Ariana Grande Director Returns Fire At SAFIA Over "Rip-Off" Claims

Max Landis, the director of Ariana Grande‘s One More Time video — which has some rather striking similarities to SAFIA‘s video for You Are The One — has now defended himself against accusations that his video was a rip off.

Taking to Twitter earlier today, Landis said, “Holy shit the collective unconscious is fuckin scary,” before comparing SAFIA’s video to that of Fallopian Tube Screamer by Injured Ninja. All three videos feature a meteorite shower and a pink-hued sky.

“These videos are very similar. slow mo, one take, running, purple sky,” he wrote. “It’s almost like like tropes and themes are repeated constantly throughout fiction. Guys, calm down.”

Injured Ninja have shared a very similar sentiment on Facebook, saying, “SAFIA should chill the fuck out about Ariana Grande. Everyone likes one shot end of the world videos – you aren’t special folks.”

Landis went on to tweet, “Protip: don’t accuse someone of stealing for having similar tropes if you REALLY ACTUALLY STOLE YOUR VIDEO YOU’RE ACCUSING THEM OF STEALING.”

“I don’t love enough to steal. Anything. *Ever.*,” he said. “Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw meteors”.

“Everyone in the biz said ‘stay quiet, let it blow over’ fuck that. i respect Ariana way too much to let her get called a thief… i respect MYSELF too much. max landis doesn’t ‘let it blow over’.”

Landis says he’s talked to SAFIA about the situation and that “they were very cool about it”.

The director of the SAFIA video, Jimmy Ennett, said the similarities between his video and the Injured Ninja clip had already been pointed out to him. “I Googled the crap out of [the concept] before I made it and that clip never came up,” he said.

“I would’ve changed choices so I was sure that wasn’t something that people would see but I genuinely never saw it.”

Regarding similarities between his video and the Ariana Grande clip, Ennett said, “The colour grade and the final shot are very similar. Obviously the whole apocalypse thing is not an original idea by any stretch… But I think it’s more about the specific composition, that’s where it can get very sketchy.”

Ennett also noted that the situation could actually be pretty helpful for SAFIA. “At the end of the day I don’t mind that more people are going to look at it,” he said. “And even if they are tweens leaving really hateful comments then that’s okay.”

Landis has since tweeted at SAFIA and Ennett, saying, “I’m a fan of your work too, your video KICKS ASS. It sucks that the last shot is so similar… but it’s also similar to a MILLION OTHER SHOTS framed exactly the same way from a million other things.

“I think the lesson is: Don’t publicly accuse people of creative theft.” Catch up on Landis’ big day on Twitter, as well as all three videos, below.

UPDATE 18/02/15: SAFIA have released a statement backing down from the video “scandal”. The group say they are “ready to move on”.