“Procrastination is not waiting and it is more than delaying. It is a decision to not act. It is very helpful and useful to gather information to make an informed decision,” says psychologist Joseph Ferrari tells the American Psychological Association. “…But when one simply continues to gather beyond the point of adequate resources, then they are being indecisive and the waiting is counterproductive.“
Perhaps the procrastination bug has bit the design community especially hard during this prolonged quarantine. Time has seemed to evaporated or warped for my fellow designers—not a Zoom goes by without hearing at least one designer lamenting about time-drag fatigue. Vox interviewed time philosopher, Dr. Adrian Bardon, a professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and the author of A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time:
We feel that time is dragging, but it’s also flying by. That comes out of the same situation. We’re out of our routine. We’re out of our structure. We’re out of doing tasks that we would normally feel productive and good about. It’s more like we’re treading water or trying to deal with situations we don’t want to deal with. And then in our retrospective judgment of the passage of time, it seems like things went by really quickly because we didn’t really accomplish anything.
For some comforting insight, we can look into the world of entertainment to see how directors have dealt with the hellish issue of time-drag. During this time of quarantine, continuous shots aka long takes aka oners have a special meaning for us in extended self-isolation. If you are not too familiar with the term continuous take, Wiki describes it as “a shot lasting much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and elaborate blocking are often elements in long takes, but not necessarily so.” So as designers, I think you’ll enjoy sitting back and studying these continuous shots. Perhaps there will be a newfound appreciation for the beauty and craft of stringing together a seamless flow of uninterrupted storytelling. Maybe even savor this moment we are in—to get lost in time—to go with the flow. And perhaps, don’t worry too much about procrastination, no one expects you to win a battle against time ⚔️⌛️🤷
20. 1917 (2019)
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by Sam Mendes, and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Starring Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, and Daniel Mays.
On the one hand, Sam Mendes’s film is a highly convincing welter of dirt, exhaustion, and decay; on the other, the plot requires that our heroes undergo a series of challenges and scene changes so unrelenting (and so far from the tedium of war) as to verge on the implausible.
— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
19. Gallan Goodiyaan (2015)
Musical Sequence from Dil Dhadakne Do
Directed by Zoya Akhtar. Starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Ranveer Singh, Anil Kapoor, Vikrant Massey, Shefali Shah, Anushka Sharma, Zarina Wahab, and the entire movie cast.
Dhak-Dhak Dhak-Dhak Dhadke Ye Dil
Songwriters: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Lyricist: Javed Akhtar
Chhan Chhan Bole Amritsari Choodiyan
Raat Badi Hai Mastaani
Toh Dilbar Jaani Kar Le Gallan Goodiyan
18. Old Boy (2003)
Hallway Fight
Directed by Chan-wook Park. Written by Garon Tsuchiya (story), and Nobuaki Minegishi (comic). Starring Min-sik Choi, Ji-Tae Yoo, and Hye-jeong Kang.
Filmed in a gliding, three-plus-minute unbroken take, the tussle’s reminiscent of old Super Nintendo beat-’em-up games. But it works just as well as a standalone piece of energetic installation art: figures moving through space, pummeling, kicking, flailing. Pure geometry.
—John Semely, Esquire
17. Another Day of Sun (2016)
La La Land Highway Dance Sequence
Directed and written by Damien Chazelle. Starrring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Rosemarie DeWitt. Choreographed by Mandy Moore.
That opening song-and-dance number, “Another Day of Sun,” is the film’s ode to the city of Los Angeles, a world of endless possibility, constant beauty—and repetitive disappointment. It was also a costly and complicated scene to shoot, resulting in six minutes of busy action involving dozens of actors on a freeway ramp they had to shut down for a whole weekend.
—Raisa Bruner, Time
16. Daredevil (2015)
Hallway Fight Season One
Created by Drew Goddard. Starring Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Deborah Ann Woll.
