Bravo, Bravura: And Now Call Your Girlfriend!

Since we have been taught the various camera movements and shots by our lecturers, I've been fascinated with the possibility of one day executing the continuous no-cut Bravura shot. And since I want to attempt it at least once while I am at CCAD, I thought I take a more detailed look into one of the music videos of Swedish electro pop singer Robyn featuring this exact shot.

This music video, 3:31 min in length, consists of a continuous handheld shot that, very noticeably, deploys a larger depth of field. Judging by her dance moves, her overall tracks, the position and use of lighting and the variation of shot sizes, we can safely assume that a larger depth of field had the advantage of giving more leeway to her dance moves, producing a smaller margin of error and resulting in less discarded material due to Robyn accidentally slipping out of focus. She might occasionally slip out of frame, but she never noticeably slipped out of focus. Which is a nice trick to remember, if you want to track larger areas or movements within a single shot without losing the protagonist focus-wise. And if you want to cancel out one more potential source of errors.

The shot itself must have taken a lot of rehearsals, trial runs and takes, since the timing of music, lighting, vocals, dance moves and camera movements is a difficult one on this particular video. The direct lighting on her was spot on and while vertical lens flares occurred during the change of disco and strobe light, it actually adds to the emotional value of the video rather than distracting from it.

Since the video visually covers approx. 270° of the gym hall and needed a lot of space for navigating, the choice of a handheld camera seems reasonable for its own benefit. But the handheld camera has another advantage that also largely emphasises the message of her song:

In her lyrics, Robyn (or her lyrical I for that matter) is addressing her lover, advising him how to best end the relationship with his current girlfriend without hurting her too much. And while Robyn's dance moves and the circular tracking of her indicate that she is very much in her own personal headspace aka daydream, the innately intimate gaze of a slightly shaky handheld camera (and her looking directly at it) actually stand representative for the lover who has been summoned by her to finally show his true colours. I highly doubt this effect had been the same if the camera op had opted for the smooth track of dollies, let alone the fact that the dolly tracks would have been irritatingly visible in a good portion of the music video. Looking back on the use of the camera, it might also be possible that the camera op used slightly unbalanced gimbals to create just this bit of shakiness but otherwise having the advantage of moving quicker and more steadily. Regarding that last thought, I am now actually convinced that the latter is the case. I will definitely check whether there are any making-offs of this particular clip to verify my assumption.

EDIT: Rewatching the music video, I just realised not only the screen is particularly wide, but also the edges on screen left and screen right are blurry. Need to take this up at the next opportunity.

References:

Robyn. (2011) Robyn 'Call Your Girlfriend' Official Video. [online]. http://bit.ly/1q1XBBQ