It‘s the first time I saw the official music video to this song. I really like it. There is so much going on. They timed their acting to so singing, obviously. But the twist is, that they timed it with the rewinding part as well. For example the woman shows her shoulder for absolutely no reason. They continue the song and rewind the video and the woman shows her shoulder again, but this time it’s matching the song „kalte Schulter zeigen“. This is a saying we use to express „ignoring someone“, btw. So the cards, the acting and all most of the time don‘t make any sense, until they rewind the video. The planning must have been an nightmare. 🙈
The idea is quite genius, but I think it was not that of a nightmare, as you can vary the rewind speed to match acting and song. So, there might have been a little space to work with. c:
Shooting a video like this is a real nightmare. Concept and planning can take a very long time and there were certainly a lot of people involved in the project. There was definitely a storyboard and a set timing, meaning you have several people behind the camera handing out the right stacks of signs at exactly the right time and all the movements are rehearsed in advance like a dance choreography. The director or one or more choreographers will call out the right movements at the right time and if just one movement goes wrong the whole video has to be shot again from the beginning. On top of that, it was planned in advance that some parts would be filmed backwards, as you can see in many places when the signs for the text were in the frame forwards and backwards at the same time, which is a feat and requires tremendous imagination. I suspect the rehearsals for the shoot and the shoot itself took several days.
I agree, its so much work. The band Walk off the Earth has done one with the same concept, but executed it differently. They did a "Behind the Scenes" to show off how it went. Both are really good videos imo
I just had to translate it for all the non-german speaking viewers because the lyrics are playful and to my mind subtle and intense a the same time. (I used DeepL for a first draft and went from there.) [Verse 1] I can see that you're thinking I think that you're feeling something I feel that you want something, but I don't hear you, I... I borrowed a dictionary Shouted A to Z into your ear I'm piling up a thousand jumbled words that tug at your sleeve [Pre-chorus] And wherever you want to go, I'll be hanging on your legs If you happened to have fallen on a mouth*, why not on mine? [*a proverb that means: being someone that doesn't talk much] [Refrain] Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Please, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Please, please give me just one word [Verse 2] It's crazy how beautiful you are being silent How you bow your pretty head And give the whole noisy world and me the cold shoulder Your silence is your tent You place it in the middle of the world Tighten the strings and marvel silently when a girl falls over them at night [Pre-chorus] At your feet I'll talk my head off I wanna make big waves in your deep waters* [a play on another proverb: "Stille Wasser sind tief", still waters are deep; which means: People who don't talk much, are characters with depth] [Refrain, see above] [Instrumental] [Bridge] The endorphins bubble in my blood When thoughts race behind your quiet rabbit eyes [Refrain with changes] Oh, please give me just one Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one Please, please just give me one (I can see that you're thinking) Oh, please just give me one (I think that you're feeling something) Oh, please just give me one (I feel that you want something) Oh, please, just give me one (But I can't hear you) Please, please just give me one (I only hear me, I won't stop, I, oh) Oh, please just give me one Oh, please just give me one (Oh, please just give me one) Oh, please just give me one (Oh, please, oh, please) Please, please just give me one (I see you're thinking) Oh, please just give me one (I think that you feel) Oh, please just give me one (I feel that you want) Oh, please, just give me one (But I can't hear you) Please, please just give me one (I only hear me, I won't stop, I, oh) Oh, please give me just one (Please give me just one word) Oh, please give me just one Oh, please give me just one Please, please give me just one word
Oh wow this is what I was missing throughout the video. I'm going to make a conscious effort to read the lyrics at the end of all my music reactions. I'm missing a vital piece of the music. The lyrics are beautiful. Thanks for translating them :)
@@dwayneslens yeah the main skill in this video is the timing and how the cards/gestures match the lyrics; my favorite part is in the second verse where the word "Welt" - world - comes up twice and it is the same card and gesture just once forward and once backwards hitting the lyrics which means they had to plan that reverse perfectly; would be great to see the storyboard and the outtakes because I believe they had to do this like dozens of times to get it right
@@dwayneslens I'm pretty sure there was an alternative version of the lyrics with a slightly different line about the rabbits which said something about the rabbits were having sex every night. Maybe it was on the album and they changed for the single and video to be radio/TV friendly. I can't find it on google, but this line is in my head for years. my father was a fan of the band and bought the cd, I listened to it a couple of times. Could be some misheared lyrics, I was something like 14 back then.
