"Staring at the Sun" [04:39]

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Video Information

The video was given a sneak peek on “Access Hollywood” on March 28, 1997. They played a minute or so of the video in a split screen while the credits for the television show rolled. “Staring at the Sun” premiered in full on MTV on Sunday March 30, at 8am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm (EST). It premiered on Much Music in Canada on the same day at noon, 6pm, midnight and six am.

The video itself was shot in a dark room with a lot of different light effects. The band is seen mostly in shadow lit by intense light at times, from the sides, strobe like lights, in their hands. Although the video does start out with all of the band sitting around, eventually it shifts so we see the Edge with guitar, Adam with bass, and Larry performing, standing behind a drum. Towards the end of the video, the band are lit up. The video ends with zooming out from a sun-like light, and then quickly zooming back in.

The director of the video is Jake Scott. He is a British director, son of Blade Runner / Aliens director Ridley Scott, and nephew of Top Gun director Tony Scott. A few of the effects used in the video came from his father, Scott revealed that one of the final effects had also been used in Alien. The video was filmed in New York City at Paris Studios over two days. Many of the lighting effects were done in camera, although some effects were also added in postproduction at The Mill in London. Salvatore Totino described one of his favorite effects, an orb of light revolving around the band’s faces, “I used this little wand with a 12V/75W bulb on the end plugged into the camera battery. We developed the wand in our test stages, and that’s how the light traveled around them.”

Scott would also film the video for “GoldenEye” with Tina Turner, and the video for the Bono-led “What’s Going On” video.

Additional Screen Captures

Video Credits

  • Directed by Jake Scott
  • Producer: Ellen Jacobson
  • Editor: Jim Weedon
  • Director of Photography: Salvatore Totino
  • Post-Production: The Mill