This was an interesting first approach to what the future "Making the Video" would be on MTV, it's one of the earliest experiences so I have plenty of reasons to say that it
was an enjoyable creative making of. Godley & Creme duo present their concept and some behind the scenes moments while shooting "Leave It" music video by Yes. One is mysterious and
always smoking while the other is talkative but a little secretive about what he has in mind to present as some revolutionary clip for the group, which was being introduced to wider
and visual audiences due to the explosive hit of their 1983 album "90125".
The fun bit of "Making the Video" is that you follow through shooting the editing and sometimes the technical aspects are also covered and then at the end you have the full video
to analyze all the effort made by musicians, directors and crew about the video - the one by Madonna in "Die Another Day" is highly memorable to me. This one does not introduce the clip
at the end, and the version I've watched shows it at the beginning so it diminishes the experience a bit. But it doesn't ruin since Godley & Creme conceived one ideas and completely
changed the game after shooting this making of. Well, not entirely but hear me out: they said they composed 18 different music videos but the main idea of having Yes member lined up,
suited up and dubbing the song was the key one, at times being shot from their backs, other times even with some close-up shots. When you actually watch "Leave It" you get the idea is
something shot in one take and the rest is just editing and special effects to make them move, spin their heads and move upside down like as being paper creatures coming out of a
printer...but nope, they actually shot their parts several times in long sequences, many ideas were thrown away and what you get is a then triumph in effects - cartoonish today but
amazing back at the time.
As a bonus, besides interviews with a charismatic Trevor Rabin and a strangely insecure Jon Anderson, there's a fun moment where the directors and staff pulled a prank on Yes
by leaving the set while shooting their backs point of view. It's an already repetitive experience of making 18 videos that only the editing could turn some moments effective with the
majority of it being thrown out. Although the directors duo present a little about their 18 videos plan through some storyboards, I'd really like to see each one of them done just to see
if they could come up with something brighter than the version we'd got. I know they are genius as evidenced by the many other videos they did with Pink Floyd, The Police and many other
artists, and even Ringo Starr's short film "The Cooler" which got them a nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. It's all great. 9/10.