6. “Fast as You Can,” Fiona Apple (1999)
Another example of interesting experimentation within an Apple video, this lively song’s theme of speed gives Anderson license to play around with the syncing of the vocals to the singer’s mouth. Which is often rather more distracting than enhancing, but Anderson also incorporates other visual hi-jinks, like Apple smudging and “cleaning” the image by rubbing at the lens, and some unusual framing.
Notable moment: At 1:10 when she’s walking up the subway car, it’s all one take, but it starts off out of sync and ends perfectly synced up.
5. “Try” by Michael Penn (1997)
Anderson indulges his love of corridors and people walking down corridors here to a further degree with this Michael Penn video that he shot during the editing of “Boogie Nights.” He also establishes one of his trademarks —a shifting point of view camera, so that sometimes we’re looking directly at the singer, other times we’re following him, and still other times we’re looking at the scene seemingly through his eyes, and often we progress from one state to another in a seamless camera move. Be prepared for a punch in the heart early on, when Philip Seymour Hoffman shows up the first time as a very Scotty J-like roadie/gofer.
Notable Moment: Around 2:19, the inexplicable and very visible squibs beneath Penn’s shirt start to go off.
4. “Across the Universe,” Fiona Apple (1998)
Apple covered this Beatles track for the soundtrack of the charming, nostalgic Gary Ross movie “Pleasantville.” For the video, Anderson nods to the film’s setting and themes by shooting in black and white and by having Apple singing the song wearing old-timey headphones while all around her a group of Biff Tannen-like jocks lay waste to a 1950s soda fountain in slow motion. It’s a very pretty and well-achieved spot that again shows Anderson honing the craft of camera movement and placement.
Notable moment: At around 1:25, the camera begins to perform a slow 360 degree revolution, with Apple mounted to it as well so that at one point she’s singing while hanging upside down.
