Do You Realize?? sang by Gretchen Lieberum

The video for Gretchen Lieberum's take on the Flaming Lips song 'Do You Realize' was directed by Jacob Aaron Estes (Mean Creek) in three afternoons, with a three thousand dollar budget and no lights, shot with a used fifty dollar Canon Super 8mm film camera. With only two people on the small crew, the filmmakers and the artist traveled around Los Angeles through Silverlake, Echo Park, Chinatown, Downtown, Beverly Hills and South Central asking random people on the street for five minutes of their time to pose for a music video. With the exception of a few friends who let the filmmakers into their houses to film them and their children, all the subjects who generously posed for camera were friendly strangers. During the filming, each participant was passed a toy crown to place on their head and each subject then passed the crown off screen to the other side of frame-- to create an illusion in the editing room that the crown is being passed from person to person, starting with the artist in Echo Park, traveling to Santee Alley in the heart of Los Angeles' Garment District to Rodeo Drive and back again. Some of the subjects with more time on their hands to donate were then asked to attempt to lip sync the song, which the filmmakers played them on a cheap CD player and the participants had to learn the lyrics on the spot. The humanistic, equalizing quality of the video, dramatized by the passing of the crown from person to person was a visual-intellectual idea that came from the artist Gretchen herself, who was inspired by the themes of the song and by a friend of hers in Brooklyn named Ken Solomon who for years has been working on something called 'The Wig Project', photographing thousands of local residents posing for camera with the same Afro-wig. Shot by Cinematographers Paula Huidobro & Sharone Meir, Edited by Russell Lichter, with production support by Marc Webb, Hagai Shaham and David Naylor. Also available to view in a higher resolution at www.gretchenmusic.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Do
• You
• Realize
• Gretchen
• Lieberum
• The
• Flaming
• Lips
• Funny
• Love
• Song
• Weird
• Beautiful

[battlewoundgalla]

gorgeous take on the flaming lips already great song. nice work, great video!

[cixxxpakkk]

touched my soul

[gymnosophy]

Why do something that's been done before.

[ELECTECHNUT]

This is one of my favorite videos. It reminds me that every stranger that I pass on the street, has their own hopes, struggles. Today may just be an "average day" for me, but life has just begun for some people, and is ending for others. This video reminds me to appreciate each day more, and my loved ones.

[liberatedsage]

Gretchen, you have lifted these lyrics to a new level of compassion. Heal the world with your work, one person at a time.

shanti

[tomkkkkk]

she has a gorgeous voice Flaming lips do it best :)

[monoterrific]

This almost always make me cry. It's just a lovely song, and the video and piano arrangement are extremely well done. Oh, @lendial, I don't think this song is sad; quite the opposite, I consider one of the happiest and most positive songs out there right now. It's message is simple: life is amazing, so get out there and live it with the people you love.

[Deutsche22]

My name is Francis A. Lieberum III. I wonder if I am related. Great voice, song, performance...



[Bri11201]

Wow I love this

[astrogirl1111]

very calming and beautiful :)

[conversechick14]

I'm speechless.

absolutely amazing

[hinakuu]

I love what the video quality does for the music video - it reminds me of 70s movies.