Gonjasufi - The Blame - Desert and deserted Los Angeles

Director Neil Krug creates a desert in Downtown Los Angeles for Gonjasufi

The video for “The Blame”, a soothing yet melancholy track, features Gonjasufi wandering in solitude amidst a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. In conceptualizing the video, Krug recognized the song’s dark undertones and chose to enhance it with desolate imagery to bring it to life.

Having always had a fascination with the 1970s films The Omega Man and Soylent Green, Krug went back to these films for reference to prior to filming and selected quintessential Los Angeles locations that would be easily recognizable. A major challenge in the production of the video was creating the illusion of a deserted city within a congested urban metropolis.

“When you decide to film in Downtown LA, you concede to the fact that people are going to be everywhere and in every shot no matter how hard you try to block those things from happening,” says Krug. ”The real work was painting all the people out of the backgrounds in post.”

On top of being a talented director and photographer, Krug is also an experienced visual effects artist and did his own effects on the video.

“All the clips have undergone serious paint work to remove people from the backgrounds, says Krug. “Most all of the shots were turned into matte paintings so I could introduce the desert elements without too much heartache.”

For this project Krug teamed up with longtime friend and cinematographer David Myrick, who he has successfully collaborated with on numerous projects in the past.

“The Blame” is from Gonjasufi’s new album MU.ZZ.LE. released through Warp Records.

Artist: Gonjasufi
Song Title: The Blame
Client: Warp Records

Director: Neil Krug
Production Company: Honey Badger
Executive Producer: Gower Frost
Executive Producer: John Benson
Producer: Meredith Snider

Director of Photography: David Myrick
1st AC: Jon Jung
Key Grip: Colin Stoye
Gaffer: Wyatt Denny
Visual Effects: Neil Krug
Editor: Neil Krug

Special thanks to Laura Tunstall, Steven Hill, and Warp Records.