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Music

The Making of Ali Love's Video for "Emperor" [Behind-The-Scenes Exclusive]

Turns out the severed head from the video was something else entirely.

After we saw the video for Ali Love's "Emperor," we were riddled with conflicting emotions, the most poignant of which was "Dude, I sincerely hope they didn't actually have to melt that dude's head." Actually, it was way cooler than that, as we found out when we talked to director Craig Murray about the making of this stylish love story between a murderous schoolgirl and a candle-headed bald dude – played by former pro footballer and famed Chelsea defender Frank LeBoeuf. Allez les bleus!!

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The enigmatic sensuality of "Emperor" definitely seeped into the concept Craig Murray dreamed up. Inspired by the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Gaspar Noé, and Asian exploitation films, Murray explains that he likes to create visual drama through simple means. "I tend to gravitate towards a practical-based approach wherever I can. I like to try and present dark subjects and themes with as much beauty as I can."

Murray's favorite part of the video involved melting down a prosthetic head little by little, creating a super-eerie effect. "Creating the head was a lenthy process involving casting, moulding, and layering color into the chamber, not to mention the stop-motion heating process used to capture the sequence," he explains. "The overlaid light effects throughout the film are all created using a long-exposure photographic animation process."

The final product is cinematic and thrilling, an abstract vision of a bizarre love affair with not a pacifier in sight.