If you mean the sequence that starts at about 2:25, I think that was just a short diorama-type scene. The “guys” sitting on the beam near the beginning are puppets, and the camera then comes out of the tunnel and back into the warehouse space a few seconds later.
There was clearly a cut. You can see the lightbulb through the curtain, and then once the curtain opens, you can see the lightbulb again, but it’s moved a fair bit.
I like how they’re all covered in paint from the start of the video, though. Some subtle acknowledgement that it takes multiple takes to get a thing like this right.
Their music doesn’t do much for me, but I’ve got to admit, these guys do some kick-ass videos.
Also, while the TV is pulling out from the diorama/bowling ball, you can see a number of TVs lined up and ready for more takes. After the hammer pops the TV screen and the camera moves to the next part, you can see a number of already broken TVs in the background. If that’s all of them, then the final video was the 8th take (or at least the 8th one where they got as far as the TV).
An article on its making.
You can also see a previous set of paint silhouettes of the band, hanging far off to the left of where the video’s set of paint silhouettes are made, if you watch as the camera pans over to that area before the splattering.
Where the hell did that trombone player hide his horn? That was something to see and I had to go back and see that part a second time.
The first video was even better though.
That article uses the description "captured in a single, unbroken camera shot ", but it still seems pretty clear to me that there’s a break as the curtain opens, as evidenced by the jumping lightbulb. Am I off-base in that thought?
Is this going to be a band who is better remembered for their videos than for their music? Up until not, they were the treadmill guys. Now they’re going to be the Rube Goldberg guys.
No, you’re not. I can clearly see it, unless it’s some kind of weird refractive trick of the curtain. That seems pretty unlikely, though.
Now all I want to know is if Kanye West thinks it’s better than anything Beyonce has ever done.
Reminded me a bit of this video. Though OK GO’s had quite a bit more going on and I like that they emphasized what was happening and not the band. Rube Goldberg-based videos are so fun.
IIRC, they had to do it in two shots because the stage they build all that on wasn’t long enough to lay out the entire track.
I guess it begs the question:
So what if it’s done in two (or more) shots…at what point does it end up being less awesome? (And there’s at least one jump in the marching band video as the camera spins around)
The inventiveness is above pretty much anything I’ve seen thusfar. I’ve seen Rube Goldberg, I have not seen Rube Goldberg synchronized to music, including band members, with references to the number of takes it takes to get it right. (And if the broken TV’s in the background are any indication* they broke 9 of 'em.)
- = course even THAT could be a red herring. There’s no telling if it took 4 or 40 takes, you just see 9 broken TV’s in the background and make an assumption.
Saw somewhere that it took something around 60 takes. I’ll try and find that cite.
Absolutely wonderful, and very cleverly executed.
From the making-of article linked above, they said most of the takes stopped after the rolling tire in the first thirty seconds. The broken TV comes fairly late in the proceedings, so even if they broke eight TVs before this shot, that only means that they got up to there that many times.
It looks like a giant Mouse Trap game, which itself was inspired by Rube Goldberg’s designs.
Of course, it’d be pretty difficult to top this one shot production - Russian Ark (Русский ковчег)
Very cool video.
The weird thing about the curtain is that there’s a point where the curtain is partially opened, and the both the light inside and what’s visible through the curtain itself can be seen. The image coming through the curtain appears lower and to the left of the light inside. If this were an attempt at a film cut it’s far too obvious for them to have left it like that unless it’s meant to be discovered. That said, it does seem like the obvious place to have a cut if you need it (the mechanism that sets the ball in motion isn’t really seen, although there is a string jumping when the curtains open).
I can’t tell for certain that it was done in two shots. Two shots would be trivial at that point in the video since simple editing could make change shots as the curtain opened.
IF they did it in two shots the problem is that they claim that they did it in one shot. If they are faking one claim, then the other implied claims are likely false. Unlike in the Honda commercial, the full mechanism behind each transfer is not directly obvious. It would be extremely easy to fake this for a live audience using manually triggered events that only appear to be connected to the original domino fall.
The Honda commercial is better on two levels:
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The events in the Honda commercial require extreme precision and perfect behavior of every little bolt. The slope of the rolls had to be just perfect. In fact, each mechanism was clearly designed to be right on the edge of failure. The events in the video are all brute force with nothing particularly delicate.
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It is unambiguously one shot, and all of the cause and effect mechanisms are clear.
I do give the video credit for the glasses chime. It is clear that this was done as is specifically because, in my opinion, the timing was less than perfect. It was just good enough. I don’t know exactly how the song goes, but the fact that they stop playing for the chimes is clearly the only way they could make it work. That is very clever.