The accompanying music video for "Unfinished Sympathy" (a docu-fiction) was directed by Baillie Walsh, who had also directed the video for Massive Attack's previous single "Daydreaming", and was filmed in a single continuous shot from 1311 South New Hampshire Avenue to 2632 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The video,
View attachment 1000040928.mp4 filmed on Steadicam, begins with a shot of a street gang before moving to follow Nelson walking along the pavement unaware or uncaring of her surroundings, which include drunks, bikers and disabled people. As the video progresses, first Daddy G, then 3D (having finished making a call on a public phone booth) and then Mushroom (pushing a cart) can be seen walking several paces behind her, slightly out of focus. At the end of the video, Nelson walks past the camera and off down the road into the distance. The video was originally supposed to conclude with an overhead shot of Los Angeles, but the scene was not used.
Not all of the people in the video were actors: 3D told Melody Maker that "some of them were extras. And some of them couldn't be f***ed to get off the street. The gang at the beginning with the dog – they were real, they lived there."The performance artist Leigh Bowery was the video's art director; the group later described him as "definitely the most outrageous character", recalling, "Because we weren't part of that London scene, he tried to dress down and go low-key around us. This basically meant he turned up to the shoot for 'Unfinished' in LA, dressed in this mental outfit, like a faux-Manc casual. Massive parka, a mad pudding-basin wig, big Stone Roses baggies, and dripping with sweat."
Dan Kneece, best known for his work on the 1986 film Blue Velvet, operated the Steadicam for the video shoot.3D said that Kneece was one of the main reasons why they had chosen to shoot the video in Los Angeles, "because there aren't many people [in the UK] who have the expertise to hold a Steadycam on their back for five minutes", the other reason being "the light, because you can't get that kind of golden light anywhere else".Kneece recalled that the shoot started with him on a Shotmaker arm on which he filmed the gang before being lifted into the air and then down again, at which point he had to take a running jump off the arm onto the sidewalk to follow Nelson. Six takes were recorded before Kneece became too exhausted to carry the camera any more. The equipment used for the filming included an Arriflex III camera, a Cooke 3:1 zoom lens, and a 400-foot camera magazine.
The camera shot at a slightly lower frame rate since the song was longer than the amount of film the camera could shoot at 24 fps. To compensate, the audio track was mildly sped up on set to match the new camera speed, and then it could be converted back to normal speed in post-production.Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian described the video as a "benchmark in modern video direction, more a breathtaking short film than a mere pop promo".
View attachment 1000040928.mp4 filmed on Steadicam, begins with a shot of a street gang before moving to follow Nelson walking along the pavement unaware or uncaring of her surroundings, which include drunks, bikers and disabled people. As the video progresses, first Daddy G, then 3D (having finished making a call on a public phone booth) and then Mushroom (pushing a cart) can be seen walking several paces behind her, slightly out of focus. At the end of the video, Nelson walks past the camera and off down the road into the distance. The video was originally supposed to conclude with an overhead shot of Los Angeles, but the scene was not used.
Not all of the people in the video were actors: 3D told Melody Maker that "some of them were extras. And some of them couldn't be f***ed to get off the street. The gang at the beginning with the dog – they were real, they lived there."The performance artist Leigh Bowery was the video's art director; the group later described him as "definitely the most outrageous character", recalling, "Because we weren't part of that London scene, he tried to dress down and go low-key around us. This basically meant he turned up to the shoot for 'Unfinished' in LA, dressed in this mental outfit, like a faux-Manc casual. Massive parka, a mad pudding-basin wig, big Stone Roses baggies, and dripping with sweat."
Dan Kneece, best known for his work on the 1986 film Blue Velvet, operated the Steadicam for the video shoot.3D said that Kneece was one of the main reasons why they had chosen to shoot the video in Los Angeles, "because there aren't many people [in the UK] who have the expertise to hold a Steadycam on their back for five minutes", the other reason being "the light, because you can't get that kind of golden light anywhere else".Kneece recalled that the shoot started with him on a Shotmaker arm on which he filmed the gang before being lifted into the air and then down again, at which point he had to take a running jump off the arm onto the sidewalk to follow Nelson. Six takes were recorded before Kneece became too exhausted to carry the camera any more. The equipment used for the filming included an Arriflex III camera, a Cooke 3:1 zoom lens, and a 400-foot camera magazine.
The camera shot at a slightly lower frame rate since the song was longer than the amount of film the camera could shoot at 24 fps. To compensate, the audio track was mildly sped up on set to match the new camera speed, and then it could be converted back to normal speed in post-production.Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian described the video as a "benchmark in modern video direction, more a breathtaking short film than a mere pop promo".
