Twenty-five years ago, Hayden5 Co-Founder Todd Wiseman Jr, a budding boy band member, met Usher on a flight from Florida to Atlanta as his breakout album ‘My Way’ had just debuted. Usher showered Todd and his family with words of encouragement about the pursuit of a career in the arts.
Earlier this month, Usher debuted a special 25th anniversary edition of the 1997 album alongside a mini-documentary proudly produced and edited by Hayden5 that celebrates the origin story and making of the original record.
Hayden5’s roots as a company are deeply threaded in music. When it first sprang onto the video production scene in 2009, music video work was at heart of the enterprise.
In the midst of diligently expanding its reach for brands and agencies, Hayden5 also passionately crafted music videos. That meant working with the likes of Dipset and Juelz Santana, Maria Carey, Benny Benassi, and Jon Batiste and Stay Human, among many other artists and bands.
But it didn’t stop there. As the years went on, music continued to weave through Hayden5’s work, and the company’s growth eventually translated to a longstanding relationship with Kidz Bop that was first developed in 2015. To date, Hayden5 has worked on roughly 80 productions for Kidz Bop, creating several viral music videos — like its ‘Old Town Road’ rendition— and commercials for the children’s music franchise along the way.
In the 25 Years ‘My Way’ mini-doc, Usher sits down to reflect on his emergence as an artist, the album’s wider cultural impact, and the creative processes that garnered new, reimagined versions of three songs.
Melissa Balan, Hayden5’s Director of Post, said her team was excited to collaborate with SONY Music on the project and have the chance to work creatively on the mini-documentary.
Melissa said that when it came to post production, Editor Max Wilde worked alongside Hayden5 Post Producer Casey DeMarco to lead the project’s creative execution.
“We had a few different stakeholders on their side that we were communicating with and it was a very strong collaboration,” Melissa said. “They provided some creative direction up front, but they also gave a lot of reign to us and our editor to piece the story together, and come up with style. They left it up to us to design the graphics package, and the overall look and feel of the piece.”
The short film directed by Dolapo Sangokoya also includes a collection of interviews with the original album’s executive producer Jermaine Dupri, and producer and drummer Ryan James Carr.
Hayden5 sent a production crew to Las Vegas, where Usher is currently underway with his ‘My Way’ residency, to capture all of the project’s interviews, according to Melissa.
The mini-doc features those intimate conversations while layering previously unreleased archival footage of Usher around the album’s inception.
