 1991, and talks of a collaborative relationship being born shortly after — one that would extend a number of years and through many projects.
Yet, he didn’t always intend on shooting music videos, but rather through a process of elimination and after experiencing life as an extra on a movie set, his career aspirations shifted towards working in the film industry.
“I wanted to be an architect with some fine art on the side when I graduated high school. That took a detour after a job with a firm where doing any sort of design was decades off. Boring. My plan while in college was to attempt as many possible trades as I could see. Knowing how the architecture experience was only realized after being ‘in it’. I needed to explore hands on with whatever it was and discovered movies and film through being an extra and working as a production assistant on Patti Rocks. I was around the people and the energy that made me adjust the career goals,” Mr. McCullough said.
And his first immersion into Prince world would take place in front of a camera rather than behind it, hired as an extra on the set of the critically acclaimed concert-film Sign ‘O’ The Times, a notable production shot in Chanhassen, Minnesota, within Prince’s Paisley Park recording complex.
Yet he didn’t directly audition for a position on Prince’s crew — instead, he found himself working with the funk legend after exposure to his work within the Minneapolis film scene.
“I was building a reel of work as a director on local music videos. None of this was a good budget, but they forced my hand in efficiency and to be a judicious shooter. My reel was viewed by someone who was in the door at Paisley Park and I can only guess being the right time, right place had a factor to it.”
When McCullough was hired as a cinematographer, it was at a time that could best be described as commercial career resurgence for Prince.
Following disappointing sales from the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack and critical panning of the feature film, Prince returned with the ultra successful Diamonds And Pearls, released in October of 1991. The LP, infused with Prince’s patented MPLS funk and 90s New Jack Swing and Hip Hop, worked to produce a string of hit singles and establish Prince as once again one of the most commercially successful artists of the year.
While working on many projects from the Diamonds and Pearls album, his work can be seen on some of Prince’s most stylistic and grandiose videos of the early 1990’s, including fan favorite, “Sexy MF”, a sprawling funk jam from the 1992 Love Symbol Album and the lesser known, “Violet The Organ Grinder”, a track from the “Gett Off” Maxi Single.
Like so many who have worked with Prince, McCullough’s first experience on set was swift and daunting.
“I was blessed, but I couldn’t mess it up either. The pressure was really on, going from unknown, no budgets, to Prince,” he revealed.
To his recollection, the first day shooting with the music icon was wearing, not due to the tyrannical perfectionism that Prince expected of his peers, but more as a result of unexpected equipment malfunctions.
“My first haze was shooting the rehearsal with literally no lights or crew. The sound recorder was malfunctioned too. I shot this amazing performance and literally did not sleep thinking the film was bad.“
But it seemed, Prince was pleased with the end result and their work would culminate in a professional relationship that would span over a dozen productions, including video shoots and the rehearsals for Prince’s electrifying performance at the 1991 Special Olympics.
“Luckily, I got called back to do more, so things went from there to all sorts of shooting. I think I shot about 26 videos at least as Prince’s cameraman, 14 as DP and 5–8 directing.”
McCullough also shot some of Prince’s most energetic and raw live performances of the 1990s, largely performance-based film clips recalling videos from Prince’s early career: this time, however, with the freshly formed New Power Generation and his back-up trio, the Game Boyz.
His unique and instinctive shooting style seemed to compliment Prince’s energetic rawness, working to create a visceral and exciting viewing experience for the audience.
“I think I have an intuitive style. Meaning for years since I was about four, I was playing drums.When I was 8 or 9, I was able to get a hold of a 1962 Gretsch drum set from a family member I purchased for 50 bucks with my paper route money. I was always playing this thing in the basement to all sorts of music from jazz to Rush, Yes, Phil Collins and more…and I think this honed my ability for shooting to music. Knowing beats, measures and cadence helped for sure and I think that helped me stand out,” he said.
The impressive outcome of McCullough and Prince’s collaborative efforts can be seen on the performance-based “Daddy Pop” film clip: a high-octane 90s tinged funk track from Diamonds and Pearls, featuring Prince and The New Power Generation.
“Daddy Pop” was engineered to a raw and ‘real’ feeling video. I embraced the stage lighting and powerful force of the performance.”
Yet again, he had to adapt to the production elements, which, for a lesser director, may have been difficult to manage.
“Color correction in the video was a painful experience since the amount of smoke Prince used in this show caused a lot of light blooming and color bleed. This was complicated by the fact the stage lighting was programed for concert arenas — flooding and moving lights not only out, but upwards. The result is these powerful lights were blasting into our cameras. We had no way of pre- programming Prince’s lights, so I said let’s use them as part of the energy of the show…it’s real, raw and in the face.”
As dynamic and vibrant as the “Daddy Pop” film clip may be, McCullough is critical of the final result, favoring earlier takes in its place.
“My hope was that this video realized a fully executed edit. I was very disappointed that it was scrapped for other efforts. The first cut is what’s up and it’s an awesome start. I wish I had the other footage to cut it myself!” he revealed.
