The Chemical Brothers ‘Sometimes I Feel So Deserted’ by Ninian Doff

Cat Velez - 18th Aug 2015

Ninian Doff joins the select band of directors who have made a video for The Chemical Brothers, and has duly hit it out of the park with this white-knuckle ride of unrelenting suspense and plot twists for Sometimes I Feel So Deserted.

A post-apocalyptic thriller, where the hunted girl with a badly broken leg is far more than she initially seems, this is Doff's most cinematic video yet - shot in a stunning, eerily flat desert in southern Spain. But with the gripping drama, the director's characteristic humour bursts through - like the gushing oil our inhuman heroine craves...

NINIAN DOFF:

"There are only a handful of bands that have a real iconic history with music videos, alongside their musical legacy and Chemical Brothers are definitely way up there on that list. So getting one of their tracks to write on was exciting, as I pretty much grew up obsessing over their videos.

"The track is amazing - it keeps surprising you with pretty-out-there sounds and time changes; I think that actually really informed the development of the idea and directing style. The track almost works like a sound design in film, those huge clanging sounds or crazy rising builds progress throughout the track and you can't ignore them so you have to craft the idea to work with those elements. It’s probably the most any track has been visually linked in my work - pretty much every beat or sample directly matches what the camera or actor is doing.

"Working with Ross McLennan - the DOP - I tried to approach this as a perfect score to a cinematic scene. The idea is pretty out there and also quite disturbing (well to other people, I don't think so!) but when you’re making a music video for the Chemical Brothers, I had to push my ideas and creativity as far as I possibly could. I had to make something that was unique, but also gripping.

"We shot it in a very strange, very flat, lifeless space in Teruell in Spain. The shoot was exhausting and relentless: we suffered thunder and lightning storms, floods (in a desert!) and military police clamp downs. But despite all of that, we managed to shoot everything - and of course I have to give a huge thanks to the amazing crew and cast who battled on alongside me despite the storm clouds growing above us.”