5 Questions with LAMAR+NIK
Jesse Lamar High (center), Nik Harper (right)
“Metta World Teeth,” by the directing team LAMAR+NIK, is a hilarious re-imagining of a strange interview answer given by the former NBA basketball player, Metta World Peace. We asked the duo about their backgrounds, how this project came to be, and what’s next for them…
1) Can you talk briefly about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in movies?
LAMAR+NIK is Jesse Lamar High and Nik Harper. We're often referred to as DIY filmmakers, but we like to think of it as just getting shit done. If that means we have to direct, write, produce, animate, etc. We'll do it. We're not above any job on a set. We both began filming our friends skateboarding and that slowly morphed into us making our own skits. At some point, we just decided to collaborate with one another instead of taking on projects separately. We're a lot different from other directing duos in that we didn't meet at a film school or a film set. We were friends long before we ever decided to even pick up a camera. We've know each other over 12 years now. We may as well be brothers at this point. Through skateboarding we discovered Spike Jonze. A deep dive into his work as well as Michel Gondry's led us to the world of music videos. We saw what they were doing and something just clicked for us and we haven't looked back since. Our first big break was for our video Magnolia (https://vimeo.com/52258194) where we made every single lyric to the song (188) into wearable cardboard heads. That video earned us a UKMVA and an Official Selection at SXSW 2013. We got signed to a production company shortly after and started doing a bunch more international work (Paris, Thailand, and the UK mainly). We've had the pleasure of working with Adidas, The Shins, Ogilvy & Mather, The Pixies, among other notable clients. Currently, we are making a shift to narrative projects. Features/TV have always been the end goal for us.
2) So, how did this project come to be, what’s the origin story? And can you talk about the development of the idea a bit, in terms of how you choose to visualize the interview?
We were on a commercial shoot in San Francisco in our AirBNB when we decided to watch the original Metta World Teeth interview. We had watched it numerous times before, but this time we got an idea. What was Metta thinking? The way he answered the question made it seem like he definitely had an epiphany about teeth. That type of thought and detail, although ludicrous, about teeth doesn't just pop up in your head out of nowhere. So we're in the AirBNB and one of us just starts acting out what it would be like to really be thinking about teeth that intensely. It was so funny that we even filmed a version of the short on our phones that day in the AirBNB. We let the idea sit there for a couple of years and didn't do anything with it, but recently we've taken a step back from the music video world to aim our sites at narrative projects. So, this seemed like the best project for us start with.
3) Anything you’d like to get off your chest in this interview, about teeth or anything else?
We do have a funny story about the short. Our video for The Shins was screening at LA Film Festival last year and we had a rough cut of Metta World Teeth we were showing to a couple of labels and production companies. Long story short, one of the people who watched actually knew a guy at RSA that personally knew Metta's manager. So we sent the video to the guy at RSA thinking we'd never hear back, but he thought it was hilarious. That guy then forwarded it to Metta's manager. At this point we were just shocked it even got that far. This was literally just a film we made because we genuinely thought it was funny with $300 of our own money. Metta's manager gets back to us and funny enough she sends us another interview with him we hadn't seen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmXzui5WjSY). Needless to say, she was on board. Ultimately, we had a call with her and nothing came of it, but the fact that this weird thing we made about teeth even reached her is pretty amazing to us.
4) Haha, love it… What’s your favorite film, new or old, that you’ve seen so far this year?
We don't really have a favorite film, per se. We drawn inspiration from all genres, styles, and stories. It feels a bit like choosing your favorite child. How do you do that? We just love film. Even if we watch a movie we don't like there is still some merit in learning what it is exactly that we don't like about it. That way we can avoid similar pitfalls in our own work. Likewise, if we watch a film and it resonates with us, we want to dive in and find out why. We love all that film offers, even horrible movies like Troll 2.
5) What’s next for you?
We're wrapping up post production on our next short I (Don't) Love U (https://www.lamarplusnik.com/idlu). We wrote, directed, and produced this one too. It's our first full on narrative short and we're pretty excited about it. We have a bunch of similar projects lined up that we are gonna knock out one by one, but aside from that we're also currently developing our first feature film, pitching on music videos, pitching on commercials, and writing constantly. Just trying to use everyday we have as an opportunity to perfect our craft. Life is too short, don't wait around for someone to green light your films.
Contact Info:
Website: WWW.LAMARPLUSNIK.COM
IG, Twitter: @LAMARPLUSNIK.