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Finding Nima

Having directed videos for Hot Chip, Lily Allen and more, Nima Nourizadeh has been making waves for a while. With his feature debut, Project X, about to hit the screens, he tells Roe McDermott about working with Todd Philips, how the crazy antics on set might have resulted in a Project X baby, and the odd background of one of the lead actors.

Roe McDermott, 05 Mar 2012

Having made his name in the music video industry, Nourizadeh has achieved great acclaim for his work with Lily Allen, Lady Sovereign, a much lauded low-budget roller-coaster themed video for Architecture In Helsinki’s ‘Do the Whirlwind’, and his whimsical video for Jim Noir’s ‘My Patch’, which was dubbed by NME as “possibly the greatest music video of all time.”

He has also frequently collaborated with Hot Chip, who he describes as “great friends”, his hilarious video for ‘Over and Over’ – a tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the pop-promo-making process – gaining cult status among fans.

But it was his 2009 hedonistic, star-studded party-themed ads for Adidas that attracted the attention of producer Todd Philips (The Hangover, Old School), ultimately leading to his feature film debut.

“But,” the modest Londener hastens to add, “it’s not like I was the muse or anything! It was a weird way of getting a film made. I think Todd had a treatment with the general plot floating around for a while when he saw my ad. And I was away, actually filming another Adidas ad when he got in touch with me. I think he just really responded to the vibe, the style, the tone, the authentic material. So they said they wanted me to have a look at a 20 page treatment, I put my spin on it and it all moved forward from there.”

And it seemed he jumped right in the deep end. Working with “a huge cast of unknowns”, filming in a house with unmoveable walls to make the interior shots look as realistic as possible and five weeks’ night shoots almost destroyed Nourizadeh’s party spirit.

“It was a huge challenge, really. I’d worked with actors, but in such a small way. Here I was trying to get a performance out of kids that had never acted before. I knew I could do party imagery. There was a lot more to the film than that. It was a quick learning curve for me. Having someone like Todd over your shoulder is a huge help, just in terms of comedy and performance and keeping the audience in the back of your mind. It’s a lot harder than a four-minute music video!



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