David Slade of RSA-Black Dog released the latest promo for DJ Rob Dougan, following the Aussie maestro on a self-destructive path as he runs against time to break free of society's barriers.

The genre-defying dance anthem, believed by many pundits to be the seminal clubbing track of the past five years, was shot in South Africa by Slade alongside DP Jo Willems to coincide with the release of the long awaited album "Furious Angels."

"The premise revolves around a man living in a society broken down to the degree that it travels backwards," explains Slade. "Dougan represents an individual who becomes lucid within that society, breaking free of its confines only to discover that he himself is on a self-destructive path."

The allegorical adventure follows Dougan amid a culture traversing backwards; people walk in reverse, cars run counter-clockwise and life no longer holds the promise of a future. Dougan sprints against this backdrop of pessimism, running forward over cars and obstacles in a quest to find the promise of a future. As his gait speeds ever faster, flames erupt around his body until Dougan ignites into a ball of flames to rise angelically to the heavens in Catholic pose.

"It was like going to war - every single shot was boarded perfectly so we had little room to make anything up," says Slade on the three-day shoot in Cape Town.

Dougan used a personal trainer to assist in formulating the correct backward running stride required for filming - Dougan was filmed running backwards then reversed in the final piece. Three types of strides became perfected to accomplish three varying types of running motions.

With mediocre funds in hand, Slade jumped on a nasty but cheap economy flight alongside his producer Barney Jeffrey and DP Willems, leaving most of the production to be set up in South Africa upon arrival.

"We wanted an epic film shot on a music video budget," explains Slade who was awarded the job in the tight UK promo market, known for its highly creative but low budget work. "Cape Town made perfect sense due to the exchange rate and the locale allowing so many different looks to be used."

Willems utilized 35mm Panavision equipment, shooting with spherical lenses on Kodak Vision 200T negative film. "It has a nice grain and is fast enough to get up to high speed in most situations," says Slade who has worked with Willems on a few jobs of late.

"I'd rather work with a DP who will do their homework and be there for me 100-percent as opposed to most big names who turn up for one day and that's it," says Slade on Willems. "I'm also a very camera oriented director and work closely with both the 1st and 2nd units which I consider to be synonymous."

London-based companies MPC and Smoke & Mirrors assisted in the post-production aspects of the promo.

"The grading was very specific," says Slade, working with respected colorist Jean-Clement Soret of MPC. "Jean and I worked on grading and painting colors on various sets and locations plus skin tones to create a low contrast, filmic quality to the footage. Jean admitted this to be the hardest grade he had ever accomplished."

Jean-Philippe Leclercq of Smoke & Mirrors succeeded in adding special effects, although most of the look was captured in-camera (Leclercq has since left Smoke & Mirrors to work on a freelance basis). Offline was left to Sam Sneade of his namesake editing company, cutting for five days to capture the necessary rhythm for the piece.

Slade continues to be busy of late. Now based in Los Angeles the director has just wrapped promos for Brit band Face the Music and System of a Down while sitting comfortably on two feature scripts presently going through the system.

"I moved out to Los Angeles about 4 months ago because it was time to work on promos with bigger budgets and move into some feature work," explains Slade.