/My favorite thing at the moment is the song Paradise by the music group Coldplay. The song is from their most recent album Mylo Xyloto. I love their video for this song. It is a story of an elephant who escapes a London zoo and makes it back to Africa.
(I hope you figured out by now that the /MY at the beginning of my blog post was supposed to be an elephant. I used a "sup" html tag to elevate the / and Y a little bit)
(I hope you figured out by now that the /MY at the beginning of my blog post was supposed to be an elephant. I used a "sup" html tag to elevate the / and Y a little bit)
If I told you that the elephant uses a bicycle after escaping from the zoo, then rides the subway, is a stow away on a jet airplane, hides itself in a suitcase, dances on the sidewalk to raise enough money in order to buy a unicycle ... YES! U-N-I-cycle, then you are probably going to assume costume. This is one special elephant, complete with pink ears, tiny tail and adorable eyelashes.
The man-in-the-elephant costume is the lead singer for Coldplay, the one special Chris Martin.
Based on conversations of the band members and the video producer, the video was shot in roughly reverse order, with the Africa section shot first, then the England footage second. The band was already in Africa when Chris Martin telephoned his friend Mat Whitecross at midnight for help with a music video.
From the Wikipedia article:
Music Video
Coldplay initially announced that the single's music video would be directed by Hype Williams (who previously directed the first version of the "Viva la Vida" music video) but that version was scrapped after shooting and the band decided instead to record a new version directed by long-time collaborator Mat Whitecross. The video was released on 19 October 2011. In the video, a man dressed as an elephant (played by Chris Martin) escapes from a zoo in London and attempts to hitch-hike his way to another country (doing so finally by stowing away inside a suitcase). An aerial shot reveals that his initial destination was Cape Town, South Africa. He is then seen wandering around Johannesburg, at one point, walking past Nelson Mandela Bridge and a set of railway tracks in Braamfontein. He then earns enough money by busking (which appears to be ZAR 67.05, roughly equivalent to USD 8.40) on the street for a unicycle, and after a seemingly hopeless wander comes across three other elephants (the rest of Coldplay) playing the song in the veld (South African grasslands). The video shifts to the band playing a live show at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg before returning to the desert where they run towards the camera. The music video was shot on location in London, Cape Town, the Klein Karoo in the Western Cape and Johannesburg.
Music Video
Coldplay initially announced that the single's music video would be directed by Hype Williams (who previously directed the first version of the "Viva la Vida" music video) but that version was scrapped after shooting and the band decided instead to record a new version directed by long-time collaborator Mat Whitecross. The video was released on 19 October 2011. In the video, a man dressed as an elephant (played by Chris Martin) escapes from a zoo in London and attempts to hitch-hike his way to another country (doing so finally by stowing away inside a suitcase). An aerial shot reveals that his initial destination was Cape Town, South Africa. He is then seen wandering around Johannesburg, at one point, walking past Nelson Mandela Bridge and a set of railway tracks in Braamfontein. He then earns enough money by busking (which appears to be ZAR 67.05, roughly equivalent to USD 8.40) on the street for a unicycle, and after a seemingly hopeless wander comes across three other elephants (the rest of Coldplay) playing the song in the veld (South African grasslands). The video shifts to the band playing a live show at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg before returning to the desert where they run towards the camera. The music video was shot on location in London, Cape Town, the Klein Karoo in the Western Cape and Johannesburg.
Official Coldplay Website
The album Mylo Xyloto and the music video are available on iTunes. I purchased both yesterday!
Video Defects !!!
While studying the music video I discovered these two discrepancies:
The jet airplane that the elephant sneaks onto is NOT the same model of airplane as the one that is shown landing in Africa. If you freeze the frame of the airplane landing you'll notice that the tail is different and the engine arrangement. Its difficult to spot at first because the landing airplane is shot in near silhouette lighting conditions.
One of the four elephants is "incomplete" in the feet. When the band is playing in the veld, three of the elephants have elephant feet, but the fourth member on the right side is in white tennis shoes.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment