Paul Nox Bianchi witnessed a jawdropping spectacle on the shoot for US rapper Pink Siifu’s new video, at a Pentecostal church in North London. After its release last month he spoke to Ludovic Gontrand about the creative process behind an extraordinary production.

The Ludovic Gontrand-directed video for Devil’s Advocate'! – by Alabama-born hip hop artist Pink Siifu, featuring Ss.Sylver (Siifu’s wife) – opens with shots of a solo cello player and rows of empty seats in a huge auditorium. It's the quiet before a storm that brews over the next minute or so, as through documentary-style imagery, intercut with vintage TV footage, the scene is set for an evangelical religious meeting within this enormous space.

Gontrand's video has the sense of capturing a true event, and certainly something special happened on the shoot of the Devil's Advocate'! video. It took place at the Gracepoint theatre in Islington, North London  - originally a pre WW2 cinema which has now been renovated as an events space and Pentecostal church - in April this year.

Produced by Pulse Films in London and co-produced by Hamlet, who represent the director in France, the video was a passion project, to help Gontrand take the next step following his acclaimed previous videos, particularly for Didi Han's Youth last year. Considerable attention to detail was taken with the casting of nearly a hundred extras for the shoot and also the styling: Siifu and Ss.Sylver's wardrobe includes clothing by cutting edge fashion designers like Yenesai, Luu Dan and La Maskarade.

However, Gontrand and the Pulse production team (including producer Katie Scott and production manager Aja Abrahams) were also faced with the problem of shooting the whole video on a short shoot day - the venue had to be vacated before a genuine evangelical meeting took place in the evening.

A few months later, with the Devil's Advocate'! video finally completed, I was able to ask the director to reflect upon the process of making the video.

Above: Pink Siifu and extras on set of Devil's Advocate! video. Photo: Ludovic Gontrand

I really wanted to build a situation for Siifu to truly perform and have people react to him. 

PROMONEWS: Were you aware of Pink Siifu before the Devil’s Advocate'! project began?

LUDOVIC GONTRAND: Yes, I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time, and I’d seen him live several times. He’s a beast of energy when playing live, possessed by his music. What he does has always felt original to me.

What impressed you about the track?

It’s a trigger song: you can’t stay indifferent to it. The first time you hear it, you can’t sit still. Impossible to classify.

How and when did the project start?

I was already chatting with Pink Siifu on Instagram when the project came through Jocelyn Gabriel at Hands, around November last year. Jocelyn sent me the track, and Siifu and I started exchanging ideas.

What was the inspiration for the central idea of the video and how did you arrive at that inspiration?

Three things collided. First, having seen his live performances, I really wanted to build a situation for Siifu to truly perform in and have people react to him. Then the title, which pulled me toward Faust, a man who makes a pact with the devil for power or money.

And finally my long fascination with documentary footage of evangelist ceremonies, which always felt like something between a concert, a sermon, a scam and a possession. You never know what’s real and what’s theater. Put together, the video revealed itself.

Above: Ludovic Gontrand (second right, in hoodie) on set with Pink Siifu (second left) and 'the preacher' (right). Photo: Paul Nox Bianchi 

It had to feel documented, not staged: a real ceremony where the track slowly takes over the room.

What feeling or sensibility in the film did you want to achieve?

Ecstasy, mainly. I wanted you to feel the energy of the music in your body, the way the congregation does. To get there, it had to feel documented, not staged: a real ceremony where the track slowly takes over the room.

What contribution did Pink Siifu make to the development of the idea? Was there something or things that he particularly wanted to see in the video?

We had many rich conversations about world-building during the writing process, but his biggest contribution came on the day. He took over the room for real. We’d asked the extras not to act but to react, and Siifu made that easy: within the first takes he had the whole congregation under his spell, so I just tried to stay out of his way and let him work his magic.

Once you had your treatment/script, what were the next big challenges to bring it to life?

As usual with low-budget projects, the main challenge is to restrain yourself and make sure your choices reflects your contraints. And you have to push every line of the budget as far as it can go to get the most out of it.

We also made sure that without money, we could have time. So our pre-production was spread along three months. Oh, and we only had six hours in the location to shoot everything…

Pink Siifu and Ss.Sylver make a big impact with their strong looks in the video. Did you have a specific brief for the stylist Anna Zamora in terms of their clothing?

The devil is always the best-dressed person in the room. I just wanted them to feel magnetic, and true to themselves. Anna had a lot of freedom to explore; we shared references and she did the rest.

Above: Pink SIifu with extras. Photo: Ludovic Gonrtrand

The devil is always the best-dressed person in the room.

You needed a huge number of extras for your congregation. How did you cast them? And what were you looking for in your congregation?

It was a long process of filtering 1,000 headshots. I wanted characters straight out of a documentary, not a music video. My editor, Jerome Pesnel, once showed me Lake of Fire by Tony Kaye. That became our main reference for faces.

Your preacher needed to be both in command of the audience but also under Pink Siifu’s control. How did you find him? And did you have a chance to work with them together before the shoot day?

I was looking for a timid man, not quite sure of himself, whom I could puppeteer into a showman. A sympathetic face with shy eyes who would actually summon the devil to help him stand out. Didn’t get a chance to work with him before so he had to have that in him. 

Above: On Devil's Advocate! shoot, working the congregation at Gracepoint. Photo: Paul Nox Bianchi

It's a bit like throwing a party for strangers, then making the camera disappear so I can catch accidental beauty..

How stressful were those first few hours of the shoot?

I knew that the DP and the artists would arrive eventually. So I got started shooting what we could shoot without them. Inserts of the preacher, the models, and textures of the space that I knew we would need in the edit room. We rearranged the schedule as best we could.

Do you think that there’s a connection with this video and your previous videos?

Definitely. I’m drawn to world-building, movement and crowds. I like setting up situations that work like big playgrounds for the performers and extras, a bit like throwing a party for strangers, then making the camera disappear so I can catch accidental beauty.

Above: Pink Siifu, Ss.Sylver and cast assemble for group shot. Photo: Ludovic Gontrand

Siifu's biggest contribution came on the day. He took over the room for real.

How would you rate the difficulty of the shoot day, on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being Very Difficult)?

2. A fun day.

And what are you working on now?

I’m editing a performance piece I directed for a museum, and I have a few commercials coming up this Autumn.

• Ludovic Gontrand is represented by Pulse Films in the UK and Hamlet in France, Belgium and The Netherlands.