After Sean Metelerkamp’s Zef Side hit the Internet and was seen by millions of viewers worldwide, local rap outfit Die Antwoord were catapulted into global superstars.

Enter the Ninja, directed by Rob Malpage, follows on from Zef Side, and while the former was more of an introduction to the band done in mockumentary style, Enter the Ninja is a high budget music video reminiscent of rap videos in the United States. Both promos were edited by local post production company Priest.

Priest’s Luke Apteker was enthusiastic about editing the second music video because of the high expectations, and therefore challenges, attached to it. The young editor was a good choice for the project, having worked on music videos for local artists Apollo is Dead and Thieve. 

Luke says, “I initially felt a bit of pressure to produce something sensational but this mostly dissipated once I got to know and love the footage. I also got to know Ninja (Waddy Jones) better by picking at his brain with a metaphorical ice pick. Once I got a substantial amount of understanding of his vision for the project, it all went pretty damn smoothly.”

Enter the Ninja was shot on 35mm, accompanied by pre-synced offline footage. Luke says he started by cutting in to a conceptualised script with Ninja and then taking atypical tangents in the edit.

He explains,  “I’m sure I was in an unique situation with this edit as the creative director was also the performing artist in the video. We got on really well and there was a great synergy in the edit suite, which definitely came through in the final product.”

The cut was paced in line with the music track and primarily dictated by the tempo of the song.

Luke says, “Every frame brought out the band’s eccentric personality so I made sure to only use the ones that would do that in the best way possible, and present it in a creative way.”

Luke used Final Cut Pro 7 to edit Enter the Ninja.

If you’re curious about the member with Projeria Syndrome, his name is Leon Botha and he’s a well-known Cape Town artist. 

You can check out his exhibition with Velocity’s Gordon Clark,  Who Am I? Transgressions, at the Joao Ferreira Gallery in Loop Street in Cape Town. He’s a DJ in his spare time. Watch Enter the Ninja here and comment below.
Sally Fink