Unfortunately you made a mistake in the second line, it's "Ich denke, dass du fühlst" your translation would be "Ich denke, was du fühlst". And you didn't have to go through the effort of manually translating it all since the Goethe-Institute published a translation I stumbled onw hen checking the lyrics, although I wouldn't agree with a few choices of words of theirs either.
I really miss the German pop-rock wave of the mid 2000s. Not just Wir Sind Helden, but also Juli and Silbermond. Wild to think that some of their songs are already over 20 years old.
She absolutely is and I'm afraid to really appreciate the lyrics you need a pretty good mastery of the language because you need to catch the idioms that are being played with. It's actually a pretty simple story about how guys never talk, but it's done in such a fresh and beautiful way, it's amazing. I can't help it, but people who come up with lines like "Wenn Du schon auf den Mund fallen musst, warum dann nicht auf meinen?" I will always instantly fall in love with :P
@@BirdBrain0815After all these years and the countless times I‘ve listened to this song, I still get excited about „in meinem Blut werfen die Endorphine Blasen“. 😊
The video is intended as a reminiscence of "Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues", which also works with the self-made signs in this video. This song is about lovesickness, where a person is waiting for love to return.
I believe you underestimate the effort that must have gone into this music video. This band was known for their talent to make very elaborate lyrics come across effortless, deep meanings packed into simple words where when listened to everybody could think „yeah, I could have said that exactly like this, but somehow never thought of it“. In this case coupled with a video that does the same. Looks fun and easy, but is pretty well planned and probably took a lot of thought.
Indeed. He’s totally underestimating this video. It’s art. The cue cards are exactly timed even when playback is reversed. Also the gestures fit the lyrics. But how could he know if he can’t read German or understand the words they sing.
The thing is, the video looks that it was produced very easily. But just think about all these signs, being played back and forward, so they match with the actual lyrics. This already drives my brain crazy. 🙈
@@ingobordewick6480 But Bob Dylan just goes forward in his video, while this goes back and forth... The timing is done with playing the video faster or slower every now and then, so they edited the speed of the video/cards/gestures to match the song, not the other way around. They just had to do the right things in the right order. And: most of the time it's running backwards, the last things seen were filmed first.
Wow, what a great video. From an editors perspective, this is a really complicated video when it comes to timing and planning and making it look so easy. Trust me, this video is highly complex and for sure needed a lot of pre-thinking! Cudos to everybody who was involved into it.
My favorite "Helden" music video is "Von hier an blind". It's completely animated, in the style of Hergé, the Belgian comic artist (of Tintin fame). They also translated the song into a lot of different languages (including English of course, it's named "Walking Blind"), they're all up on RUclips! EDIT: Ah, I just saw it was the recommended next video on the end card :D
Ah Wir sind Helden... I got to love them when their song "Gekommen um zu bleiben" came out in the early 2000 (so yes you were correct with your guess about their clothes) and bought their album "Von hier an blind" (which included this song). It was the first album I could listen to non stop as a whole. It had so many different styles of music which I also loved. But their lyrics were what stood out for me as well. "Ich werde mein Leben lang üben, dich so zu lieben wie ich dich lieben will, wenn du gehst" - the title itself is already so beautiful: "For the rest of my life I will try to learn to love you the way I want to love you when you leave" (a very loose translation by me) and the lyrics of "Echolot" is still to this day one of the most beautiful I know. I think this video was a poor choice for a foreigner to react because it's hard for a non German speaker to understand it. In my opinion "Soundso" or "Wenn es passiert" would have been better.
the video might look as if they just shook it out of their sleeves... but the cards have the words from the lyrics on them.. and for them to show the right words at the right time takes an actual choreography. plus... "nur ein Wort" "just one word" and they are holding up cards with mostly one word on them... it's clever and poetic.
To put things in perspective: The song is from 2005, when youtube wasn't as popular a video platform for music videos as it is now (We mainly watched music videos on Mtv and such). The upload of the video is from 2010. "Wir sind Helden" kind of disbanded in 2012. Had the video been up during it's prime, it would have generated amultitude of the clicks it has now. So yes, it was a popular band in Germany, especially considering that it was a german band, which were not that well represented in the charts back then.
