Last weekend’s feature about Logan Dodd and Ricky Menendez AKA SuperSmash was well received. It also raised a common question: How did they make that underwater video, anyway?

 

According to the BHS alums/rap artists, who happen to be cousins, they did it with a waterproof GoPro, a weighted down tripod – and perhaps a little luck.

 

It all began one night when the guys were working out at a local gym – and doing a little brainstorming.

 

“We had just recorded like 20 songs and we were looking to make a good video,” Menendez said. “Logan was bouncing ideas around and some we liked – some we didn’t. Then, he said ‘We have a GoPro. What about underwater poker?’”

 

It was unique; that’s for sure.

 

“In (Bubba) Sparxxx’s ‘Deliverance,’ there’s a view where his head is in a puddle and that’s the closest thing to it,” Dodd said.

 

So the amateur rappers decided it was go time. Then they also realized something else.

 

“We were broke,” Menendez said, “so we needed to do something that was free.”

 

For years, Menendez had worked at Clarksburg’s VA Pool so he asked about the possibility of filming there and the facility obliged. Then, it was time to start thinking logistics.

 

“At first, we thought about playing the music above water, but once we got underwater, we couldn’t hear anything,” Dodd said.

 

The underwater rapping had to coordinate with the music, so the music had to go underwater with the artists.

“We basically had to try to keep the right tempo and rap the lyrics underwater,” Menendez said.

 

Then the next obstacle popped up.

 

“We found out that Ricky could do about eight lines at once and I could only do about two,” Dodd said.

 

The problem was that Dodd had a tendency to float to the top.

 

“The trick is to exhale all of your air so you’ll sink to the bottom,” Menendez said. “But that didn’t work so well for Logan.”

 

The problem was solved by weighing him down a little.

 

“A lot of times when you see Logan underwater, he’s holding onto a 25-pound weight,” Menendez said.

 

The artists videotaped each other. When Dodd is rapping, Menendez is behind the camera – and vice versa.

 

There was still some guesswork involved.

 

“It was really funny because you can’t see through the viewfinder of the GoPro, so we were literally praying each shot would be good,” Menendez said.

 

In underwater clips where both are in the frame, the shot was captured by an unmanned, weighted down camera, further increasing the odds of capturing unusable footage.

 

To up the ante, the guys shot twice the amount of footage needed.

 

“In a best-case scenario, you want to make a music video that captures the images and motions that go best with your lyrics,” Menendez said.  “So we would go down underwater and shoot a line. We didn’t really know if we captured it or not, so we’d do another one so we could pick out the best of those two. Then we’d do some filler stuff in case it didn’t all line up.”

 

There was only one clip that the guys didn’t shoot themselves.

 

“Eric Post filmed the shot of us coming into water,” Dodd said. “We did it on the deep end so I could do a backflip.”

 

It all took a while.

 

“We started at about 3 o’clock and filmed to dark,” Dodd said. “It took about four hours.”

 

The underwater set was believable – but a little water logged.

 

“We had a 25-pound weight in the center of the poker table,” Dodd said. “The poker chips were weighted and the cards were kind of soggy. We had to leave them all facedown.”

 

After spending hours filming, the guys spend several more editing the video.

 

Again, they were newbies.

 

“We bought the simplest of the Adobe programs and just figured it out,”

 

The rappers and amateur videographers had a pretty large file to work with.

 

“So we crammed all that footage into one spot and started snipping and cutting,” Dodd said.

 

Even though the color change of the clips adds a cool visual element, it was by total accident.

 

“It just turned out that way,” Menendez said.

 

The video was shot about a year ago, but was just released within the last couple of weeks.

 

“We had been waiting because we didn’t have any concrete offers,” Dodd said. “But once we went down to Orlando for the (ARTS Talent) showcase, we decided the time was right.”

 

The song’s funky, crazy beat makes it ideal for radio play. And the whole play on the Pete Rose theme also had some thought behind it.

 

Having accumulated more hits than anyone else in the Major Leagues, the all-star switch hitter, three-time World Series champ and manager was benched, so to speak, from the game due to accusations that he gambled on the games while part of the team.

 

“Just like Pete Rose, Logan had been sitting on a bunch of hits and couldn’t really do anything with them,” Menendez said.

 

But now, SuperSmash is doing something with all those hits. Just this week, they have been in Atlanta, recording with Icon Studios. Up to this point, they had done all their recording with Dodd's own equipment in a makeshift studio. 

 

"That’s why this was such a good opportunity for us," he said. 

 

Menendez said the trip to Atlanta was very successful. 

 

"We cut a few songs down there and they loved everything," he said. "They even want us to come back and work with one of their best." 

 

In some of the guys’ amateur recordings, there is a third voice. That would be their cousin Jeremy Gum, Although quite good at rapping, Gum has been unable to make a serious commitment to the art form due to recent prior commitments, including WVU Baseball.

 

“We have a musical page on SoundCloud and he’s on a couple of those songs,” Dodd said.

 

Read the feature on SuperSmash with links to videos HERE.