The single's video was directed by Jamie Thraves, who was hand-picked by the band after they saw several of his experimental short films. It was shot near Liverpool Street Station in London.
Three different edits of the music video for Just were prepared. The standard version is a mix of footage of the band playing and 'drama' shots of what happens in the street. However, there are also 'band-only' and 'drama-only' edits:
[MILTON KEYNES BOWL JULY 30 '95]
DJ: So we know it’s quite hectic for Radiohead at the moment, because we spoke to you on the phone on the Evening Session earlier in the week, but just tell us exactly where you‘ve been in the last 4 days
Ed: We did a gig in, where was it - Ottawa.
Thom: We did Canada, and New York.
Ed: And home.
Thom: Yeah - we’re shooting a video tomorrow, for ‘Just’, and then we fly to Berlin the next morning, very early.
Monday, July 31
London
Video shoot for Just. It's being directed by a guy called Jamie Thraves. He's just sent us this idea on an A4 piece of paper. It's about a character who collapses in the street and then all these captions appear on the screen as if the song's been translated. Apparently. But, there are three days of shooting and we're only here for one so it's pretty much out of our hands. That's cool. Go stand on film set. Strut around like a peacock making faces. Not a pig in sight. Good therapy.
London
Video shoot for Just. It's being directed by a guy called Jamie Thraves. He's just sent us this idea on an A4 piece of paper. It's about a character who collapses in the street and then all these captions appear on the screen as if the song's been translated. Apparently. But, there are three days of shooting and we're only here for one so it's pretty much out of our hands. That's cool. Go stand on film set. Strut around like a peacock making faces. Not a pig in sight. Good therapy.
Jamie Thraves is gaining a reputation as one of the UK's most promising young directors for his widely admired short films Hackney Downs, The Takeout and Scratch, but has rarely been given the opportunity to show what he can do in promos.
Finally he has got his chance and the result demonstrates both his admirable film-making skill and something of the ‘uncommercial’ stance that has prevented him breaking into the industry before.
His promo for Radiohead's Just is stylistically similar to his acclaimed shorts: a deadpan comedy which features an enervated central character who becomes the focus of a banal blackly funny drama on a London street - he falls to the ground, a man stops to ask him what's wrong, a crowd gathers, etc. - while the band perform the song in a flat somewhere adjacent to the ‘action’. It's all built around one conceit: the use, or not, of subtitles for the drama while we listen to the track.
It's an elaborately staged joke where the punchline is basically directed against the limitations of the music video medium itself.
And the way it's put together makes it one of the best videos of the year so far.
With the band shot at Bow Studios and the drama shot in the City of London on a quiet Sunday, Alex Melman's photography is seamless and also captures the dusty glow of the memorable long hot summer of 1995.
PRODUCTION: Oil Factory; director: Jamie Thraves; producer: Niki Amos; production manager: John Madsen; 1st AD: Micky Murray; 2nd AD: Kevin Westley; BP: Alex Metman; focus puller Federico Alfonzo; clapper loader: Tony Hanes; Steadicam op: John Ward; grips: Mark Ellis, Dickie Haw; continuity: Claudia Dunlop; art director: Roger Swanborough; art asst: Justine McCormack; construction manager: Danny Montague; gaffer: Gary Davis; rigger: Kenny Ingram; sound Michel Austin; wardrobe: Rosie Hackett; makeup: Debbie Bunn
POST: telecine: Tariq at VIR; off-line editor: Tony Kearns at Image Makers; on-line: Blue Post
COMMISSIONER: Dilly Gent at Parlophone.
Finally he has got his chance and the result demonstrates both his admirable film-making skill and something of the ‘uncommercial’ stance that has prevented him breaking into the industry before.
His promo for Radiohead's Just is stylistically similar to his acclaimed shorts: a deadpan comedy which features an enervated central character who becomes the focus of a banal blackly funny drama on a London street - he falls to the ground, a man stops to ask him what's wrong, a crowd gathers, etc. - while the band perform the song in a flat somewhere adjacent to the ‘action’. It's all built around one conceit: the use, or not, of subtitles for the drama while we listen to the track.
It's an elaborately staged joke where the punchline is basically directed against the limitations of the music video medium itself.
And the way it's put together makes it one of the best videos of the year so far.
With the band shot at Bow Studios and the drama shot in the City of London on a quiet Sunday, Alex Melman's photography is seamless and also captures the dusty glow of the memorable long hot summer of 1995.
PRODUCTION: Oil Factory; director: Jamie Thraves; producer: Niki Amos; production manager: John Madsen; 1st AD: Micky Murray; 2nd AD: Kevin Westley; BP: Alex Metman; focus puller Federico Alfonzo; clapper loader: Tony Hanes; Steadicam op: John Ward; grips: Mark Ellis, Dickie Haw; continuity: Claudia Dunlop; art director: Roger Swanborough; art asst: Justine McCormack; construction manager: Danny Montague; gaffer: Gary Davis; rigger: Kenny Ingram; sound Michel Austin; wardrobe: Rosie Hackett; makeup: Debbie Bunn
POST: telecine: Tariq at VIR; off-line editor: Tony Kearns at Image Makers; on-line: Blue Post
COMMISSIONER: Dilly Gent at Parlophone.
British rock act Radiohead is pumping new life into its second album, The Bends, with a ground-breaking video for 'Just' that combines art-house cinema sensibilities and subtitles with a mysterious climax that leaves people floored - literally.
