Ninian Doff on Flytrap Filming for Run The Jewels

For Pulse Films director, Ninian Doff, the chance to direct a video for US hip hop artist, Run The Jewels, was a dream come true. But upon receiving the song, it felt like the ultimate creative stand-off considering the nature of the soundtrack with its graphic lyrics and offbeat verse structure.

However, having expressed his interest and excitement to be involved, Doff got to work and rose to the challenge with a treatment that went above and beyond and before he knew it he and a four-man crew were shooting footage on a microscopic scale to bring the idea to life.

Below, the director explains the concept and what the production process involved after Love Again’s premiere at Coachella at the weekend. 

What initially appealed about this track?

I’m a big fan of Run The Jewels and their ethos and creativity so I reached out through Pulse to be considered for a video. They came back with a track quicker than expected but I’d put myself out there so it was time to deliver.

I always want to make smart and surprising videos but it felt like they’d called my bluff. It was a slightly nerve-racking week or two when they were waiting for my idea and it took me a few more days to decide what do with it than usual.

I think the track is great and clever with the lyrics and I had a lot of fun ideas. Before the insects I was trying to write a script that was on a cellular level with small cells. I was going out of my mind to try and do anything different and had this microscopic, misogynistic theme. Then I got the image of feeding insects and a long proboscis and the overtly sexual orchid flower. It came together really fast from there on.

Tell us about taking the project from treatment to production – where do you start on a job like this?

Firstly, I have to give credit to Rik Green, the producer, and Sarah Boardman, EP, at Pulse. Rod Clarke, who shot it, has been filming David Attenborough stuff for the past 25 years. He shot Alien Empire in the early 90s and got all these bespoke macro lenses made back then. When he told me I thought it was insane.

We had a tiny crew because we were filming insects; they don’t take direction very well. It was five days with a four-man crew. We ended up with over 16 hours of footage which Paul O’Reilly at Homespun did an amazing job on cutting it all together. Considering insects don’t really do much there was a lot of trawling through, but it’s all real.

We put out sugary water for the proboscis shots. But the surprise was how brilliantly the bees fed. The gods of weird insect behaviour were definitely smiling on us.

We had a bee hive from Germany, probably about 10 butterflies and a ton of flies. We went to a maggot farm with rotten meat on the floor to get the flies. My next video will probably be set on a maggot farm.

How does it feel to bring these sorts of ideas to life on screen?

It can be fun and exhausting. I could think of something and a few weeks later be in that world I’ve created. There are times I wonder why I do it but in general I think it’s incredible and opens up so many mad doors to new things.

Is it a conscious effort to try to push the bar with your filmmaking projects?

It’s a matter of always trying to do something new. All my favourite music video directors are the ones who come up with an idea or technique that no one’s thought of yet and the rest of us are kicking ourselves that we didn’t come up with it. I’m hoping this will have that effect.

I got a great response to my treatment but had to keep reminding people that the video hadn’t been made yet. My treatment could have been more successful than the actual video. I’m very excited about it going online.

And now it is out there, how do you hope it’s received?

I’m very intrigued about what the YouTube comments are going to be like. I think Run The Jewels fans are going to be very into it. But it may well draw some of the internet’s finer weirdos out of the woodwork, definitely with regards to the last verse.