There are moments in the fight where both Daredevil and his opponents take a moment to rest and catch their breath, and then Murdock goes back to attacking them one by one, assessing the more pressing threat before moving onto the next one. Watch how he uses the wall to gain momentum in a tight space, while his movements grow increasingly slack yet weighty as the fight moves on.
—Ben Kuchera, Polygon
15. Head Over Feet (1996)
Alanis Morissette Music Video
Directed by Michelle Laurita and Alanis Morissette. For fun, I sometimes replace my Zoom teleconference with this video to see if anyone is paying attention. 💁
You’ve already won me over in spite of me
Written by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard. Song “Head over Feet” appears on the album Jagged Little Pill (1995).
And don’t be alarmed if I fall head over feet
And don’t be surprised if I love you for all that you are
I couldn’t help it
It’s all your fault
14. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Intro Scene
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
I don’t know. But they’ve [The New York critical establishment] really hyped “A Clockwork Orange” for more than it’s worth, and a lot of people will go if only out of curiosity. Too bad. In addition to the things I’ve mentioned above—things I really got mad about—”A Clockwork Orange” commits another, perhaps even more unforgivable, artistic sin. It is just plain talky and boring. You know there’s something wrong with a movie when the last third feels like the last half.
—Roger Ebert, February 02, 1972
13. When I Think of You (1986)
Music Video by Janet Jackson
‘When I Think of You’ appears on Janet’s third studio album, Control (1986). Music video directed by Julien Temple. Choreographed by Paula Abdul.
‘Cause when I think of you, baby,
—Written by Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and produced by Jam and Lewis.
Nothin’ else seems to matter
‘Cause when I think of you, baby,
All I think about is our love
12. Boogie Nights (1997)
Opening Scene
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Burt Reynolds.
But one of its main contributions is that it creates an immersive experience for the audience, like dropping a viewer right into the scene and allowing them to look around the space in real time. And this is incredibly crucial, because it’s Boogie Nights and it’s the late 70s and it’s a party. You can’t simply watch a party; you have to throw on your best platforms and boogie. In other words, if Boogie Nights is the party, and Anderson is the one throwing it, then the opening scene is that first drink P.T. hands you as you cautiously walk through the front door.
—V Renée, No Film School
11. Here It Goes Again (2006)
Music Video by OK Go
“Here It Goes Again” is a song by OK Go from the album Oh No. Directed and choreographed by Trish Sie.
Just when you think you’re in control
—Written by Damian Kulash
Just when you think you’ve got a hold
Just when you get on a roll
Oh, here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again
Oh, here it goes again
I should have known, should have known, should have known again
But here it goes again
Oh, here it goes
Oh, here it goes
Oh, here it goes again
Oh, here it goes again
10. True Detective (2014)
Season 1, Episode 4
Created by Nic Pizzolatto. Starring Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Rachel McAdams.
The overall effect suggests that the past is continually in conversation with the present—a notion that’s made official whenever a past action is commented upon by a present-tense character during those office-bound interview scenes, and we hear the dialogue as voice-over before the show cuts to the speaker’s face. And because every episode of True Detective is written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Jane Eyre, Sin Nombre), it has a stylistic cohesiveness that a lot of series, even great ones, lack.
—Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture
9. Wannabe (1996)
Music Video by Spice Girls
“Wannabe” is from the Spice Girls debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Music video directed by Johan Camitz.
If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
—Written by Melanie Chisholm ,Geri Halliwell ,Victoria Beckham ,Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Matthew Paul Rowbottom, and Richard Stannard
(Gotta get with my friends)
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
(You’ve got to give)
Taking is too easy, but that’s the way it is
8. Hanna (2011)
Subway Fight Scene
Directed by Joe Wright. Screenplay written by Seth Lochhead, and David Farr. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana.
