Big Time - Peter Gabriel video free download

"Big Time" was the second hit single from Peter Gabriel's 1986 album "So" following "Sledgehammer". As you probably know, when Big Time was designed, shot and edited, audio and video editing was still a linear analog process. Unlike the non-linear digital world we live and play in now, analog required you to move from point A to Z in order...if you wanted to change a segment or drop in a new take, as we do seamlessly with a couple of key strokes on our desktop or laptop, analog required that you start the edit from the beginning. Using digital media, we're always dealing with original master quality no matter how many layers of, film and audio we mix, match and move around. In analog mode, every time you wanted to add an effect or new element to a scene you had to go "down a generation" from the original master and one step further away from your final edit which was down a generation or two from the master to begin with and you see how the difficulty compared to today where we can add an infinite number of layers to a scene and it looks just as crisp as it did coming out of the digital camera. Add in the the various animation techniques like claymation and the result here is all the more remarkable.

"The stop motion strata-cut animation/claymation was done by David Daniels. The larger video was supervised by Director Steven Johnson, Produced by Prudence Fenton, shot at Peter Wallach Studios, and graphic designer Wayne White contributed heavily as well." *

The assembly of such a complex production as "Big Time" was an exceedingly time consuming venture and extremely expensive as only editing mega facilities like Laser Pacific in LA had the hardware/software and computing power you had to have to create videos which would draw praise and get lots of air time on MTV.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Time_%28Peter_Gabriel_song%29

Speaking of the music, you've got one of the best drummers in rock by far in Stewart Copeland from the Police laying down a perfect funk groove which Tony Levin drives using a technical aid he created along with his guitar tech called Funk Fingers..basically mini drum sticks attached to his picking hand...David Rhodes on guitar, the sound of a Hammond B3 organ done by Simon Clark, the back up singers, horn section and Peter himself gets me every time.