The video “Are U There?” directed by Anderson Wright and Todd Martin, filmed by Todd Martin and Daniel Stewart, and edited by Alexander Evan Morales, shows how stunning editing can be.
“Are U There?” features three dancing couples shot in three different locations. The choreography is terrific, as well as cinematography. This music video is original and unique due to the way it was staged and filmed. Just take a look at these shots and angles:
Equally impressive to the unique to the unique cinematography was the incredible and complicated editing by Alexander Evan Morales and the techniques he used.
The video comprises parallel editing of three stories, straight (mostly in the first 30 seconds) and jump cuts (01:16, 01:18, 01:26-28). At 01:10 there is a moment of silence after which the song progresses and the cuts become faster, there is a cut almost on every beat.
I enjoyed how the editor played with speed: speeded up spinning effect at 00:15, fast motion at 00:23, 00:28, 00:36, 00:58, 01:19 and reverse motion at 00:29, 00:32, 02:01-02:04. The reverse speed effect reminded me of Coldplay’s music video for “The Scientist.”
Those are obviously heavy editing techniques that are not appropriate to use in every video. Nevertheless, they helped to create a beautiful dramatic effect in this video.
If you also liked this video, you might be interested in watching this one by the same director, Anderson Wright, edited by Matt Schaff: