Does anyone know anything about the production of this music video? I must have watched it a dozen times and it still amazes me. How much of it had to be edited with a computer? It would be incredible if they got the whole thing with one take. But, for instance, I can’t figure out whom the mouth in the mirror could belong to, so I imagine what we’re seeing must be at least somewhat artificial.
Anyone?
The entire video only consists of a few seconds of footage. The film is looped. The director makes the film seem longer by zooming in (post-production) on different actors and band members.
Yeah, okay, at least I got that. By my count, there are 20 seconds which are repeated, backward and forward, a total of eleven times, plus a 10-second sequence of the Birthday Girl which occurs temporally after the bulk of the video. So, was all the footage we see actually shot in a span of 30 seconds? I guess I’d like to know if they had to do any splicing. Choreographing so many actors to do so many different things with the right timing seems quite overwhelming to me, but I guess that’s why I’m not in production. 
It’s almost entirely “pasted” and looped together using computers. The way it’s done means it simply couldn’t be recorded in one take, no matter how much it was looped, as many parts appear to interact with the others in a way that would be impossible in real life (in a action-reaction causal-chain kind of a way.)
A recent Kylie Minogue video used a similar idea. She walked around a street junction in a loop, each time around meeting up with her previous self(s). Very clever.
According to this Entertainment Weekly story, it’s 20 seconds of footage from a single wide-angle camera shot. It also says they rehearsed for a day and a half beforehand. Garth Jennings was the director.
Wow, thanks for the link! It brings up one question, though, by saying, “The action-packed scene was selectively sped up and rewound as editors zoomed in on tiny portions of the frame.” When was it sped up?
This is probably my favorite R.E.M. video ever. There has to be a major editing award somewhere that could be given to the production crew.
Bonus trivia: the ape sitting with Peter Buck also appeared in “Planet of the Apes”.
Upon review, I realize that the sequence with the Birthday Girl occurs temporally before the rest of the footage. I have revised my notes accordingly. Aside from the face in the mirror, I also cannot figure out what causes the champagne tower to collapse, or whether the woman with the microphone is actually singing any of the song’s words.
Man, I could watch this video all day. Oh wait, I have. I’m going to wear out the tape. 
From an interview with Garth Jennings, I heard the the champagne tower was brought down with a string held by one of the actors.
Where are you guys watching the video? Usually in the US MTV won’t show anything older than two months. Luckily I bought the single that has the video in Quicktime format. There’s also a DVD out there, but $15 for a single video is a bit much.
UnuMondo
Oooh! Where is this DVD available? It does sound like a lot, but I would pay $15 for a video, just this once. All I have is this low-res VHS tape that’s probably several months old.
The video is available from the usual internet file-sharing places, but I’m probably not allowed to say anything more than that. (that’s the only place I’ve ever seen it)
But yeah, R.E.M. is pretty good about getting their videos on DVD, and they are pretty easy to find. I bet any on-line retailer and maybe even some brick-and-mortar places have their DVDs, just check out the track list (they alternate between doing live DVDs and video compilations).
Oh, and since it hasn’t been mentioned yet, the guy pouring the champagne is R.E.M.'s Mike Mills.