SparkForward: Single-take Music Videos
Spark Forward is a series of essays about film and filmmaking. It is part of Treepot Spark, a collection of initiatives aimed at igniting creativity and collaboration among creatives.
Conceptualizing, directing and shooting a single-take music video is tricky. It often involves coming up with a concept that lends itself to the song and story, serious technical abilities, and a lot of luck. When done well, it may even take a couple of watches to realize it’s a single take, but once you catch on, it’s pure magic.
It is difficult to narrow down the list but here are a couple of my recent favourites.
Jungle – Back on 74
Back on 74 is a song by the British band Jungle, released as a single from their album Volcano in 2023 with an accompanying video choreographed by the Dutch dancer Shay Latukolan. The music video is done in a single take and it gained “algorithm-based virality” on Tiktok when clips from it were replicated by dancer-influencers and their fans. In addition to the movements of the dancers, the smooth steadicam work, art direction, and planning of camera moves makes this one a memorable video.
Watch the behind the scenes video.
- Directors: Charlie Di Placido, J Lloyd
- DOP: Natasha Duursma
- Steadicam Op: Gary Kent
The behind the scenes video shows that the camera op is very much part of the choreography, something I witnessed when I worked as a 2nd AC and an editor on the Digi60 short film The Critic, (dir: Derek Price, dop: Karim Ayari) in 2012. The single-take short film had the audience following a meal from when it was cooked and plated in a kitchen to the diner’s table, all in one take. Since there was to be music over the whole film, we had the luxury of having someone clap out the beats and call out instructions to the actors on set. I can only imagine how much more technically challenging it would have been if we also had to content with recording live audio, which is something you will notice in the live performance in the one-take video for Say Something, the next music video.
Justin Timberlake ft. Chris Stapleton – Say Something
The expansive location and sheer number of people that needed to be wrangled for the reveal at the end of this video is remarkable, as is the work of the director, crew and steadicam op Ari Robbins (whose work you may have seen in La La Land, Mean Girls). It is also interesting to note from both the rehearsal and the final take, is that the performance was recorded live! Some fine focus pulling, a small zolly, and working in cramped spaces like the elevators, in particular, are a real flex.
Watch one of the ungraded rehearsal takes.
- Director: Arturo Perez Jr
- DoP: Bill Kirstein
- Steadicam Op: Ari Robbins
As a bonus, check out choreographer Mandy Moore scene breakdown the musical opening of La La Land. This one was an apparent one-take (with some digital help) but also involves some fancy camera maneuvering around the dancers.
Jith Paul
Web Designer, Editor, Film Reviewer
Jith Paul is an independent filmmaker based in Ottawa. While pursuing a career as a software engineer, he decided to take a detour to follow his passion for film and filmmaking, establishing Treepot Media in 2010.
He is a co-founder of the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, where he served on the board until the end of 2024. He is currently the editor of the film613 blog.
When he is not busy fighting crime, he coordinates the efforts of an international team of software developers and service providers as the Team Lead for Digital Development at CPAC, the Cable Public Affairs Channel.
Follow Jith on letterboxd. More at jithpaul.com
He is a co-founder of the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, where he served on the board until the end of 2024. He is currently the editor of the film613 blog.
When he is not busy fighting crime, he coordinates the efforts of an international team of software developers and service providers as the Team Lead for Digital Development at CPAC, the Cable Public Affairs Channel.
Follow Jith on letterboxd. More at jithpaul.com