It is great because they had to plan very diligently. The gestures, the forwards and backwards flashing signs are always exactly on point with the lyrics. Bob Dylan used the flashcards in a very old video. This is much more thought through though…
Saddest and best song by Wir sind Helden is (at least in my opinion) " Bring mich nach Hause" (Bring me home), so sad and beautiful. They had a lot of popular songs over here such as Denkmal, Gekommen um zu bleiben,... Unfortunately they haven't released any new songs for years. But their songs still are in people's heads 😊
One of the best band when it comes to lyrics and story telling. Also amazing live band. One of my favorite bands at their time. Really sad they quit. FM4 Unplugged is a must see.
Wir sind Helden was a pretty popular band in the 2000s/ early 2010s. The Song is from 2005 & I absolutely loved it & actually still do. It reminds me of summerbreaks back when we all were still in school & festivals with friends. 😊
@@THomasHH Nah, IMDB lists the video's release year as 2005, and the video was nominated for the VIVA Comet in October of that year, so it must have been produced in 2004/2005.
Oh I loved that song so much. It makes me feel connected to my dad who passed away exactly a jear ago. we listened to the band together and he always _ aallwwaayyss told me that he saw them live. The singer wrote so amazing lyrics on so many songs.
Wir sind Helden is one of those bands I loved to here when I was young. I still love these songs, they are great with poetic texts. Also "Denkmal" and "Guten Tag" are great and you should translate them.
I don’t really get it: you’re usually quite thorough when reacting to videos but then you don’t even bother to look up the English lyrics of the songs you react to. What’s the point?
They also edit the Video to make the movements of the people fit the text at the time. For example at 2:02 "die kalte schulter zeigen" (Showing the cold shoulder) she comes back into the picture raising her shoulder (wich is a rewind of somehing she did before). Planning and cutting this probably took ages.
I think you can only fully appreciate the geniality of this video when you understand German (very well). All the little subtle cues... I honestly think it must have been very, very difficult to shoot because every gesture means something (it's not just the cue cards!). I LOVE "Wir sind Helden" - their lyrics are poetry!!!
I think you're right that it was cheap, BUT: as with everything that looks effortless, this actually took a great deal of thinking through and planning.
This song was very popular back then. It was part of the soundtrack for a popular teen film called "Französisch für Anfänger" (french for beginners) and it's still used for a big german talkshow.
Actually they had to shoot a video for Nur Ein Wort in a pretty short time.. There were on tour that time. And Germans from that time know what that meant. They were THE german live band for about two decades. I think they had about a half day for the shot. So their production team developed the concept and the cards and they met somewhere in Germany where the current WSH concert was.
I bloody love Wir Sind Helden, and this track in particular. I think it's perfect indie pop. Also try: Guten Tag, Denkmal, The Ballade von Wolfgang und Brigitte. As others have mentioned, the video is a lift from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, only without Alan Ginsberg in the background. I'd go to see them in Germany in a heartbeat if they reform.
This video looks simple at first glance but I think it must be super complex to plan and execute because it's one take with rewind/forward but every single detail (the words on the cards, the acting of the people) is perfectly synched with the song's text.
You´ve said it. They let the vid run back and forth but in the same moment, there are always some words on the shields or gestures which perfectly fit to the words in the song. A great way to honor the bob dylan vid. Love it. And yeah, it is from 2005.
"Wir sind Helden" and "Sportfreunde Stiller" are two of the very few German bands that I actually liked. They stood out with their pretty clever texts.
Hallo ! Try (I think) their first video "Guten Tag " a comic like one and very funny about struggeling with management and record compenies And there is another video with card throwing video from the late 80ties - INXS "need you tonight" I believe
Judith Holofernes made an album first all alone, which contains almost all the songs from the first Wir sind Helden album. When you compare both records, it sounds as if having a band was like releasing the brakes. A guitar was not enough.
The band was successful between 2003 and 2007. What was special about them were their lyrics that were critical of consumption and the media. Their first single was already a breakthrough. And the video wasn't expensive either: Wir Sind Helden - Guten Tag (Official Video) Singer Judith Holofernes alias Judith Holfelder-Roy is still active today, but cannot repeat her previous successes: Judith Holofernes - Liebe Teil 2: Jetzt Erst Recht (Offizielles Video)
Fun fact to "Guten Tag" Song: It was released by the band without even having a contract with any, even small, label. It became an instant success first in Berlin promoted by radio DJs, little later in the whole country after singer Judith Holofernes had been invited into a nationwide late night talkshow. Arguably one of the best and most influential german bands for the last 30 years.