Like so much more Prince material, the clip to “Daddy Pop” was covertly kept and never commercially released. McCullough says he’s unsure of the exact reasoning behind this, but Prince’s affinity for perfectionism could have been a very possible reason.
“The “Daddy Pop” video may have been shelved for any number of reasons I would not know of. Parts of the video did get played on the tour and in promotions, but I was never a part of the marketing or planning,” Mr. McCullough said.
Prince was known as being fiercely autonomous — but also collaborative when the need arose. McCullough notes that his relationship with Prince was somewhat of a joint partnership, with both parties striving for the best and each enabling the other to do so.
“Prince knows what he wants and gets it. I was fortunate enough to be given more freedom with my work. I was unfortunate by the sense I was not given the huge budgets some of the other directors received. That may be a part of the issue. I recall getting a lot of attitude by outside directors and cinematographers who were, in my opinion, insecure about Prince’s affinity to work with me,” he recalls.
Not all of McCullough’s contributions were behind the camera, as he would also go on to write the treatment to the fan favorite film clip “Insatiable”. The music video to the classic ballad features Prince being the subject of a girlfriend’s voyeuristic gaze through a camera. Unfortunately, the job would instead be given to another director.
“I was a little surprised about that, but I guess being a team player is more important than to be too sensitive. Onward!” he remarks.
McCullough would go on to work on the Diamonds And Pearls Video Collection, an anthology of video clips and live performances compiled from the Diamonds And Pearls project, first released on VHS in October of 1992.
“This was all Prince’s idea and he said to me that it’s an anthology like they do in Europe. I don’t know of the influence, but I can say that in the “Gett Off” Home Video — which I shot most of as a DP — was unique. Having one song produced six different ways and videos, then was new.
“Gett Off — Gangster Glam”, “Gett Off — Housetyle”, and “Gett Off — Clockin’ The Jizz” were among the other videos McCullough shot for the home video.
“We shot parts of things and songs all over the place including unreleased Carmen Electra videos. Much did not even get released. Prince said to me once, ‘Never assume anything’ which I relate to everyday in this business.”
He would also work on the 3 Chains O’ Gold Home Video, a similarly anthological collection of videos from the preceding Love Symbol Album; released on VHS in 1994.
McCullough directed the music video to another fan favorite, “Call The Law”: the B-side to “Money Don’t Matter 2Night”, and released on the Diamonds And Pearls Video Collection. The lighthearted video features Prince shredding on guitar with Rosie Gaines on back up vocals, interpolated with the NPG throwing a house party, led by NPG rapper Tony M.
“I directed, was the cinematographer and contributed to the edit on “Call The Law”. I was happy that came out!” McCullough remarks. “Every element of that project just fell together easily!” he adds.
McCullough also contributed his talents to artists associated with Prince, co-directing the film clip to “Little Rock,” by revered saxophonist Eric Leeds from his debut album “Times Squared” with Pat Epstein. This project featured Prince as a musician on much of the album.
Prince was known to produce vast amounts of material, much of it left unreleased. Unreleased studio albums, live albums, alternate configurations to released albums and a collection of concealed music videos and films are all known to exist. Among these are films such as The Second Coming and 3121, but these are said to be just a small fraction of films never released to the public.
McCullough himself believes that the vast amount of unreleased material stored in Paisley Park and recently relocated to California may eventually see the light of day, but he is also mindful of the reasons why Prince may have chosen not to commercially release certain material.
“I hope one day more work comes out, but it may be an issue for the estate. You must respect what Prince did and didn’t do and there was a reason. I’m sure he is his own toughest critic, so perhaps that’s the main reason.”
McCullough has continued to make a name for himself as a successful director and filmmaker after working with Prince, even currently working on multiple projects.
“ I have ten movies or series projects I am slated to direct and keeping my hand on commercials.”
Some of McCullough’s commercial credits include General Motors, Ford, NASCAR, Coors, Pepsi, and over ten commercials alone for Kubota Tractor Corporation just in the last two years.
He has also provided his services for the National Veteran Foundation, filming a short spot raising awareness about the suicide epidemic within the veteran community.
“Over 12,000 on-camera submissions were sent in and thanks to casting director Michal Sanford, we honed in a few amazing people to appear in this important, award-winning project with screen legend Martin Sheen.”
“ Martin Sheen is part of the foundation and the concept was created to shoot people reading a letter, which might be a suicide note but is revealed it’s a thank you note instead. It’s an optimistic and unique approach to the standard PSA. I felt we could be far more respectful of the Veterans and focus on the people around them to help. We shot on stage in Culver City and used people who were affected by suicide personally in the spot. The idea is that we can turn this around and we can reduce the numbers. Thsis is clearly the message we need to get out.”
McCullough’s vast contribution to the canon of Prince’s career during the early 90s commercial resurgence and experimentation for the artist, should not go understated. Their many collaborations — from live performances to big-budget music videos — will continue to be cherished by fans and documented in a musical legacy matched by few others.
More information about McCullough’s work can be found here: http://scottmccullough.com
Special thanks to John Cameron and Floreta Precaj.
