The One-Take Music Video

The idea of a one-take music video fascinates me. The amount of time, planning, and skill that must go into the production and direction of such a video is astounding. In some videos, the camera may not move at all. If that is the case, the set and choreography are very important. If you are producing a one-take music video, there should be a reason for this creative choice. The movement on camera should be planned and it should be interesting. OK Go produced a one-take music video for their hit song, "Here It Goes Again," in 2006, and it gained over 50 million views in four years. The promotion of the video on YouTube was both somewhat revolutionary at the time and beneficial for the popularity of the band, the song, and the video in particular.

In other cases, the camera moves throughout the entire video. In these videos, the set design and the placement of every object and person in the space is critical. If the camera is moving, there needs to be a specific path for it, and everything needs to be exactly where it belongs and timed to perfection so that things happen when they are in the shot. OK Go produced another one-take music video for their song, "This Too Shall Pass." In this video, they used a Rube Goldberg Machine, and the video followed the machine throughout the warehouse they filmed in. The video also employed the use of bright colors on a background of white and off white. The colors were found throughout the machine and they added to the interest level of the video. While the previous video is interesting to watch because of the detailed choreography, this video is more appealing to me because of the level of skill and planning that had to go into it.

Music videos are one of my favorite types of video to watch and to produce, so the concept of the one-take music video is incredible. I hope other bands follow in OK Go's footsteps, and I hope I can be a part of that in my career.