The cost of the video was probably cheap, but the choreography definitely required a lot of planning and it actually very complex. I assume you noticed it, but the cards are showing some of the lyrics and those had to display at the correct time she was singing them. Wir sind Helden were great and I kinda miss them. This isn't even close to my favorites by them. You should give "Guten Tag" a listen.
Wir sind Helden (We are Heroes) are no more but they where so awesome and i still miss them. My favorite from them is Ein Elefant für dich (An Elefant for you).
Note: Since 2008 there has been “public broadcasting” in Germany [on the station 'ZDF'; every Tue-Thur around 11 p.m. for 75 minutes and only covers one topic!] the political talk show “Markus Lanz”! It has been the most successful political talk show on German television since 2010! Since 2010, the musical intro and outro of the show has been this song from “We Are Heroes”! If that doesn't fit like a glove!!! “Just one word please” as an intro for a “TALK show!!! - Important: A political talk in Germany is not a joke evening show like in the USA [and GB?]! Politicians and people of current interest from society come to “argue” seriously (and without fake news) about current topics! OK, politicians always like to polemicize, especially in front of the camera! :-) -
Funny, exactly while you were thinking this video must have cost like nothing I thought this video resp. the time to plan this must have been so expensive.. 😅
Actually, the video production wasn't cheap at all. They shot on analogue 16mm film, which in itself isn't cheap. Then they most likely needed to rent the eqipment for that as well since most people don't have analogue film cameras laying at home + and probably hire a crew for the shoot. Then there's development, printing and/or scanning (they only did the digital scan after develoment and no analogue prints, if I remember correctly - I work at the film lab that developed the material back then), then post production... And all of that after they had someone work out the concept and plan filming (and most likely had to pay for that as well). So, no, not cheap at all.
4:15 song and video are from 2005. Wir sind Helden was one of the first bands, who became popular without being promoted by the music industry but their own marketing. Their first two albums are just great. I am an album listener, which means, when I listen to music I listen a whole album so all songs must be good and also be well combined. So when you are like me and you did like, what you have heard, try those two albums. Since I did not listen to the other two albums, this video reminded me to do it.
"wir sind helden" are german legends!!! they made german songs popular again in germany. everyone was scared of doing german songs before. they made them sound good again. btw, the video is inspired by Bob Dylan's video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues". and yes like others already mentioned shes one of our coolest poets. someone similar would be "jennifer Rostock" in which the singer "jennifer weist" is also some sort of lyrical poet but more rebel punk vibes involved.
Wir sind Helden (lit. "We Are Heroes") = VEER ZINT HEL-DEN (approx. pronunciation in English) Nur ein Wort ("just a word") = NOOR AIN VORT (approx. pronunciation in English)
Not me as a german singing along to the whole song😊 and with the 2006- 2010 era you're at least not completly off. It could even have been a little bit earlier...The Band is exactly from that time of the early 2000s, but is not doing things anymore. And that was their most sucessfull and most famous hit
I don't think there is a single movie out there that have cost a billion dollar. Not even close. The most expensive movie of all time was Star Wars 7 with 533 million dollar. But I guess that kinda proves your point 😄
There is also a video here, where Judith Holofernes, the singer, react to their own videos. There she tells, that they had much more money then today for a video. What makes the video good for Germans is that they show the text of the song on the card and the reactions of the band. At the end of the 90s and beginning 2000s the German charts were mainly English, also the German bands sang in English. Wir sind Helden was the band, who started to sing in German again and started the „Neue Neue Deutsche Welle“. I was not that big fan of them, but they had a big impact for the German music in that time.
Totally missing the point and geniality of the video and editing, when you don't understand the language and how perfectly it matches despite the back and forth. Must have cost days and weeks of preparation to get it right. Such a wasted opportunity to check that art out. Well... Happens
The style of this video was obviously inspired by a video from Bob Dylan. "Subterranean Homesick Blues". This video and his style was also pick up by Weird Al Yankovic for his tribute/style parody "Bob".
One of my favorite German songs ever besides „Kassengift“ or „Die Dame von der Akademie“ by Rosenstolz. Their early songs are awesome. The later songs are awful.
