Month: January 2015

The Long and Winding Dramatic Story of Gone Hazel Video-Making

Gone Hazel’s history in video-making is tragic (a very loose meaning of the word). Let’s start at the beginning.

Learning to Crack Part 2

In 1998, while The Kids Are Bored was getting regular rotation on college campuses in the US northeast, a video was made for Learning to Crack Part 2. The idea was simple. Since videos at the time were already going crazy with jump cuts, Gone Hazel chose to film a video with one camera angle and in one take. The two minute and twenty second video was not of Gone Hazel singing along but baking a cake. The camera stayed still while a bag of flour was skateboarded in and thrown on the table. Following that, a carton of eggs was delivered – on roller blades – and also thrown on the table. As the skateboard and roller blades circled the table in real time, the ingredients flew through the air: a jug of milk, chocolate syrup, paint, turpentine, mustard…anything that could be crammed onto the table. Then, with the preparation table more or less prepared, the roller blades came off, the skateboard was ditched and all three Gone Hazel members assaulted the ingredients. By the end, the scene was something you’d never see on the Food Network.

And as it turned out, it was also something no one (not even the band) would see at all. The film was exposed to light during developing and ruined. This fun idea, all filmed in one take, with Gone Hazel dressed only in chef hats and aprons, was never to be seen. Except for this: one photo of the film shoot has survived.

Learning to Crack video

To get an approximate effect of the video, listen to Learning to Crack Part 2 while staring at the photo.

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