How Kinopravda’s Summer Vacation with Diplo and Miguel went Supernatural
What do you get when you mix influences like David Cronenberg’s The Fly, 1998’s Blade, Pulp Fiction, and a psychological thriller like The Crush? Of all the possible answers to that question, a music video supporting a collaboration between Diplo and Miguel would be one of the most surprising.
And yet, that’s precisely what that unique formula has thrown up. Last year, Kinopravda - the powerhouse directing collective repped by Imposter - put together a beautifully made and not easily forgotten music video to complement the duo’s single ‘Don’t Forget My Love.’ In the film, we see the two artists kicking back on a hazy sky and nostalgic summer vacation, only for their chilled vibes to be interrupted by a terrifying surprise…
Now, fresh from the track's Grammy nomination earlier in the year, the accompanying video is set for a double screening at SXSW later this month. With millions of views already racked up, something about the film’s psychological-vacation-thriller vibe has clearly made an impact.
To find out more about the film - with the help of some exclusive behind-the-scenes imagery and footage - LBB’s Adam Bennett sat down with Kinopravda...
Above: Diplo and Miguel’s 'Don’t Forget My Love' picked up a Grammy nomination for 2023, and Kinopravda's music video for the track will be screened at SXSW later this month.
LBB> Hello, Kinopravda! What was your initial brief heading into this project, and how closely does the finished film match up to it?
Kinopravda> Hello! It was a very simple but challenging brief - they wanted to have something grown-up and conceptual. Also, since Diplo and Miguel are good friends, we knew they would be involved together too.
Since we're a collective of directors, oftentimes we have more than one idea for a single brief. That was the case here too, only with a surprising twist - because this time it was one of the Kinopravda producers, Zoltán, who was inspired by the track and came up with the winning concept.
We could call it a conceptual piece, but the main idea was to pay a tribute to the amazing heritage of American monster horror and body horror genres. Naturally team Diplo had some tweaks regarding the original concept, but it was very smooth and inspiring to brainstorm with them - especially with Diplo’s creative director, Sara Nataf.
And needless to say, Mad Decent and Jasper Goggins were super open to collaboration and let us do whatever weird thing we wanted. We had a whole Kinopravda team working on the project, with Viktor as the lead director, Áron as our Head of Art, Danila as the creative director, and Zoltan as the writer/producer. We also had the honour of working with our longtime friend and collaborator, Marcell Rév, whom you may know as the lead Cinematographer for Euphoria.
Above: Diplo and Miguel deep in creative collaboration whilst on-set.
LBB> Right from the start, there’s a nostalgic feel to this video as it feels like a summer holiday before morphing into… something else! How did you manage to evoke that initial warm, fuzzy feeling?
Kinopravda> For us, references play a big part when initially working on a concept. It was important to create an atmosphere that sets up a contrast with the goriness of the ending, but we needed to have hints of mystery throughout the piece. We wanted the audience to know that a twist was lurking around the corner and that something was hiding beneath the surface, to give them a ‘wait till the end’ feeling before shocking them in the final moments.
The visuals are inspired by not just horror films of the late '80s and '90s, but a certain nostalgic aesthetic of that period which had a big influence on us and is the reason we were somewhat relentless about shooting on 16mm to capture the right look.
Above: The production team were able to evoke hazy, nostalgic-feeling vibes before amping up the shock factor later in the video.
LBB> The set also works absolutely perfectly in creating that feeling. Can you tell us anything about the scouting process, and at what point did you know this was going to be your location?
Kinopravda> Finding a perfect location is a matter of good budget, good schedule, and good luck. We only had two of these.
Above: A selection of behind the scenes images from the shoot.
LBB> Did you take any horror-based inspiration to help inform the look and feel of this video? Certain parts of the transformation into the creature at the end are giving Alien vibes...
Kinopravda> As you can tell, we are big fans of David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) and many other body horror films, so it’s a visual territory we wanted to pay tribute to. But beyond the more obvious references, we also have some scenes influenced by Blade (1998), Pulp Fiction (1994), and one of our secret ingredients was the psycho thriller The Crush (1993). So, there’s a lot going on!
Above: Zoltan from Kinopravda takes on the role of the monster to help Miguel get in-character in this BTS clip.
LBB> There’s a great buildup of disturbing imagery leading up to the final moments (for me the ungodly amount of ketchup on those fries was a tipping point!). How did you decide on what to use for these moments?
Kinopravda> It’s really thanks to the talent of Viktor, Aron and Danila, as they are masters of finding and inventing visual metaphors for certain situations.
Kinopravda is mainly directing commercials, so being very selective of the frame and working to convey as much information in a short amount of time as possible is something we do almost every day. It was super fun to do this in a longer format piece.
LBB> This video has been getting a lot of play since it was released - not least including a couple of screenings at SXSW in March. How have you found the reaction/feedback? Has any of that surprised you, or did you always know you were onto something good here?
Kinopravda> Reading the comments below the video can be endless hours of fun. We love how people are shocked, thrilled, and disgusted, or when a deep-cut reference is uncovered. The horror twist and goriness are definitely not something people are expecting from a dance track video for these two artists.
LBB> What was the most challenging aspect of this film, and how did you overcome it?
Kinopravda> Finding our hero girl was super challenging because we needed them to have something extra, which you can only feel, not necessarily see. We had many ideas, but, somehow, we all gravitated toward Tatiana in the end. She did an amazing job and literally carried the whole piece on her back. She is beautiful but has this crazy vibe which totally fits our concept.
Above: Tatiana Lombardo brought a mysterious quality to her role as the video’s hero girl.
Shooting with celebrities like Diplo and Miguel can also be challenging, but they were super nice, kind, and humble. Wes (Diplo) was very confused when Zoltán approached him with a regular handshake when Wes was expecting a fist bump, then Viktor’s fist bump attempt got a bit out of hand too. Wes also said nice things about Viktor’s coat, something like, “sick European look.”
LBB> And finally, is there anything you’d do differently if you had your time again?
Kinopravda> Yeah - the handshakes.
There will be two screenings of ‘Don’t Forget My Love’ at SXSW:
Monday, March 13 at 5:15 PM @ Alamo Lamar - Screen B
Thursday, March 16 at 3:00 PM @ Alamo Lamar - Screen A
