Love that video.
This video will haunt me forever. Thanks a lot, Bearflag70. Who knew Danny Elfman is a pedophile 
–FCOD
Thanks for posting that link. There was a parody of this on the most recent episode of The Simpsons. I mentioned to my husband that I’d seen a music video with treadmills, and I couldn’t remember the name of the group or the song.
Then you’ll love the Patrick Stewart version
If you like that, you should also see Coldplay’s The Scientist. I also really like their video for Don’t Panic.
While not an official video, I think this video for Thom Yorke’s Black Swan is fantastic. Like the fanmade one for Radiohead’s Creep (done by this guy here), I know how they’re done, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
An early classic of special effects musical numbers: Fred Astaire doing You’re All The World To Me from Royal Wedding (1951).
Christina Aguilara’s Fighter directed by Floria Sigismondi. Watch Christina metamorphosis from a broken insect that has been speared by an entomologist into a glorius luminous moth, then into a badass black widow spider. I am especially fond of the jerky movements of the ballerinas. I also love Sigismondi’s Blue Orchid by the White Stripes.
Bedtime Story by Madonna, directed by Mark Romanek, who also directed Johnny Cash’s Hurt, Michael Jackson’s Scream ,and Criminal by Fiona Apple.
While we’re doing “classic” stuff, the animation students at my school worship Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. His short Inspiration, from 1948, could be seen as a music video in the broad sense. Claymation with glass: it doesn’t get much more “how did he do that?” than that.
Beaucarnea - thanks for your suggestions. I thought the videos you referred to were interesting enough, but didn’t have much of a ‘how did they do that?’ factor!
Jovan, many thanks for alerting me to the work of Karel Zeman. Wow! What can I say? What can anyone say?! Utterly amazing. And by the way, you didn’t have to say ‘Inspiration’ could be a ‘sort of’ music video… if you look back at my OP, I was referring to music videos or any other short form videos/films.
We’ve had several examples of ‘learn to mime the words backwards, shoot the whole video to reverse playback of the song, then reverse it’, but I would welcome more. I’m sure there are ‘better’ versions of this idea out there somewhere.
We’ve also had a few examples of time compression and distillation (learn to mime to the lyrics either speeded up or slowed down, tape it that way and then correct the speed for the final result).
There was one I distantly remember from the 80s that used this technique, I think, but I can’t remember it. It may even have been something Sting did. All I can dimly recall is that it involved someone dressed mainly in white prancing around amid lots of rows of candles. They had taped it speeded up (to a speeded up playback) and then adjusted the video back to normal for the result. It created a nice, soft, dreamy, floaty effect. But I can’t remember the artist or the song. YouTube’s search box is shockingly unhelpful when you type in ‘sort of 80s possibly candles thing, cool dreamy effect’.
I’m keeping this thread alive in the hope that there are other visual tricksters out there on a par with ‘Michel Gondry’, and that someone will help me find them! (I already know about Spike Jonez and Chris Cunningham).
That’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger” from the Police. Lovely vid.
I second the faces morphing in Michale Jackson’s clip Black and white. I was stunned when I first saw that.
Aerosmiths clip “Pink” aslo had me wondering the first time. My favorite image is the band’s guitarist who looks quite convincing as an centaur. The centaurs (horse part) movements even match the guitarist part movements. Of course, then came LOTR and narnia and Harry Potter and now when we see a convincing centaur on screen we don’t bat an eyelid and instead start judging his acting.
In the 90’s several clips similarly showed the camera moving around/through a freezed image. I thought the best dramatic use of that tecnique was in Eminem’s clip with Dre, Guilty conscience. . Remember the scene with the wife jumping out of bed, and Eminem and Dre playing devil/angel on the shoulder of the protagonist in the clip who has to decide how to react to that scene?
There was a once hit wonder back in the 80s - a song called carve You In Marble that used this technique - in this case, the singer actually learned to sing the song backwards - of course it was dubbed over with the proper forwards version for the video (he was walking through a field of bracken, catching pieces of fern and attaching them to the tops of plants as he walked by), but the singer’s party piece on the daytime chat shows was to sing the song backwards, then let the studio flip it and play it back.
Wow! Thanks Maastricht! No disrespect to other people’s tastes or anything, but that’s not the sort of song or video I would normally tend to come across - and I’m very pleasantly surprised. I’m very square and old-fashioned so I could do without swearing in music, but in all other respects I think it’s a fascinating song and yes, you’re right, the video is an exceptionally elaborate and striking use of what has become known (since the Matrix movies) as ‘bullet time’ photography. A lot of work has gone into that, and I’m really glad you brought it to my attention.
Thanks! I had the same idea about rap in general and about Eminem for being a rapper, but the guy has pleasantly surprised me time and time again.
