Dylan Smith Shares Love Of Appalachia With Music Videos

There are always people doing amazing things in Huntington; this is the Jewel City after all. We create gems here. 

But then there is Dylan Smith with Good Trouble video production. 

Smith is a tall young man with glasses, and his mind is always going. He has a lot to do. This graduate of Spring Valley High School and Marshall University has shown what it means to go on the world stage, right here from home.

Dylan Smith aka Dylegacy pays the bills by working remotely for iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas which airs weekly on Fox11 as a video editor. 

While that in itself is intriguing (working from home utilizing technology is still a relatively “new” idea here in Appalachia), Smith is a man of many talents. And he continues honing them.

Rather than stopping once he landed a job, he has gone on to pursue his creative work. And it’s not only opened up his world; it’s opened the world up to Appalachia.

Smith has always had a knack for film making. “I always liked movies to a more extreme extent,” he says, as he fidgets in his chair. “I sort of had an obsession with that world and that aesthetic.”

Smith started out replicating cliches, he says. He began paroding movies in high school. In college, he moved on to some short films and collaborated with other local filmmakers. He even edited some award-winning advertising commercials for Tudor’s Biscuit World.

Still, Smith wanted to be able to flex his creative side. After figuring out he wanted to do more storytelling, but short form, he realized the perfect fit: music videos.

This idea worked well for Smith. It turns out West Virginia is perfect for finding different settings needed for shoots and creative endeavors.

“You can really create any subgenre in West Virginia. It isn’t all gentrified. We have old school car garages. We’ve shot at the golf range in South Point. We’ve created everything from a high-class bar, to a low-class hole in the wall.”

You can tell by the way he speaks he loves the area, respects it, and wants to see it flourish as well. With bringing artists into West Virginia to shoot, he is able to show the many sides of West Virginia, and pose as an unofficial spokesperson.

From shooting in the woods in Spring Valley, to using the Ironton Bridge, Smith is able to deliver whatever aesthetic artists are looking for.

Like any true artist, Smith is always looking to push to the next level, and create an eclectic portfolio. 

‘I never want to recreate the same style. I like to be a mystery box director.”

Upcoming projects include “Rolling” on Wildflower Two this summer with rapper Nessly, “VeteMents” by Fijimacintosh on his upcoming album Nocturnal, and “Belly of the Beast” with BigBabyGucci on his album Homesick that is out now.

If you’d like to keep up with Dylegacy, be sure to follow his handles here:

https://www.instagram.com/dylegacy/
https://www.youtube.com/@DylegacysGOODTROUBLE
https://dylegacy.net/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Good-Trouble-Video/100088876576327/?mibextid=LQQJ4d