Michel Gondry's style of filmmaking often concentrates on the medium itself. He consciously explores different stories by putting them in various styles of film. He describes the lives of six people as if they were frames of a Viewmaster in A Change Would Do You Good. For Gimme Shelter, he narrates family conflict as if it were war footage. In Lucas With the Lid Off, Gondry exposes the process of filmmaking quite literally.
Through Lucas With the Lid Off, the camera tracks from shot to shot in a single take. Each shot is indicated by a small, numbered frame placed before the set. As the camera approaches the set, it lines itself up with the frame to produce the shot. Using essentially 18 sets for 24 shots, with some sort of screen projection in most sets, Gondry tracks a journey through both the story of Lucas and the process of filming his short film. The movement of the camera between shots is also used as an inherent indicator of an advancement in time. And as the camera moves, one imagines the actors running from set to set as well.
In RES, Gondry calls this video "a big turn for me, because it was so challenging. Nobody really believed - even me - that we could pull that off when we made it after 17 takes, because it was really done all in-camera in one shot. There is no post-production at all. I think this one really gave me a lot of attention."
The basic story of Lucas is itself a bit entwined. Lucas is both the main character and the mastermind behind the hot, jazz-rap track from his album Lucacentric. During each refrain, Lucas is shown behind the controls in a studio. He repeats, "Whatever bubbles, bubbles up," followed by a woman who says, "I feel!" (a Billie Holliday sample?), and a raggae scat.
The main story begins in the stairwell of a hotel. Two men are dragging a piano upstairs. It's unclear whether or not they're setting up for the band that is playing above Lucas's room. Regardless, Lucas decides to head outside. As the piano is lugged outside, a woman almost smashes into it with her car.
Lucas travels by subway train (with the same "I feel!" woman) to first a restaurant, then a cinema. In the theater, he watches a film he was in called With the Lid Off. In the next frame, he's outside, rapping next to a piano. Gondry projects onto the piano face a mirror image of what is behind the camera: a piano man going wild, and a group of people dancing to his solo. In the next frame, the woman in the car finally drives straight into the piano.
While this sounds like a simple story in writing, each frame of the story is a very complex melange of actors, sets, models, props, lighting, camera position, and screen projections. The frames break down like this:
1,8 : the stairwell, with piano
2 : "reggae man," drunk at table, with projected band playing behind him
3,11,24 : Lucas's studio, with projection of the woman, computer screen of "reggae man"
4 : under table of drunk "reggae man", projected bottom half of band behind him
5 : below 4's floorboards, a shot of Lucas on his bed in his hotel room
6 : a ceiling shot of 5
7 : physical model of Hotel, tiny projections of Lucas and band inside windows
9 : facing three people inside the car; with projection
10,23 : back of woman's head, inside car; with projection
12 : film of Lucas heading to train station
13 : Lucas inside station, moving train lights projected onto set
14 : film of moving train
15 : Lucas in train with couple, mirrored, projection of outdoors behind them
16 : outside cab of train, looking at couple; projection reflected on glass
17 : Lucas at restaurant, outside projected onto window
18 : cinema model, with projection of Lucas walking into cinema
19, 21 : in theater, people watching With the Lid Off on screen
20 : camera turns around, Lucas and players in theater seats
22 : outside, with piano; projection on piano face
A complex video indeed. And a very satisfying one that got airplay all around the globe. Unfortunately, Lucas hasn't been heard from since.
See it here.
