Farming couple thought the initial call was a hoax when they were approached by a production company… but soon realised it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
Owners of a Scottish farm were left baffled when a production company contacted them on social media to be featured in Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z’s latest song release.
Michelle and Robert Sullivan of The Artisan Grower in Premnay, near Insch, initially thought the offer of being featured in the music video for the duo’s new song ‘Entrepreneur’ was a hoax, but soon realised they were being given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The video, which is focused around raising awareness of black entrepreneurs and black-owned businesses, sees numerous companies across the globe feature, with a main focus around American culture.
The only Scottish business featured in the video, The Artisan Grower can be seen at 5 minutes 11 seconds into the video, flying the flag for Aberdeenshire and the farming sector.
The farm specialises in ‘veganic’ vegetables (grown without the use of any animal-derived fertilisers etc), along with microgreens – tiny vegetables and herbs that are harvested at an early stage of growth.
Businesses from across America, Paris, London, Ireland, Japan, Israel and Montreal feature in the music video, too.
Michelle said: “We can’t actually believe how it happened. The production house which was doing the video for them contacted us via Instagram and one of the producers asked if we wanted to get involved. At first we thought it was a hoax, but then when we realised we were like, ‘sure, why not?’. I didn’t really expect much and they came back to us and wanted us to do some filming and it all rolled out from there.
“Because they are based in the States she was having a bit of trouble getting a film crew to come and film us in Scotland because of Covid-19. At that point I actually offered to film our content. We did it for the BBC Landward, we thought, ‘well if we can do it for them, surely we can do it for you?’. It saved a whole lot of issues and they gave us a remit of what to film. In the end they didn’t use everything and selected the bit they needed.”
Contacted just three weeks ago, the music video has been pulled together quickly and dropped online at midnight last night. It has already been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube and can be streamed on Spotify.
She added: “They contacted us around three weeks ago and they wanted us to film as soon as possible as they said the project had moved along really quickly. We didn’t feel ready as they wanted to send a crew out just a few days later and the farm wasn’t how we wanted it to look, so that’s when I offered to do it myself. We’re so busy and we didn’t know how we were going to do it, but I felt much more comfortable filming than having a film crew out at the farm for three hours.
“We filmed a full delivery but looking at the video I think what they have done is highlight a lot of the American firms mainly as they are based in America.
“In the credits at the end they focused on all of the international businesses, which we were one of. They only used a little bit of our footage but it is still crazy! We were a little nervous about the video because we are Christians, but we thought if they are trying to promote black businesses then it is probably going to be more of a montage. They told us it would be documentary style and it was very clean and we’re really happy with it.”
Unsure exactly what they had signed up for, Michelle and Robert had to wait until the single and music video was released. They had no idea how the opportunity landed in their Instagram inbox, but are grateful to one of the producer’s auntie’s who pitched their business to be included.
“It was only this week we signed contracts. I think it was with Sony, Columbia Records and Sony Music, just giving them permission to own the footage. We didn’t get to hear or see anything before and we had to sign a confidentiality contract, too,” said Michelle.
“I messaged the producer today asking how she found us as we had no idea why they decided to use us. She said it was her auntie who told her about us – but that didn’t really help as we didn’t know her, so we have no idea how this has all happened.
“At the beginning when we started farming, being Christians we did pray and asked the Lord to bless our endeavours and since then we’ve had this, the BBC and all sorts.”
https://www.facebook.com/Pharrell/photos/a.274187742627627/3233650863347952/
