“Lucas With The Lid Off”
by Lucas
from the album Lucascentric
1994
Buy the album on Amazon
Music videoswere my primary form of music discovery back in the day. Whether it was falling in love with metal bands watching “Dial MTV” or learning about Madchester music on “120 Minutes,” I got more new music exposure via the boob tube than the boom box.
Most of the videos were cheesy, boring or both, full of concert footage, lip-synced performances or weirdly stretched-out, Vaseline-coated imagery. But every once and awhile, music videos would stumble upon greatness and I think it’s time we called some of these out, particularly since nothing in the past 10 years is probably even watchable.
For my first entry in Music Video Appreciation 101, I present the Michel Gondry-helmed, “Lucas With The Lid Off.” You don’t really need to know much more than it was filmed all in one single, long Steadicam shot. From the operator, Patrick de Ranter:
It was my first meeting with Michel Gondry. When I came in the studio everything was ready, really well done with all the front projections, the mirrors effects, the run for Lucas and the singers…Brilliant.I had a Steadicam 3A and an ARRI 3. It’s a real one shot with no additionnal post-production effects. We did a lot of dutch rolls and 18 takes. At the end of the day we where all physically dead… 10 years after, Gondry called me for the steadicam on “The science of sleep”. He is still the same : genius.
via Steadishots.org
Many years of no cable when I was young meant I was severely lacking in my exposure to many music videos (I certainly had my share, but it was a small share). I really like Gondry’s films, but hadn’t seen this. Cool video and fun song.