One-Take Wonders
Today we are talking about one of the most impressive feats in music videos, The One Take Wonders. No cuts, no tricks, just one long, unending shot. You turn the camera on and you record until the song is over.HISTORY OF THE FORM
This is not a new technique. Orson Wells introduced the shot in Touch of Evil, following a car with a bomb in it. It's commonly used in films like Raging Bull, Saving Private Ryan, and Atonement to build suspense, a scene or to bring you into the world of the film.
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| Tony Jaa's staircase fight in The Protector |
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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ditPebZ8g |
Action movies often save their biggest sequence as a single-take, because it's both impressive and suspenseful. This style has been taken to new heights with the invention of the steadi-cam. And faked at length with CGI in films like Birdman, who hide their cuts in swish-pans and other camera movements.
These impressive set-pieces take dedication from cast, crew, stunt-people and camera operators. Camera operators are becoming stuntmen in their own right, leaping out windows (Bourne Ultimatum and Man from Nowhere), and running marathons around martial artists, like the scene from The Protector, pictured above.
So yeah, these are seriously impressive shots. If there was an Academy Award for movie with best use of one-takes it'd be Children of Men, the movie is absolutely wrought with them and it gives the film a real-world tension like no other movie ever made.https://youtu.be/-LjxKR0q7Yo?t=7
But you can fake the tracking shot with digital enhancement. Take this advertisement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJ-H8mvqr8&feature=youtu.be
And look how it was later adapted by film makers for comedic effect in The Other Guys bar scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5niaBQEpVQ
ONE-TAKE MUSIC VIDEOS
OK, we've seen the one-take used to great effect in movies and a commercial, so what about music videos?In the Spike Jonze blog we saw one of my favorite tracking shots in Drunk Girls by LCD Soundsystem.
https://vimeo.com/12918083
Another wonderful piece is Yonkers by Tyler, The Creator/Odd Future. It got Tyler in the running for a VMA. His video uses a tilt-shift lens to make this odd off-putting effect that reflects Tyler's sporadic lyrics and emotion as bounces between the emotions in his schizophrenia. And while it isn't a "pure one-take", as there are three cuts in it, I don't believe that takes away from the ratcheting tension the viewer experiences watching this.
Of course we can't talk about one-takes without mentioning OK GO. They broke out with Here it Goes Again and have capitalized on the technique as a part of their brand; This Too Shall Pass, WTF?(sort of), and White Knuckles.
These one-take wonders usually have to have something I'm going to call the gimmick. If you shoot a video of just the singer's face or the band playing then a video can feel pretty flat.
Like: Birdy's Skinny Love cover or Gun's and Rose's Garden of Eden, Weezer's Undone [Sweater Song] or Childish Gambino's Freaks and Geeks
So that's where the gimmick comes in to play. The gimmick is the extra piece of flair, that third heat, that keeps you watching. It can be a lot of things; a beard on the sexy lady, aprize for participating, an extra spectacle, as long as the thing is unique and captivating. It's the guy on fire in Wax's California, it's the bike riders in What's a Girl to Do, or the Rube Goldberg machine in This Too Shall Pass.
The music video equivalent of Martial Arts One-take wonders are dancers who do the whole choreography in one take. Of course Beyonce's Single Ladies A good one is Feist's 1234. This gimmick of the dancers wins it over pretty hard and adds to the feel of the song with its modest and cute energy.
Michel Gondry is a bit of a one-take phenomenon. He's directed one take wonders for:Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
Radiohead - Knives Out
Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
White Stripes - The Denial Twist
Lucas - Lucas with the Lid Off
Gary Jules - Mad World
Michel Gondry directed Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Green Hornet, and Be Kind Rewind. Movies that also used one-takes to great effect. So if you find yourself rewatching one of his films, keep an eye out.
The Lucas with the Lid Off video is an absolutely amazing use of set, projectors, mirrors, and movement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n852arn6uw
Another great one is R.E.M.'s Imitation of Life. It's pretty mind blowing. It's one of those that you can't just watch a single time. Radiohead's Knives Out is absolutely phenomenal and even incorporates some claymation into the video. Sure it cheats, but good luck finding out how on your own. I don't even want to know, I'm just going to appreciate it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ1iMQA0egc
A really really good one is Bat For Lashes What's A Girl To Do, the coloration and the simplicity and the harshness of the lighting give this video such a creepy feel. I haven't looked into it but I'm guessing the bike riders are professionals and lined up behind her and got far away, because it doesn't seem like two takes cut into one because sometimes you can see them bobbing behind her. And it certainly isn't a green screen behind her because she wobbles and stops the bike.
CONCLUSION
So what have we learned? What does a one-take do for a music video? How is the use of these different from use in film? Are they really worth all that effort or is it just the director flexing?SIMILARITIES - In both film and music videos, the main character/band has to hit certain marks at certain times.Both actor and musician have to hit physical marks in a space when prompted. And a band has to lip sync with the music, the way an actor has to say their line when the camera lands on them. BUT, the singing/playing can become a set-piece in its own right, like in this video, where the band had to sing and perform backwards.
I think if we're talking about similarities, we can see that the choreography of a dance may have a lot in common with the choreography of a fight scene. One character takes center focus while talented extras synchronize around them. Both impressive in syncronizing and hitting their cues when needed.
DIFFERENCES - Looking through the best and worst one-takes in television and movies I noticed a trend. The best action takes place after all the characters, and their stakes have been established. That way you're in for the ride and every change in action is a new beat towards or away from those characters' goals.
For Example
WORST: Daredevil Season 3 Prison Break
BEST: True Detective - Who Goes There
There are a lot of differences in these two, length, number of locations, number of characters. But I think the most direct reason that one of these fails and the other succeeds is character & their objective. Daredevil has two characters with one objective, to escape, and we watch them... escape. End of story. In True Detective we have two characters with opposing objectives, Cole wants to escape with his prisoner without killing anyone. His prisoner wants to get away from Cole and doesn't mind killing.
So what about music videos? The character is often the musician, they have no objective. So what makes a music video work vs not work? I think since you don't have characters with stakes, you have to replace that intrigue with a strong premise, and build on it for the rest of the video. In Yonkers we don't know Tyler's character, we know the premise: a disturbed man is having an existential debate with himself. And it's enough to be more interesting than say, Kylie Minogue shopping in Come Into My World.
It's the difference between Childish Gambino's This is America and Freaks and Geeks. While America isn't a one-take, it behaves like one. The premise is more than just Donald Glover dancing in front of a blank screen like in Freaks.
EXTRA EXTRA
This Frozen Heist video is a reference to John Woo's famous long shot in Hard Boiled, which sure isn't the first long-take in martial arts history but probably one of the most ground-breaking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OPyoJgV_YY
If you are interested in how the production company made "Frozen Heist" then you can watch this clip on LiveLeak http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e5b_1323572944
One of my favorites is the hallway fight scene in Old Boy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzB-mop6AA
ALSO:
2018 - Billie Eilish - when the party's over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMwTqkKSps
(2002) - The Bluetones - After Hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6rRJVaFc1I
Take a Walk - by Passion Pit. by David Wilson.
- It’s a cheat, because it isn’t really just one take, but it seems that way and the effect is intriguing.
- Death Cab for Cutie’s You Are a Tourist
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