The new Radiohead clip demonstrates why Jonathan Glazer is one of the most highly regarded young directors of commercials - and now promos. By the relatively simple method of combining images shot at different speeds he has created something new and visually arresting.
"I wanted it to have the weight of a dream,” says Glazer, who created a stark and surreal trailer park just outside LA, and shot it at night in black and white. “It was a beautiful imaginary environment - peaceful, not some psychedelic trip - and lit relatively crudely, which has the effect of making you concentrate on the action."
The clip is disconnected and has the magical quality of a dream, beginning with Thom Yorke falling from the roof of an Airstream trailer and continuing with other band members leaping out of trailer doors and falling off chairs, all in super slow motion.
Glazer used a Photosonics camera, usually employed in highspeed nature photography, to shoot at between 300 and 500 frames a second, varying the speeds within the take. Then, by doing two passes from the same Jocked-off position, vignettes shot at different speeds were merged, via Flame, to tremendous effect. Glazer did not even have to use motion control. "It was quite easy to achieve as the camera was locked-off in every shot of the video,” he says. “There's no great mystery, it's just about knowing how to use the camera.”
But arriving at this point was not easy. “It required a great deal of trust from band that the scenes shot would amount to anything,” says Glazer.
There were also some technical problems, regarding the use of Photosonics on wide angle shots, which require a massive amount of light. However, Glazer had two of the best British DPs working in pramos to get it right: Steven Keith-Roach and Tim Maurice-Jones.
Other sequences involving additional characters also did not make the final cut and the production moved from LA to Germany to shoot more footage of Yorke.
"Come to think of it, it wasn't easy at all," admits Glazer. But the result is well worth it.

PRODUCTION: Academy Films {in association with The End); director: Jonathan Glazer; producer: Nick Morris; (in LA) line producer: Seth Standing; prod coordinator: Gabby Evans; 1st AD: Michael Kelly; DP: Steven Keith-Roach; asst camera: Macko, Tom Lappin; (steadicam: Keith Jordon;) gaffer: Phil Walker; best boy: Ala Shelley; key grip: John Martin; art director: Guy Greville-Morris; stylist: Jyl Moder; make-up: Judd Minter.
(In Dusseldorf) prod manager: Simon Cooper; local prod: Hans Dornseif, Piere Misana; DP: Tim Maurice-Jones; Photosonic op: John Hadfield; camera asst: Astrid Miegel; make-up/hair: Claudia Humberg
POST: telecine: Rushes; off-line editor: John McManus at OBE; Flame: Sean Broughton at Smoke & Mirrors; on-line: Rushes.
COMMISSIONER: Dilly Gent at Parlophone