Metronomony - She Wants
This music video was made by Jul & and Mat. They are french directors who mostly create interesting music videos and commercials. They met in high school where they started to created short films. Their first successful video was L’homme 100 têtes (The man with 100 heads). They then created a a few commercials and a contacted the band Metronomony to ask if they could use their song for a video. The video was shown at some festivals and this enabled them to get their name out there.
The overall theme of the video in my opinion is confusion and disorientation, the video is set at a surreal, dream-like party. It follows a confused woman who moves through the strange people and events and ends up back where the video started.
I thought it was really interesting that half the video was filmed in reverse as opposed to the second half which was filmed normally, however they transitioned the two shots seamlessly to look like it was one shot. I really like the effect this gives as it adds to the confusion and surrealism as the audience notices the change but cannot see where the cut is. This adds to the theme and tone of the video as it is something the audience is not expecting.
I really like the video as it is really unique, I liked the way it created a loop as the main character ends back where the video began. This creates a really interesting impression on the audience as it makes them think that this will keep repeating forever, continuing the series of confusing events.
This video was made by using one shot technique, this is where the entire video has been filmed in one take or different clips have been edited together to make it seem like it is one video. She Wants was filmed using the second technique and this presents a unique problem, they need to find a part of the video that they can use to transition from each take. The crew have overcome this by zooming into peoples backs, walls and clocks so the cut is less noticeable.
Here are some other videos I found which use one shot techniques:
Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Rhett and Link - Just Being Honest (the one shot technique has been used from 1.23 - 4.05)
Filming using one shot techniques presents it's own problems. For example if one thing looks or goes wrong you have to film the whole thing again, this means that you have to spend lots of time planning and rehearsing the shot. In Rhett and Link's video they have lots of props including a police car which they need to put in the right place at the right time as well as moving it out the way for the next series of props to come through. Also in Taylor Swift's video there are various wardrobe and set changes as well as a large cast. This means that parts of the video are quite complicated and could easily go wrong.
To direct a one shot video you need to extensively plan every second of the clip/video as well as making sure that everyone in the cast and crew know exactly what happens at what time and all the necessary props/equipment are in a specific place and are not moved.