"Indie Cindy" by Pixies, directed by LAMAR+NIK, is a narrative video that mixes camera sources and moves forward and backwards through time. The video is the second collaboration between the band and the directing duo, and like their previous collaboration, "Bagboy," it is a lot darker than most of the music video work we've seen from LAMAR+NIK. We talked to LAMAR+NIK about the video, working with Pixies again, and editing down their 10-minute long first cut into the final five minute video.
Doug: Was this video booked at the same time as "Bagboy"? Or as a result of it?
LAMAR+NIK: Their manager actually had mentioned doing some more videos for them initially when we first were pitching for "Bagboy." After the success of "Bagboy" we emailed him and basically let him know that we were game for another video. Then we started the whole process over again for "Indie Cindy." So I guess you could say a little bit of both.
Doug: You guys had complete freedom to do whatever you wanted with "Bagboy," was "Indie Cindy" the same?
LAMAR+NIK: Yeah! It's pretty great. They really trust us to do what we think is best. They choose from concepts that we pitched to them, but after that they just let us do our thing without any constraints.
Doug: Both of these Pixies videos have been a lot more narrative than your previous work, is that a direction you guys are trying to go in?
LAMAR+NIK: We've always been able to do cinematic and narrative-driven work, we just hadn't felt like the videos we had done earlier needed them. We're all about fitting the song with the right video. The Pixies songs were over four minutes. Usually with us, if a song is that long, we try to incorporate some type of narrative to hold the viewer's attention, complicated or not. A perfect example is our video for "Magnolia." If that was four minutes and we did that same idea, it would get pretty boring, but since it was under three minutes it just clips along. We really don't want to be pigeonholed into any genre or format. We're confident enough in our abilities that whatever we decide to do we're going to make sure it's done well.
Doug: They're also both kind of dark, is that a shift in your direction or something you guys are consciously trying to explore?
LAMAR+NIK: We have a lot of influences from different directors, art, and experiences that inspire us. This kind of shows in our work. We don't really have a definitive "style," which we kind of like. Our hope is that each time you're about to watch one of our videos you don't know what to expect. The only consistency we'd hope people come to realize from our work is that it's well-made, original, creative content. We like challenging ourselves and seeing what we can come up with. It helps us stay creative and constantly thinking. Our next video is a lot more "bubbly" - quote us on that haha.
Doug: What was the casting process like for this video? I'm assuming no one was a relative this time around.
LAMAR+NIK: Nope, no relatives. They were all people we once went to school with that really expressed an interest in working on our projects for a while. Emily (Cindy) is primarily an editor, Miles (Hooded Man) is a new actor we had the opportunity to work with. Nik also happened to be good friends with him as well. Mark (Boyfriend) we had seen act before and were pretty confident in him. The most interesting dynamic though is that Emily and Mark are actually dating in real life. That was a huge part of why we wanted to use them. It made some of the more dark scenes happen a lot easier as well as seems a lot more convincing on camera.
Doug: You guys mentioned to me that you had a 10-minute short film that you had to cut down to fit this video. What are some of the elements you ending up cutting?
LAMAR+NIK: Yeah. That was pretty intense. Our DP Spenser Sakurai had a hard time letting go of some of the shots. We did too, but in the end we had to cut what wasn't absolutely vital. Some of the scenes are so long, but so beautiful. Maybe one day we'll put it together and make a short film because honestly that's what it could have been. The struggle scene in the hotel, the dancing scene, the body dragging up the stairs. It's bumming us out thinking about it haha.
