OT: Weird Al gets Tacky

[Stonent]

You know you grew up in the 80s if you still get a little excited when Weird Al releases a video.

http://www.nerdist.com/vepisode/weird-al-yankovic-gets-tacky-with-pharrells-happy/

Feast your eyes on the video for “Tacky,” a wonderfully warped and wacky version of Pharrell’s hyper-bubbly mega-hit, “Happy.”

Featuring guest appearances from comedians Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal and Jack Black, the video was shot on location at the historic Palace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, the same space that was used as Julianne Moore’s apartment in The Big Lebowski.

[EEVblog]

Weird Al is beyond awesome.
I wonder how many times they had to re-do that shoot to get it all perfect in one shot?

[TheBorg]

Showed this to my sister, and she said it ruined "Happy" for her. Weird Al 1, sister 0
 

[Rory]

Weird Al is beyond awesome.
I wonder how many times they had to re-do that shoot to get it all perfect in one shot?

Saw him live, he is absolutely talented far beyond what any one man has any right to be. 

Wonder who the director of that video was... making one long tracking shot work the way it does is quite an achievement.

And we have seven more new videos to look forward to, over the next week! Woo!

[Bored@Work]

I am not so sure it is one long shot. There are a few pannings that could be there to connect shots, e.g. at 00:50.

[EEVblog]

Saw him live, he is absolutely talented far beyond what any one man has any right to be. 

Yep, seen him live too.
Very awesome if anyone ever gets the chance.

[EEVblog]

I am not so sure it is one long shot.

I'd bet my bottom dollar it is.
You don't go to all the effort to set that up and then fake it.

[pickle9000]

My favorites

Franks 2000 Inch TV and The Night Santa Went Crazy

[Richard Crowley]

The "pan across the corner" at around 2:01 is a very popular and virtually invisible edit point. However, I agree it looks like a single take.  But selecting a space that was reasonably well lit, and not having to worry about sound (sloppy lip-sync) make this not all that difficult to pull off. Especially compared to some of those screen accomplishments from the previous century with the primitive equipment of the day.  For example, Hitchcock's film "Rope" (1948) was composed of shots that were limited to the maximum load of film that the cameras of the day would take (1000 ft = 10 minutes each).

Yankovic's 3-minute live in 1 take video seems trivial compared to "Russian Ark" (2002):  2000 Actors. 300 years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot.  (99 minutes!)  Recorded direct to hard drive.

In the last week, I've been the technical director (as well as broadcast engineer) for four 90-minute live-broadcast productions with 5 cameras plus graphics, and I can attest that it is mentally exhausting work.

[dexters_lab]

Weird Al is just plain awesome and have a few of his albums, never seen him live though, i dont think he makes it to the UK very often.

the rest of his band are also very talented musicians

[mikeselectricstuff]

There were a few potential edit points - e.g. the pans in & out of the lift. if you really did it in one shot I'd think you'd want to avoid anything that could look like an edit point.
Why make life harder & more expensive  than it needs to be

[AndyC_772]

Spoken like a true engineer!

[PE1RKI]

haha, with jack black 

[deth502]

damn, he still looks exactly like he did in the 80's. times been good to him.

[GK]

My ears are bleeding.

[rolycat]

"Word Crimes", the parody of Robin Thicke's hit which is also on his new album, is absolute genius.

Really hope there's a video.

Sample lyrics:

Okay now here's the deal, I'll try to educate ya
Gonna familiarize you with the nomenclature
You'll learn the definitions of nouns and prepositions
Literacy's your mission
And that's why I think it's a good time
To learn some grammar (what)
Now did I stammer?
Work on that grammar

[EEVblog]

But selecting a space that was reasonably well lit, and not having to worry about sound (sloppy lip-sync) make this not all that difficult to pull off.

Lighting you'd have pre-arranged, and only other issues would be the actors cues and composure and other physical goofs like the steadycam person tripping/bumping, or the lift not working right etc
A few full scale rehearsals and you'd probably nail it in take or two with a bit of luck. Maybe you'd shoot 3 takes or something and chose the one you liked the best.

Yankovic's 3-minute live in 1 take video seems trivial compared to "Russian Ark" (2002):  2000 Actors. 300 years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot.  (99 minutes!)  Recorded direct to hard drive.

I liked the live version of Fail Safe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_Safe_%282000_TV_film%29
Not a single shot thing, but huge effort to produce and act the whole thing live to TV.

[EEVblog]

There were a few potential edit points - e.g. the pans in & out of the lift. if you really did it in one shot I'd think you'd want to avoid anything that could look like an edit point.
Why make life harder & more expensive  than it needs to be

That's the entire challenge of shooting in one take like that, you want to make it a bit complex to really show off the effect.
I suspect they weren't at all fussed about scenes and angles doubters might try and use as evidence it's not one shot.
They just did it because it was cool, and it is what it is. Doubters can knock themselves out picking holes.

[GK]

I hope diehard fans of Weird Al are introspective enough to realize how ironic it is that they are, at the end of the day, actually toe-tapping to that god-awful music that he has made it his career to take the piss out of.

I think that might be Weird Al's most ingenious joke of all.

[peter.mitchell]

I hope diehard fans of Weird Al are introspective enough realize how ironic it is that they are, at the end of the day, actually toe-tapping to that god-awful music that he has made it his career to take the piss out of.

I think that might be Weird Al's most ingenious joke of all.

Whilst the praise he receives for his parodies may be ironic, the praise he receives for his truly original content is most certainly warranted.

[Marco]

Damn, if you think everything he's ever parodied is god awful you have an awfully elitist taste in music.

[corrado33]

I loved it. Was also going to comment that it was well done as in one large take. Speaking of well done single take shots, wasn't there a movie done a while ago that was one single take for the entire thing? (Someone may have mentioned it above, I don't remember the name, it was old, as in old style, in some large victorian age (maybe) building.)

Anyway, great way to start my morning, I liked the first guy after Wierd Al and Jack Black, the first few girls were... meh not that funny.

[GK]

Damn, if you think everything he's ever parodied is god awful you have an awfully elitist taste in music.

You mean he parodied stuff that wasn't fit for parody?

[Marco]

I think just about any song with lyrics is fit for parody, regardless of quality.

[TheBorg]

Damn, if you think everything he's ever parodied is god awful you have an awfully elitist taste in music.

You mean he parodied stuff that wasn't fit for parody?

Only songs by Weird Al are not fit for parody.