Oct 2019
What made you get into filmmaking?
We both started filming skateboarding when we were younger. Girl Skateboard videos had a big draw to us
What are your favorite music videos?
There's honestly too many to list here, but we were definitely inspired by Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze early on.
What do you like about making film?
We got the opportunity to work with actors more thoroughly. It was quite a different experience than a music video or commercial. We had time to discuss the characters with the actors and they really gave it their all. This was actually Blayne’s (actor that plays Ryan) first time on camera also! Other than that, it was just awesome to finally start making steps toward narrative films. Television and Features have always been our endgame.
When are you doing a feature?
We're currently developing some feature ideas as well as some series ideas we have. There are a couple more shorts we're going to do throughout next year, but after that we're going to go for a full feature!
You survived the antville era: well done. How did you do that (not many have)?
Honestly. we just can't live without creating. We've almost quit at our lowest point. It seemed like with the few accolades that we have accumulated we still couldn't get paid work. We took a step back and just realized, "Fuck it". If we're not getting jobs in music video and commercials we need to at least make sure we're happy. Nothing in the world makes us happier than making films. So we'll just keep making content until we die, for better or worse lol.
PLUS You’re from gd Okla, are you still there?
Nik is in Seattle and I (Lamar) am in OKC. We end up shooting a lot stuff in OKC. The main reason we stay here is that it's pretty low-key in terms of filming. For the majority of the video shoot in Oklahoma ALL of our locations have been free. It's just hard to make things happen with $0 in LA because everybody knows the game. Getting a convenience store in OK is miles easier than in LA, for example. That's the main reason we based productions out of OK. Like we said earlier, we rather be creating than siting on our ass hoping someone will see our value. We're making our own value by just doing. Eventually, we'd love to be in LA, everyone would lol, but at this point in our career it's most important we are relentless with our content output.
How did you get permission to film Metta World’s ’Teeth’?
We didn't! It's technically a piece of news media and we parodied it, which falls under fair use. Something similar to how SNL gets away with what it gets away with. Other than that though we actually talked to Metta's manager before we released the video. She just thought the video was super funny and she even sent us other strange Metta World Peace interviews we hadn't even seen lol.
LAMAR+NIK's website is lamarplusnik.com