Coldplay, British rock band, made a chart-topping video with ‘Speed of Sound’, the first single to be released from the X&Y album. The ‘Speed of Sound’ video debuted on MTV on May 23. It came very close to winning the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, making it to the list of the six nominations. What made this video stand out? It was the connection between voice and lighting.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Credits
Speed Of Sound was written by Coldplay members Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin.
The video was directed by Mark Romanek, known for ‘One Hour Photo’ and award-winning music videos. From Stephanie Jorgl’s feature at Apple we learn that Mark Romanek’s music videos have earned over a dozen MTV awards, two Grammy awards, three Clios and three Billboard Music Awards. Two of his music videos — Madonna’s “Bedtime Story” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” — are part of a permanent collection in New York’s Museum Of Modern Art. In 1997 MTV gave Romanek its Video Vanguard Award for his contribution to the medium. The video Mark did for Johnny Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails’ song, “Hurt” was nominated for 6 MTV video awards in 2003.
Mark worked with film production company Anonymous Content. The producer was Aris McGarry. Director of photography was Harris Savides.
Editor was Adam Pertofsky at Rock Paper Scissors. Production designer was Laura Fox. Stylist was Maryam Malakpour.
The on-set animations were programmed and performed live during the shoot, using Chris Martin’s voice to create unique visual waveforms that were mixed with original visual content created by V Squared Labs. ‘Synesthetic visual art’ was created by V Squared’s Vello Virkhaus. The LED screen was designed by Michael Keeling of Project X. Show programming and visual playback was handled by Martin Philips. The Versa TUBE units were provided by Element Labs.
Mark Romanek, on his web site wrote,
“Huge, elegantly futuristic structure made of curved, translucent panels. arrayed behind these panels will be (literally) hundreds of state-of-the art led light-bars. These lights are intensely bright, yet can change to any one of a million (yes, a million) colors in a fraction of a second. These cues will be intricately programmed and synchronized to the song. The light bars can also be ganged together, so that beautiful patterns can emerge across the entire expanse of the set. “
Visual effects were provided by A52, whose Inferno/Flame team included Patrick Murphy, Tim Bird, Justin Blaustein and Ben Looram. Producers were Mark Tobin, Ron Cosentino and Scott Boyajan.
The ‘Speed of Sound’ video was nominated for best video in the MTV Music TV Awards held in Miami in 2005.
Speed of Sound Lyrics
There’s no clear consensus on the significance of the words to Speed of Sound. The song starts with the sense of disorientation that comes from the uncertainty associated with an ambiguous relationship. The words of the chorus could be referring to the sense of orientation to the coast migratory birds gain from their capacity to hear infrasonic sounds from breaking ocean waves.
How long before I get in?
Before it starts, before I begin?
How long before you decide?
Before I know what it feels like?
Where To? where do I go?
If you’ve never tried, then you’ll never know.
How long do I have to climb,
Up on this side of this mountain of mine?
Look up, I look up at night,
Planets are moving at the speed of light.
Climb up, up in the trees,
every chance that you get,
is a chance you seize.
How long am I gonna stand,
with my head stuck under the sand?
I start before I can stop,
before I see things the right way up.
All that noise, all that sound,
All those places I have found.
And birds go flying at the speed of sound,
to show it how all began.
Birds came flying from the underground,
if you could see it then you’d understand?
Ideas that you’ll never find,
All the inventors could never design.
The buildings that you put up,
Japan and China all lit up.
The sign that I couldn’t read,
or the light that I couldn’t see,
some things you have to believe,
but others are puzzles, puzzling me.
All that noise, all that sound,
All those places I have found.
And birds go flying at the speed of sound,
to show it how all began.
Birds came flying from the underground,
if you could see it then you’d understand,
ah when you see it then you’ll understand?
All those signs, I knew what they meant
Some things you can’t invent.
Some get made, and some can sent,
Ooh?
And birds go flying at the speed of sound,
to show it how all began.
Birds came flying from the underground,
if you could see it then you’d understand,
Oh, when you see it then you’ll understand?