One shot wonder: 'Sitting, waiting, wishing'.

So for my research, I've looked into several different forms of music videos, but one I haven't looked at is commonly known as a 'one shot wonder'. A one shot wonder is a music video that is conducted all in one take! This takes an immense amount of planning and needs to be absolutely perfect in the timing of the song and the actors or objects. I've taken the example of 'Sitting, waiting, wishing' by Jack Johnson. This is done all in one take, however it is all reversed. So the singing is forwards but all actions that take place are reversed, such as playing basketball is reversed etc.

It was very entertaining to watch and very interesting to work out how the director conducted each little section to slot them all together in one take. So I'm going to anayse some bits of the video. First of all, here's the video:

So to start the analysis of this song, analysis of the narrative, concept and performance elements.

I think that this video is concept/performance. Mainly because he performs his song the entire time, even though it's reversed. Also I think that it's concept because there is no narrative or plot so to speak and the effect of the one shot wonder and all of the things happening around the main performer make it entertaining and interesting to watch rather than to relate to, as characters in a narrative would. I think the use of this element, of things exploding and all the other events that happen around the main performer, drew me in because it left me wondering how the director and the performers had orchestrated each little bit to fit exactly in time with the song. Also it was very interesting to watch, because of the element of the reversal of the shot, fitting into the concept bracket. It made you think about the order that things had been placed in and how long it must have taken to get all the reversal bits looking correct! My particular favourite reversal bit was the part where the spaghetti fell on the main performers head, but it seems to fall upwards!

Next the lighting. The lighting seems to switch quite frequently in this video, going from one moment to being very very light white background and lighting to a pitch black section, with only a small fire to illuminate the main performers face.

This change in lighting makes the audience question which mood the perormers are in. Also the ambiguous acting style and the unconnected props make this video an altogether confusing one. However the lighting is mostly always very bright white, connoting innocence or purity. It is also to make sure that the audience can always see what is happening in the reversal of the shot. Using the fire to illuminate the shot in the pitch black scene is a very clever use of lighting because it shows two possible stark contrasts in emotions and is also very entertaining for the audience to watch, as it makes them question the difficulty in switching the lighting settings in a video shot all in one take.

The editing. There was none! Simple is as simple does.

Mise-en-scene:

Props. There were some spectacular props used in this video. For example the picture of a tree that was made of lots of little pictures was mostly always in the background of the shot which makes the audience question its presence. Also, another mostly constant prop was that of Jack Johnson's guitar. He was pretty much always playing it throughout the song, even when getting splattered with spag bol! This makes the audience connect with Jack's guitar playing, and associate him with a guitar. It could also be seen as him never parting from his guitar, as if it's his most prized possession.

Location: The location of this video is all in one room, making the audience even more interested in how the director and actors managed to orchestrate all of the elements of things together. Also, by it being set in one room, we become accustomed to that room and we don't have to keep switching what we relate to with each change of location.

Costume: All actors where the same throughout. This could be to connote stability and comfort in nufamiliar surroundings. Also the clothes are seen as 'normal', probably an outfit that anyone could wear, so universally acceptable with any generation.

Lastly, the music. The song is vaguely slow but has a steady beat throughout. Also its very catchy and the audience clearly recognises when Jack is lip-synching the chorus riff. This makes us associate ourselves with the song because we are becoming involved in the structure of the song by recognising the choruses.

Overall, I thought this video was spectacular! The effect of having the whole video in reverse put a fantastic spin on the video that made it visually exciting and inspiring to watch. I would really like to try and make our video a one shot wonder because I think it demonstrates a huge amount of planning skills, and proves very difficult when coming to directing. It would prove such a good challenge for both me and Carla, we would both enjoy making a one shot wonder extremely!

More research to follow. :)