In the clip, members of Radiohead perform in a high-rise apartment complex. Singer Thom Yorke is drawn to the window when he hears a commotion on the street below, and he sees a well-dressed, middle-aged businessman lying on the sidewalk. A pedestrian stumbles over the man and asks him (via subtitles) if he has fallen. The man replies that he has not fallen, but that he simply has decided to lie down on the sidewalk.
A curious crowd forms around the man and makes many inquiries about his physical and mental health. The man requests that the people disperse, but they refuse to leave him alone. As the crowd grows, the inquiries shift from concern to extreme curiosity as to why a man would deliberately lie down in the middle of the sidewalk. Even a police officer cannot solicit a reasonable answer from the man, who only responds, 'You don't want to know, please believe me'.
It's as if the man knows something that the rest of the world does not. Finally, at the end of the video, he agrees to reveal the reason for his seemingly insane action. However, as he begins to explain, the subtitles disappear.
The viewer does not discover his secret, which has made an incredible impact on the crowd in the clip. As the camera pulls back from the man on the sidewalk, it reveals that the people surrounding the man have also fallen to the ground.
In the clip's original edit, performance footage of the band is interspersed throughout the theatrical sequences. However, there are two additional edits of the video, which separate the performance and movie-like sequences.
"The original works best because it builds an incredible tension that is never resolved," says Yorke. "We all decided that we would never tell anybody about the 'meaning' of the end of the clip."
Capitol video VP of visual promotion Linda Ingrisano says that the man's response is not even written in the script for the video, which is a production of Oil Factory.
"I've had more inquiries about this clip than any other in my entire career," says Ingrisano. "It's almost as if the clip touches on the secret to life in the universe."
MTV began playing the clip Oct. 10 and designated it as a Breakthrough Video because of its "strong technical or visual effects or creative vision," says MTV senior VP of programming and music Andy Schuon.
"This could get people excited about the album again," says Schuon. "It certainly isn't a run-of-the-mill video."
Radiohead entrusted new video director Jamie Thraves to the task of creating the clip, despite his relative inexperience in the genre.
Before this project, Thraves had directed only a handful of short films, but no major-label music videos. The risk has paid off, according to Yorke.
"We left the song in very capable hands," he says. "Jamie was free of the constraints of the typical video formula. He shot the video the way he wanted to. "Thraves says that he had envisaged the clip as a short film, rather than a conventional music video.
"I felt like the visuals had to stand on their own," says Thraves, who also shot the forthcoming clip for 'Toes Across The Floor' by Blind Melon. "It was always my ambition to shoot something as narrative as possible within the context of a music video. Using subtitles seemed like a natural way to achieve this, since the words do not compete with the actual vocals of the song."
Thraves says he is realizing the impact of the clip, as more people ask him why the man is lying down in the street.
His only reply: "You don't want to know, please believe me."
In the clip, members of Radiohead perform in a high-rise apartment complex. Singer Thom Yorke is drawn to the window when he hears a commotion on the street below, and he sees a well-dressed, middle-aged businessman lying on the sidewalk. A pedestrian stumbles over the man and asks him (via subtitles) if he has fallen. The man replies that he has not fallen, but that he simply has decided to lie down on the sidewalk.
A curious crowd forms around the man and makes many inquiries about his physical and mental health. The man requests that the people disperse, but they refuse to leave him alone. As the crowd grows, the inquiries shift from concern to extreme curiosity as to why a man would deliberately lie down in the middle of the sidewalk. Even a police officer cannot solicit a reasonable answer from the man, who only responds, 'You don't want to know, please believe me'.
It's as if the man knows something that the rest of the world does not. Finally, at the end of the video, he agrees to reveal the reason for his seemingly insane action. However, as he begins to explain, the subtitles disappear.
The viewer does not discover his secret, which has made an incredible impact on the crowd in the clip. As the camera pulls back from the man on the sidewalk, it reveals that the people surrounding the man have also fallen to the ground.
In the clip's original edit, performance footage of the band is interspersed throughout the theatrical sequences. However, there are two additional edits of the video, which separate the performance and movie-like sequences.
"The original works best because it builds an incredible tension that is never resolved," says Yorke. "We all decided that we would never tell anybody about the 'meaning' of the end of the clip."
Capitol video VP of visual promotion Linda Ingrisano says that the man's response is not even written in the script for the video, which is a production of Oil Factory.
"I've had more inquiries about this clip than any other in my entire career," says Ingrisano. "It's almost as if the clip touches on the secret to life in the universe."
MTV began playing the clip Oct. 10 and designated it as a Breakthrough Video because of its "strong technical or visual effects or creative vision," says MTV senior VP of programming and music Andy Schuon.
"This could get people excited about the album again," says Schuon. "It certainly isn't a run-of-the-mill video."
Radiohead entrusted new video director Jamie Thraves to the task of creating the clip, despite his relative inexperience in the genre.
Before this project, Thraves had directed only a handful of short films, but no major-label music videos. The risk has paid off, according to Yorke.
"We left the song in very capable hands," he says. "Jamie was free of the constraints of the typical video formula. He shot the video the way he wanted to. "Thraves says that he had envisaged the clip as a short film, rather than a conventional music video.
"I felt like the visuals had to stand on their own," says Thraves, who also shot the forthcoming clip for 'Toes Across The Floor' by Blind Melon. "It was always my ambition to shoot something as narrative as possible within the context of a music video. Using subtitles seemed like a natural way to achieve this, since the words do not compete with the actual vocals of the song."
Thraves says he is realizing the impact of the clip, as more people ask him why the man is lying down in the street.
His only reply: "You don't want to know, please believe me."