Fast As You Can

United States

1999

5 Min

Color, Black and White

2.35:1

English

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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PROD Daniel Lupi, Eileen Malyzsko

Paul’s most random format experiement. Shot in various locations around their shared LA home, Paul filmed Fiona with everything from a lumiere camera to a modern 35mm camera. The video was shot after the completion of Magnolia, and just looks like Paul and Fiona Apple having fun with various tricks. Fiona described her song as ‘full of gags’, and wanted the video to reflect that in an acoustic way (ie: avoiding anything computer generated).

The shoot was extremely rushed and concepts were made up on the spot. The footage changes aspect ratios and frame rates constantly, likely the result of adjustable motors or hand cranks. The video made a lot of people upset when the frame rate runs out of sync with the music (on purpose).

“The Lens Change”

PTA uses this effect in this video as well as Magnolia (“but it did happen”) It involves dropping various lenses of different lengths into the camera during the shot – giving an in-camera circular looking jump cut. This technique is also used in the opening of Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis to a humorous and mystifying degree. –ptanderson.info

“‘Fast As You Can’ was really rushed, actually. We didn’t really have an idea. He just knew he wanted to use [a] camera from 1909 and just figured that, like, if we do some gags [tricks] with that, it will kind of be like a modern thing with the gags, but kind of keep[ing] it acoustic. Like, the song does all these kind of gags in it, but it keeps it kind of acoustic, with no, like, techno stuff, but [it] is beat-driven and stuff. Using the 1909 camera, it was kind of like doing gags with the tape and the lenses… along the same line as what the song is, because it’s done with this old camera rather than computer gags or something.” –Fiona Apple

“‘Fast as You Can’ was nominated for Best Pop Video of the Year at the annual Billboard Music Video Awards and the ceremony was held on November 10th at the Hilton in Universal City, CA.”

Director

Paul Thomas Anderson

With his 1997 film Boogie Nights, then-27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson took his place on the list of Hollywood wunderkinds. Boogie Nights was hailed by one critic as the first great film about the ‘70s to come out since the ’70s. Anderson was born in Studio City, California, on January 1, 1970. After a brief stint as an English major at Emerson College and an even shorter stint at the New York University Film School, Anderson began his career as a production assistant on various TV movies, videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 1992, he made his short Cigarettes & Coffee, and after it was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival, he made his first full-length feature, Sydney — retitled Hard Eight, which despite its ’A’ festival recognition went unnoticed by the audiences. Later on Anderson did Boogie Nights, which received three Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations,and was widely hailed as one of the best films of the year, if not the decade. His next film… read more

With his 1997 film Boogie Nights, then-27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson took his place on the list of Hollywood wunderkinds. Boogie Nights was hailed by one critic as the first great film about the ‘70s to come out since the ’70s. Anderson was born in Studio City, California, on January 1, 1970. After a brief stint as an English major at Emerson College and an even shorter stint at the New York University Film School, Anderson began his career as a production assistant on various TV movies, videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 1992, he made his short Cigarettes & Coffee, and after it was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival, he made his first full-length feature, Sydney — retitled Hard Eight, which despite its ’A’ festival recognition went unnoticed by the audiences. Later on Anderson did Boogie Nights, which received three Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations,and was widely hailed as one of the best films of the year, if not the decade. His next film, Magnolia (1999) was an ensemble film of epic length, and featured performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore; centered around themes of love, death, abandonment, and familial estrangement. hough it turned up on a slew of 10-best lists and secured Oscar nods for Cruise, Aimee Mann’s original song “Save Me”, and Anderson’s screenplay, Magnolia’s three-hour-and-twenty-minute running time scared off audiences, and the film failed to break even Boogie Nights’ $25 million tally.

Later on, his next film Punch Drunk Love, an off-kilter fusion of ‘50s Technicolor musical, extortion thriller, and the real-life tale of one man’s pudding compulsion, was premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, nabbing its creator a tie for the Best Director prize, while the film petered out at the box office after a promising limited-release run. Allegedly suffering from some burnout after the lack of public response to Punch Drunk Love, Anderson took a job assisting one of his idols, Robert Altman, while he directed his final film, A Prairie Home Companion. This process reinvigoratd him to some degree and Anderson returned to screens in 2007 with There Will Be Blood, a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil. The story of an oilman (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose misanthropy and desire for success costs him his humanity opened to thunderous critical praise and was one of the two films to dominate the year end critics and industry awards. Anderson was cited for numerous writing and directing awards including Oscar nominations for each of those categories.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:231996)

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