The underpass is the scene of the lengthy fight between Eric Bana’s Erik Heller and four CIA agents in Hanna, while it bookends Katniss and her fellow rebels’ sewer escape from Panem in Mockingjay – Part 2. Black Panther’s breathless chase of Bucky, Falcon and Captain America takes place in the tunnel (although this time it was doubling for Budapest, Hungary), culminating in their arrest on the exact same spot, in the tunnel’s open-air section, where Charlize Theron’s Lorraine is also dragged from the wreckage of a crashed car in Atomic Blonde.
—Andy Welch, The Guardian
7. Panic Room (2002)
House Tour
Directed by David Fincher. Written by David Koepp. Starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, and Forest Whitaker.
The single-take walk-through scene of Meg (Jodie Foster) touring the home was meticulously conceived with pre-viz storyboarding that even included where the mirrors would be. “That part of it was the least of our problems.” He says pre-viz requires “a degree of intestinal fortitude” that he’s not even sure if he has anymore.
—Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects
6. Untitled (How Does It Feel)
Music Video by D’Angelo
“Untitled (How Does It Feel)” by D’Angelo is on second studio album, Voodoo (2000). Directed by Paul Hunter and Dominique Trenier.
How does it feel
—Written by D’Angelo, and Raphael Saadiq.
How does it feel
Said I want to know how does it feel
How does it feel
How does it feel
5. Birdman (2014)
That Scene Meant to Mess With You
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and Nicolás Giacobone. Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Stone, and Edward Norton.
The vast majority of audiences will never see a cut between frames for 90 minutes and counting. That’s pretty fkin hard, and almost impossible to do without boring the hell out of everyone.
—John Hendrickson, Esquire
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Move to the Music Scene
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, and Daryl Hannah.
Even when there’s nobody fighting, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 works as an extended love letter to the entire history of action movies, and to a few other genres besides.
—Tom Breihan, AV Club
3. Creed (2015)
Fight Scene
Directed by Ryan Coogler. Screenplay is written by Ryan Coogler, and Aaron Covington. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, and Tessa Thompson.
Alberti, who shot the film digitally on the Arri Alexa camera, is quick to credit her steadicam operator, Ben Semanoff. He was tasked with physically pulling off the feat in the ring, moving from actor to actor as the intense choreography (courtesy of fight and stunt coordinator Clayton Barber) tells a story that builds to a breathtaking punctuation. Coogler shot 12 takes of the sequence, with the tenth take being the one used in the film.
—Kristopher Tapley, Variety
2. Climax (2018)
Opening Dance Sequence
Directed and written by Gaspar Noé. Starring Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, and Souheila Yacoub.
It’s “Fame directed by the Marquis de Sade,” it’s “a typically confrontational cocktail of music and horror … dropped on its audience like the bucket of blood from Carrie,” it’s “Step Up meets Enter the Void” — these were a few of the creative descriptions of Gaspar Noe’s dance-dance-devolution epic Climax coming out of the festival circuit press over the past 10 months.
—David Fear, RollingStone
1. Different World (1988-1993)
Opening Credits Season 2-6
A Different World challenged the notion that in order to be popular television you had to be non-racial or apolitical, and instead proved that if you wanted to be relevant, you had to be real. It was one of the first network shows to address issues like date rape, apartheid, HIV, colorism and racism, all through the prism of the Black college experience.
—Jessica Littles, Essence
The sitcom explored pertinent reproductive-justice issues for black women, including stereotypical imagery like Mammy, intimate-partner violence, sexual harassment and assault, misogynoir, contraception and condom use, and young-adult pregnancy. A Different World was way ahead of its time in creating and shifting narratives about black college life specifically and black life in general.
—Brittany Brathwaite, The Root
Aretha Franklin will be remembered for her powerful voice, and virtuosity as a pianist, producer, arranger, and songwriter. She’ll also be remembered for her unyielding activism and effortless shade, but if you grew up in the late ’80s, you probably remember her for something else: A Different World’s theme song [seasons 2-5].
—Victoria Johnson, Vulture
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