Outside my home in Venice. 2 am. 40º F. Humidity 50%. Perfect conditions for an interview.

On a damp and cold night a week ago, we had Mo Lawal come over for an interview that will ultimately be edited into three short pieces about the up-and-coming MMA fighter.

Our good friend and producer Nate Adams helped us interview Mo, as he has endless expertise in the world of wrestling and Casey and I are mainly art tards, fairly new to MMA and its many facets. We discussed everything from training partners to pro-wrestling to walkout music. Mo Lawal is only 3-0 but is quickly rising up everyone’s lists and will be a force in the light heavyweight division. His next fight is March 20, 2009 in Tokyo for Sengoku 8.

Looking over the footage, you can see Mo’s breathe in the cold air.  I was surprised he stayed awake and alert the entire time, considering we didn’t start interviewing until about 1:30 am and finished around 2:30 or so.  I finished roughly cleaning up the equipment (stuffing everything into the garage for later organizing) around 3:30 am.  Overall, I felt it was a great interview, a billion thanks to Nate for his help as he had been up since 7 am that morning, talk about a long day!

While the actual interview went well, the shooting conditions were hardly ideal but my garage’s ceiling is too low for the soft overhead light setup (and likely the Arri 1K would have left a burn scar on the ceiling).  We had to constantly stop for police helicopters and jets making a mess of our sound and occasionally, moths would fly through our frame, a few getting burnt up in the lights.  A confused honeybee even got obsessed with the Kino-Flo fluorescent light and spent a few minutes buzzing about between the bulbs.  Did I mention already that it was cold?  I really need to get a high-powered heater if I’m going to expect fighters to do shoots here.  They’ll freeze if doing studio photo work (perky nipples and goosebumps guaranteed) since those lights don’t really give off any heat.  At least Mo got to sit underneath a very warm open face light.

LC Davis and Nam Phan are also on the March Sengoku card for a featherweight tournament, as is Matt Jaggers, whom I photographed for EliteXC at their very last show in Indiana last October. I’m interested to see LC’s performance as his fight with Bao Quach at the last Affliction show was a fiery brawl.

Check back at a later date for the finished videos on Mo Lawal.