For the Silver Tongue video, we planned for nine months and shot in one day.
The shot was four minutes and twelve seconds. We had one take that we committed to at the start of principal photography. Everything else — sixty crew members, three weeks of technical rehearsals, a decommissioned power station in Detroit — was preparation for that one take.
When it happened, it happened in real time. The camera moved because we’d rehearsed the movement until it was unconscious. The light shifted because we’d calculated when it would shift. The performance was alive because James had nowhere to hide.
Preparation doesn’t kill spontaneity. Preparation is what makes spontaneity possible.