A nice layered irony in the clip is that Eminem, during playing Devils Advocate, taunts Dre with Dre’s own “criminal past”. “You’re not so holy yourself, etc”. Well, Wikipedia shows that Dre has been a regular Jiminy Cricket, compared to some other rappers. Still, that part is supposed to “up” Dre’s street cred, and in doing so ridicules the whole streed cred-image.
Radiohead’s clip: “Street Spirit” uses a rather simple technique: in the same black and white scene, set against the background of a trailerpark, some movements are slo-mo’d down into freezing, while others actors in the same scene keep moving in real-time. Yet, there is a reason the clip has been voted no 2 “Best Videoclip Ever” several years in a row. The eerie, sad, dreamy beauty of the clip is….I’m truly lost for words, and I have been looking for several minutes. The beautiful images of the dog’s chain uncoiling slo-mo in the dust, and the dancers crouching low and jumping up… well, judge for yourself.
On another note, any of the recent nature documentaries presented by David Attenbourough also have a high “how did they do that” factor. Recent films have seen flights of birds followed by little silent areoplanes moving among them, for instance. Incredible zoom lenses have shown us tiny, near microscopic insect life on a screen-filling scale. Check out the "Life in the Undergrowth"series for instance.
The recent series “Planet earth” issued on High-definition Blue-Ray disk, shows wildlife from close up, but the animal just goes about its way, seemingly undisturbed by the cameracrew. Then the camera zooms out, and we see why the animal hasn’t noticed the cameracrew; the camera hangs (in a miraculously steadied helicopter) about five miles away !
Several spectacular entire hunting sequences have been filmed this way. We see a couple of wild dogs hatching a plan; then, in one shot, we see them closing in a herd of antilope, with each dog leaving the team at a specified turn. Then, still in the same camerashot, we see the antilopes panicking, fleeing, and falling into the trap of the waiting wild dogs. I won’t tell you how that shot ends; but it is not in a way you’d expect.
Thanks Maastricht. I agree, Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’ is deliciously clever, as well as being beautiful and a very good fit with the song.
This has been an amazing thread - I am really interested in special effects but would not come across these videos in my normal life. Absolutely adored Inspiration and Tango. It’s going to take a lot of time to get an understanding of the methods. I agree with Maastricht about Attenborough - particularly Life In The Undergrowth. I have watched it over and over. I dream of getting that sort of video equipment.
Given the OP, can we include advertisements? The rip-off of Tango has already been introduced. If this is a derail, please say so. Or if great special effects in ads has been done before (which I suspect is highly likely) then please point me to the thread.
I was just in the United States and saw a fleeting glimpse of an ad for a car, I think, with an ever growing number of singing animals as passengers. Can anyone point me to a clip of that?
Love this thread! Please don’t stop pointing to more!
I just remembered Bruce Bickford. Dupree’s Paradise, the music is by Frank Zappa. If that’s not mind blowing, I don’t know what is.
This is really mind blowing. It has just created a long-term, highly ambitious plan to create an animated video of a fantasy quest! I have a garden I have designed and planted to be a strange world on a small doll’s scale. A dark forest of succulents, a desert and cliffs with towering rocks, and so on. It is nearly done now.
Until this moment, I had thought of it as the basis of still images to accompany a children’s book. I am an author by trade. There are parts in Dupree’s Paradise which look to me like the animation has been done in a real garden. My dolls encounter fantasy animals, such as gold crocodies and silver spiders, witches and dragons, all of which I have been collecting for ages. Now I want to animate them! Oh dear, what have you started?
Any more like this?
Be sure to check out his movies too, especially Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Science of Sleep.
My mind is in overdrive just thinking about your garden! I love things like this. Do you have a blog or pictures up anywhere? I’m dying to see it! It sounds magical!
You probably have your music picked out, or a well to choose from, but if you’ll look kindly on a recommendation, this is one you might consider. It’s from the point of view of a child outside playing, and the sun is just starting to go down. It’s called “Ra Is A Busy God” (because the child is talking to the sun). I thought of it as soon as I read your description. Even if you’re not interested, if you don’t mind I’m going to think of your garden, even sight unseen, from now on when I listen to the song. Until now, in my mind it’s been a movie without a setting. Thank you!
Since this thread is still going, I’ll suggest another: the video for “Four Kicks” by Kings of Leon.
Equipoise: Thank you for your enthusiasm for my garden. I do think that discussing it further would consitute a major hijack! I haven’t even thought about music because - until today - it was the set for a book with still images. I know very little about music. I have a very good friend whose opinion I respect greatly on such topics and will defer to him when I get to the project. Meanwhile, I shall just enjoy all the videos being given here - I do hope this thread continues for ages!