Smashing Pumpkins:: Ava Adore
I’ve loved this video for a very long time now, but since I began studying/working in the video production industry, I have definitely acquired a new reason to love it. That reason being that it is a glorious long take of course. Technically, the long take is not an easy feat. You can count on putting all of the time that would have been spent editing into pre-production. Long takes require a special sort of planning, timing, and of course rehearsal. You can say that three times: rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. Because they require such special care, I will forever love and adore the long take.
This particular long take is done in a controlled studio setting, and with a dolly (you’ll catch the tracks and part of the crew when the camera does a turn in the middle of this video, thus breaking the third wall). While these two features do make a long take easier, the constantly changing speed of this video made it a particularly difficult shoot. Apparently, the calculations required to work out the speed changes caused massive delays on set, causing the band to nearly call off the entire plan. Lip syncing plus fast/slow motion video equals math.
Besides the technical work put into this video, this is one of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs, and obviously the set and wardrobe choices are what make it magnificent. Those are the things that made me fall in love with it initially. Director duo Dom and Nic have created a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. Enjoy:
