Imitation of Life

I found myself doing some “stuff” around the house this afternoon with VH1 providing the musical backdrop. It’s sometimes a little hit or miss, but today it did ok, aside from a 5 minute wailing of Sicky Dion. Thankfully, I was preoccupied with the braai by then. Saving the channel’s reputation were The Stereophonics, Paul Simon, Dexy’s and Erasure – to name but a few.

Best memory of the lot was this one though: R.E.M.’s Imitation of Life and its clever video:

Says Stipe:

The entire video took 20 seconds to shoot. What you’re watching is a loop that goes forwards for 20 seconds, backwards for 20 seconds, forwards for 20 seconds, backwards for 20 seconds, with one camera, static, and then using a technique called ‘pan and scan’, which is a technical thing that is used when they go from a widescreen format and reformat to fit your television or DVD, moving in on certain parts of the entire picture. And you’ll see that we do that picking up various people within the frame.

Which all sounds suitably technical to me.
So. Now you know.

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