The last time we talked to director duo LAMAR+NIK, it was about their “Magnolia” video, which features 188 cardboard boxes made into Lushlife's lyrics. This time around we’re talking to them about “Never Going Back” by Samantha Crain, a video that features 3,800 hand-cut images of Samantha. We talked to LAMAR+NIK about the process behind the video, and about what they now have planned for all of those photos of Samantha Crain.

LAMAR+NIK: It was really just one of those ideas we had saved away for a special occasion and finally got the opportunity to use it. We just wanted to do something that was simple and easy to execute, but at the same time would be visually stimulating. Initially we intended to put her cut out images on dominoes and push them over, but in the end it became what it is today. 

LAMAR+NIK: We shot Samantha on a white backdrop, edited that footage, exported stills from the edited video, and then took them to get printed onto card stock. In a two day span after that we hand cut and animated all 3,800+ stills of video. The last step was setting them up in order and filming.

LAMAR+NIK: When we got them printed up we made sure they printed the images off in order. We separated the song into sections and while we were cutting we would rubber band each of them accordingly. Other than that, we numbered the back of each group of photos.

LAMAR+NIK: We shot the video in a soundstage. The frames were set up in a spiral formation because we couldn't find a space that was half a mile long in order to go in a straight line. Spenser, our DP, made a camera rig so we could attach the camera to the front of a doorway dolly as well as knock down the stills. After everything was set up and the rig was built, we mowed down the images really slowly, then later sped the footage up to match the song.

LAMAR+NIK: We did a short test that we sent to the label so they could get a feel for how the video would be, but mostly we were pretty confident the animation would work based on some personal projects we had done in the past.

Doug: Did you guys run into any issues or have anything not go exactly how you wanted them to?

LAMAR+NIK: We actually only got to shoot the video one time. The tape we had put to the ground was sticking to the images after we passed them and we couldn't get them up after they'd hit the ground. Thankfully the video worked out because we had planned everything else so well. 

LAMAR+NIK: Below is a photo to answer that question.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.