Any film nerd will tell you that the first three minutes of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil is one of the most difficult shots to pull off in the history of cinema. All filmed in one shot, the camera pans and zooms in and out through a barrage of events that set up story and are choreographed to a T. Laura Marling’s new music video for the single “Gurdjieff’s Daughter” channels this concept as she sings and dances through a shindig at her former LA home.
The one shot music video isn’t anything new. In some cases, they are filmed and edited to appear all one shot, in other cases the camera goes through leaps and bounds to stay on cue and actually produces one whole shot the length of the song. Marling’s music video seems to do the latter and easily captures the freewheeling, bouncy nature of the song. She guides the viewer through a tour of a kickback with friends she met while writing her latest album Short Movie including famous faces like Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, singer/songwriters Jonathan Wilson and Marika Hackman, actress Rhian Rees, and writer Hanne Steen.
This is her fifth album released in the last seven years, maintaining crooning vocals that recall bubblier Stevie Nicks with acoustic guitar licks to match. The 25-year-old singer channels the more rugged acoustic rock like 80s era Dire Straits and Tom Petty but this time with a more upbeat pop sound. The music video perfectly captures her sound as she walks barefoot through the house before finally running off into the street.
Short Movie was released March 23 and Marling is gearing up to tour late summer.
Tour Dates:
July 26 Newport Music Festival @ Newport, RI
July 27 Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus
July 28 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
July 29 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
July 31 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Aug 1 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Aug 3 New York, NY @ Town Hall
Aug 6 Los Angeles, CA @ Palace Theater
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