There's a reason music videos look strange. I could just talk about framerate, cuts and continuity... or I could get an actual music video director. And a leaf blower.
Directed by:
Sammy Paul https://twitter.com/icoepr
Produced by:
Cambria Bailey-Jones https://twitter.com/cambriabailey
Guy Larsen https://twitter.com/thisisguido
Director of Photography:
Ciaran O'Brien https://twitter.com/ciaranobrien
Featuring:
dodie https://youtube.com/doddleoddle
Dancers:
Deepraj Singh
Annie Fox
Leanne Vincent
Liam Wallace
Production Design:
Guy Larsen
Gaffer:
Christine Alexander
Camera Assistant:
Rachel Hutchings
Editor:
Sammy Paul
Colour grade:
Ciaran O'Brien
Runner:
Jenna Bailey-Jones
Extras:
Michelle Martin
Gianluca Suppa
Xina Jailey
Special thanks to:
Grant Stevens
Bob Stevens
Jenny Stevens
Matt Parker
Maths Gear http://www.mathsgear.co.uk
YouTube Space London and the team
A Penny4 Production https://www.penny4.co.uk/
Maths Gear didn't actually pay for product placement in this video. The dice were surprisingly painful.
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The opening shot is a little confusing
and a little unreal. That sense of unreality is because
nearly every shot in this video is being played back at the wrong speed. We filmed this section at 30 frames a second, but it’s being played back at 24, 80% of normal speed, so it just seems a little bit off. Plus, we’re using rapid cuts with
no continuity between them. Different clothes, different locations, different everything. We’ve also got some cutaways
in extreme slow motion, because it looks sp
ectacular, and it lets me do a moody stare into the distance without having to hold it for so long that
it becomes awkward. It also lets us fit in some product placement. Some of the shots aren’t slow motion, though. This is being played back
faster than real time, so that the dancers seem more synchronised
and precise than they really are. I mean, don’t get me wrong,
they’re good, but with the speed change,
their movements look superhuman. Also, there are dancers, because having attractive peop
le
move in attractive ways makes the video more appealing. We couldn’t afford a wind machine
for this shot, so we bought a leaf blower
from a hardware store. We kept the receipt,
so we can return it after we’re done. The trouble with filming everything in the
wrong frame rate is that my voice won’t sound right. So the vocal track for this
was pre-recorded in a studio, and I’m lipsyncing it at the wrong speed. If my lips don’t quite match up
at some point, we’ll just cut to another take, or to a
completely random slow-mo shot of
an object being destroyed, and no-one’ll care. Actually, this isn’t the studio where we
recorded the vocal track. I recorded this weeks ago
so we could plan everything, but we didn’t film that session, so we had to go to this separate
recording studio to fake that footage. This microphone isn’t even plugged in. - We’re now about two thirds
of the way through so here’s a middle eight from me,
the featured artist, in an attempt to cross-promote us. Our schedules d
idn’t match up,
so this was all filmed separately. Despite that, we’re still trying
to convince everyone that Tom and I met up and are great friends and are definitely in the same room. - This is the bit where we break up the video
with a bit of diegetic audio, so people can’t just rip the whole thing
off YouTube. This isn’t actually a party. It may look like we’re having
a spectacular time, as that’s the image we want to project, but in reality we are on our fifteenth take. Everyone would quite
like to go home. This final section is important, though, because it resolves the question at the start: why am I falling into a swimming pool? Because ending the same way we started
makes the audience think that there’s a sensible, circular narrative that
ties everything together. Even if there isn’t. You can’t buy this on iTunes
or stream it on Spotify. It’s... it’s not a song.
Comments
I thought about singing in this, then I thought better of it. Thanks to all the production crew who made this happen: pull down the description for full credits!
thanks for having me! I'll get our managers to discuss writing credits and PRS so we don't have personal beef that will interfere with our creativity, yeh?
A message to future generations, don't let this song die.
"this microphone isnt even pluged in" just killed me laughing
I did NOT expect to see dodie randomly pop up in a Tom Scott video. I can't believe they are such good friends that were definitely filming in the same room!
“This is not a song.” However, it is, somehow, a brilliant piece of art. Thanks Tom for brightening my day.
"Because ending the same way we started makes the audience think there's a sensible, circular narrative that ties the whole thing together...even if there isn't." 😂This video was awesome and so accurate. I thought I was the only one who thought music videos were just weird, random and...well, senseless.
This is painfully accurate.
"This isn't really a party; we're currently on our 15th take and would all like to go home." As a background extra I related painfully hard to this.
It always used to frustrate me when music videos had nothing to do with the lyrics- not even an abstract interpretation- nothing. But seeing this made me realise what a process it is to make even the generic music videos! Makes me appreciate it all that much more
Little does Tom know he made quite literally the best broad summary tutorial of a music video we got in the year 2018
This song never gets old. No matter how much I listen, I never get bored.
I love it when the actors of comedy act like everything is completely normal and don't even crack a smile, it makes it funnier for some reason
ain't a real music video unless youtube tries to help out the deaf people by putting the subtitles as [MUSIC]
This is a great video overall, but I think my favourite part of this is that no mention is made of Tom sitting in the huge bath. It's just an understood trope and hysterically placed.
the music directors must be so mad when they find out all their secrets and little tricks have been revealed... and those of us trying to shoot mvs (such as me) so glad we found an easy, free session on this :D
I love how people, especially if they're teens, always "understand" the deep meaning behind the video even if there is no meaning, its just randomness to promote an artist
Honestly this just feels like a poem about the beauty of how an artist sees their work vs the viewer.
when your happy, you enjoy Tom Scott's videos. when your sad, you understand what he's saying.
Dodie suddenly appearing is like a reverse jump scare. A jump comfort.