BornDay Roofshout to Grammy-winning Roofhead ADAM MATTA!

ROOFLESS DEMO SNEAK LEAK

HAPPY BORNDAY to Roofhead ADAM MATTA!  Adam is a world class, Grammy-winning Beatbox artist performing and teaching in many capacities with many combos, collectives, orchestras & groups, including his position as a permanent member of the chart-topping Carolina Chocolate Drops. He provided Beatbox accompaniment AND the voice of Tagz in our NYC premiere of "Roofless" a couple of years ago and was also gracious enough to collab with us on these underscore demos for several key scenes in the "Deal with the Devil" sequence of "Roofless," we produced for our developmental readings. Take a quick listen. It's basically just a set of 3 loop constructions with Strings...but I guess its special because it's the only new Roofless music we've publicly posted in over a year, so enjoy an aural taste of our lab-werkingz. hahaha. And yeah, Adam is doing the entire drum/percussion track on these joints. (String arrangements & Production by yours truly.)  

Concept Art by TuTchT IMAGING

BIG SHOUT OUT to our mentor STEPHEN SCHWARTZ

ROOFLESS Concept Art over the years!

We've created a good stack of concept art over the years of development.  From thumbnails sketches to caricatures to photo illustrations, here's a look into said stack:

ROOFLESS returns to LA for the next step! 2013

The reading date has yet to be established.  

We'll post the date when it becomes available.

NEW CONCEPT ART - from the SPIRIT WORLD

Just in time for Halloween ---

NEW CONCEPT ART from the ROOFLESS SPIRIT WORLD

(Concept art by TuTchT IMAGING)

When we set out to write a musical about the Hip-hop generation we wanted to have the ability to speak about the unfolding plot from the "Big Picture" point of view; from a character who could see the struggles of an entire generation and how our characters fit into the grand scheme. This, along with our desire to create a new sort of "urban fairytale" visual language, eventually led to a story structure that allows the audience to see both the Real World and the Spirit World, and the forces mobilized for and against our 2 young protagonists Scope & Marquee. 

To our Street Dance heads "TAGZ" could easily be described as the offspring of "BBOY NEGUIN and Tinkerbell."   hahaha.  In the storyline Tagz is a character that was created out of the imagination of principle character Scope during his troubled childhood.  He "helps you see what you can't see." He is the embodiment of "having vision." Similarly, he assists the Narrator "TELLA" bring the story visually to life for the audience via 2 foundational elements of Hip-Hop, DJing & Graffiti bombing.

To tell the story of "Roofless," Tella spins individual "tracks" from Scope's life for the audience by placing the appropriate vinyl on Tagz' and dropping the beat. (As you can see in this concept art, Tagz has been equipped by Destiny for this purpose.)  Tagz then flies to the top of the stage and paints the scene to life.

   

The majority of "Roofless" is a flashback to the summer of 2005.  While Tella and Tagz help the audience travel through time to see Scope's life, it is the Ghost of Scope's best homie Marquee who must contact Scope's present day son to explain to him the events of 2005 that Scope refuses to talk about.

The fourth and final character from the Spirit realm who intervenes in the lives of Real characters is the devil...herself. She is seen here in this piece of concept art offering Marquee's Crime Boss father the proverbial "Deal with the Devil"- a deal that ends up shaping the lives of both Scope and Marquee in ways no one would imagine.

CONCEPT ART THROWBACK

ROOFLESS CONCEPT ART THROWBACK

Remember this first "Scope on the Ledge" joint? After our initial sessions at the ASCAP/DISNEY workshop, on the advice from mentor Stephen Schwartz, we combined several of the original characters to create a new principle character named Scope. This piece was the first visual representation of our Roofhead homie!   Thx to NYC model Mike Press and Parisian photog Michael Cruzz for the collab on this precarious-perched image that helped people understand a little about this guy.

NEW NEWS ON THE WAY...

Its been forever since we've posted on here, huh?!  Don't be fooled by the quiet, smooth surface... much is bubbling deep underneath.  We'll be posting news of the next step in the "Roofless" journey in a matter of weeks!

In the meantime, keep up with our daily posts on our LoJoWerkz facebook page, where we regularly post great pics and vids from the world of Street Art, Street Dance, Broadway, Film, & other randomness that inspires us to create the work we create!

If you support young men of color in the fashion and entertainment industries, (or just like to stare at these handsome young brothers, lol)  you also might like to keep up with the daily posts on our TuTchT IMAGING page.  This is a photo illustration business that grew out of constant need to create concept art for our LoJoWerkz projects. It is a small-scale side business that produces photo illustration work.

Here's a clarification for those unfamiliar with the different branches of our work: 
LoJoWerkz is the production company of Tim Long and Jerome Johnson.  We create works for stage and screen. "Roofless" is currently our flagship production, with many other stage shows in various stages of development. We have some film projects in development too, mostly centered around the Street Dance community.  As a graphic artist, Tim operates TuTchT IMAGING as a separate business with a great deal of cross-over work with LoJoWerkz.)