World’s coolest one-take music videos

September 7, 2014 11:23 am 27 comments Views: 71

Kiesza’s low budget masterpiece, Hideaway, has clocked up almost 100 million views.
Source: YouTube

WHEN trapped in a YouTube spiral (we’ve all been there), there are few things more satisfying than watching a perfectly-executed one-take music video.

Whether it’s a big budget extravaganza involving everything but the kitchen sink, or just a simple, stripped back dance routine, there’s a special thrill in watching your favourite artist nailing a performance in just one take.

This year alone, artists including Sia, Kiesza, Kaiser Chiefs and even Weird Al Yankovic have used the one-take technique to produce dazzling videos that stand out from the crowd. But it’s a tradition with a long history, dating all the way back to Bob Dylan.

Here are the best videos ever to nail it in one shot:

Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965)

The one-take video that started it all. Dylan’s iconic two-minute clip has since appeared in many lists of the best videos ever made, and it was the forerunner to the modern music video.

Dylan, who came up with the idea, holds up cue cards for the audience, with selected phrases from the lyrics to the song. The cue cards were written by Donovan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth and Dylan himself. Since its release in 1965, the video has been paid homage to and parodied in everything from Love Actually to The Chaser.

Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy (1991)

UK dance act Massive Attack penned a modern classic with this swirling ballad, and paired it with an instantly memorable video showing singer Shara Nelson striding through a rough LA neighbourhood. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked, though:

“I leapt off running and stayed that way for 6 blocks. LA blocks! At the end of the takes I sat on the tailgate of a pick-up truck and they drove me back to one. I made it through 6 takes before I was totally exhausted and could do no more,” cameraman Dan Neece later said.

The video later became the inspiration for The Verve’s 1997 hit Bitter Sweet Symphony, showing frontman Richard Ashcroft walking down a London street and refusing to move or change stride for anyway. Contrary to popular belief, The Verve’s video isn’t one-take: it actually has more than 50 different shots.

Spice Girls – Wannabe (1996)

Wannabe was the song that introduced Girl Power to the world, and is forever linked to that wild, raucous one-take video, shot in the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London. But it didn’t happen without a fight: the Girls’ record company, Virgin, hated the video.

The problems, as they saw them: the freezing temperatures meant Scary Spice Melanie B’s tight top left little to the imagination; the lighting was too dark and gloomy; and they hadn’t nailed a ‘perfect take’, with many shots showing the girls bumping into furniture and looking behind them.

Virgin immediately demanded they reshoot of the video or film another for the US, but the group refused. The video was sent for trial TV airing in its original form — and thus became the best-selling single by a female group in the world.

Kylie Minogue – Come Into My World (2002)

Not so much a one-take video as several one-take videos playingon top of each other, this 2002 career-best effort from Kylie Minogue is such a triumph thanks to visionary director Michel Gondry. Shot in Paris, the video sees Kylie do four loops around the camera, passing a variety of street scenes — a couple breaking up, a rider who’s fallen off his Vespa, a child playing on traffic bollards. Each time Kylie finishes a loop, the scene doubles up, so by video’s end there are four Kylies and four of everyone she’s walked past, all side by side. It’s a one-take video, but with a whole lot of special effects added — effects that still hold up remarkably well some 12 years later.

OK Go – Here it Goes Again (2006)

Aka The Treadmill Video, this viral video elevated the LA power-pop outfit from Just Another Indie Band to a group with the whole world’s attention. Featuring a dizzying array of perfectly executed treadmill stunts, the video took a grand total of 17 takes to get right — quite the cardio workout.

The only problem: OK Go have raised the bar so high, each of their subsequent videos struggles to top the one before. The boys are basically competing with themselves nowadays, but it’s a joy to watch.

Erykah Badu – Window Seat (2010)

If you want to shoot a one-take video on a public street and not get in trouble with the law, here’s one tip: Keep your clothes on. Eccentric soul singer Erykah Badu didn’t heed that warning with this 2010 effort, shot in Dallas and showing the singer slowly disrobing as she wanders down the street. By the final few seconds of the video, Badu is completely naked, before shots ring out and she falls to the ground.

The video attracted attention from Dallas city officials for Badu’s public nudity and filming without city permits. Badu was charged with disorderly conduct for her public nudity and charged a $ 500 fine when a witness came forward. According to Dallas Deputy Police Chief Mike Genovesi, the witness “had two small children with her and was offended”.

Badu later paid the $ 500 fine and agreed to serve six months’ probation.

Kiesza – Hideaway (2014)

Rising dance diva Kiesza scored a number one hit in several countries earlier this year with the addictive track Hideaway — thanks in no small part to its perfect video, which you’ll definitely want to watch more than once. The ultra low-budget effort was shot on the backstreets of Brooklyn, which had not been closed off to the public — notice the confused-looking jogger in blue who runs through the shot at 1:55.

The Canadian-born singer’s epic dance moves in the video are made all the more impressive when you learn that Kiesza broke a rib just before filming began, and “couldn’t move for an entire month afterwards.” Dance through the pain, girl.

Sia – Chandelier (2014)

Thought Sia didn’t appear in the video for her massive hit Chandelier, which features Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler doing a particularly frenzied interpretative dance around a creepy abandoned house? Think again. There’s a portrait of Sia hanging on the wall of one of the rooms — best seen 30 seconds into the video — that ties in deeply with the song’s meaning.

The song is an alcoholic’s lament, reflecting Sia’s own real-life battles with booze and drugs (the party girl wanting to “swing from the chandeliers” to escape herself), and the portrait was actually sent to Sia by a family member when she was in the depths of her battle with addiction. The less-than-flattering rendering, Sia said, made her realise just how much her hard-partying lifestyle had taken a physical toll and helped convince her to get sober.