To be fair, as far as I know this song was their breakthrough. So I guess their later success wasn’t clear at all and the video budget probably not so high. And it is indeed clever how it is made
No, this song was from their second album. Their first album was already a big success in Germany and made them quite famous. Their songs "Guten Tag", "Denkmal" and "Aurélie" were literally everywhere. And they already had more complex music videos to these songs.
Wir sind Helden were huge in the early 2000s. They made german lyrics popular again if you ask me. Lots of word-plays and clever song-writing.
I proposed to that song. got just one word back. happily married for 8 years
Nein?!
Meine Frau hasst die Stimme von Holofernes. Ob sie meinen Antrag mit diesem Song angenommen hätte? 😆 Wäre zumindest ein echter Liebesbeweis gewesen!
awwww, süß
aaw 🥺❤
It‘s the first time I saw the official music video to this song. I really like it. There is so much going on. They timed their acting to so singing, obviously. But the twist is, that they timed it with the rewinding part as well. For example the woman shows her shoulder for absolutely no reason. They continue the song and rewind the video and the woman shows her shoulder again, but this time it’s matching the song „kalte Schulter zeigen“. This is a saying we use to express „ignoring someone“, btw. So the cards, the acting and all most of the time don‘t make any sense, until they rewind the video. The planning must have been an nightmare. 🙈
The idea is quite genius, but I think it was not that of a nightmare, as you can vary the rewind speed to match acting and song. So, there might have been a little space to work with. c:
@@Barbarossa125
There is some wiggle room with the rewind but since it's one continuous take, one uncorrectable mistake ruins the whole video.
Shooting a video like this is a real nightmare. Concept and planning can take a very long time and there were certainly a lot of people involved in the project. There was definitely a storyboard and a set timing, meaning you have several people behind the camera handing out the right stacks of signs at exactly the right time and all the movements are rehearsed in advance like a dance choreography.
The director or one or more choreographers will call out the right movements at the right time and if just one movement goes wrong the whole video has to be shot again from the beginning.
On top of that, it was planned in advance that some parts would be filmed backwards, as you can see in many places when the signs for the text were in the frame forwards and backwards at the same time, which is a feat and requires tremendous imagination.
I suspect the rehearsals for the shoot and the shoot itself took several days.
With the editing and all, that definitly has taken a few weeks in my opinion.
Looks easy, but definitly isn't.
I agree, its so much work. The band Walk off the Earth has done one with the same concept, but executed it differently. They did a "Behind the Scenes" to show off how it went. Both are really good videos imo
I just had to translate it for all the non-german speaking viewers because the lyrics are playful and to my mind subtle and intense a the same time.
(I used DeepL for a first draft and went from there.)
[Verse 1]
I can see that you're thinking
I think that you're feeling something
I feel that you want something, but I don't hear you, I...
I borrowed a dictionary
Shouted A to Z into your ear
I'm piling up a thousand jumbled words that tug at your sleeve
[Pre-chorus]
And wherever you want to go, I'll be hanging on your legs
If you happened to have fallen on a mouth*, why not on mine?
[*a proverb that means: being someone that doesn't talk much]
[Refrain]
Oh,
please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Please, please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Please, please give me just one word
[Verse 2]
It's crazy how beautiful you are being silent
How you bow your pretty head
And give the whole noisy world and me the cold shoulder
Your silence is your tent
You place it in the middle of the world
Tighten the strings and marvel silently when a girl falls over them at night
[Pre-chorus]
At your feet I'll talk my head off
I wanna make big waves in your deep waters*
[a play on another proverb: "Stille Wasser sind tief", still waters are deep; which means: People who don't talk much, are characters with depth]
[Refrain, see above]
[Instrumental]
[Bridge]
The endorphins bubble in my blood
When thoughts race behind your quiet rabbit eyes
[Refrain with changes]
Oh,
please give me just one
Oh,
please just give me one
Oh,
please just give me one
Please, please just give me one (I can see that you're thinking)
Oh, please just give me one (I think that you're feeling something)
Oh, please just give me one (I feel that you want something)
Oh, please, just give me one (But I can't hear you)
Please, please just give me one (I only hear me, I won't stop, I, oh)
Oh, please just give me one
Oh, please just give me one (Oh, please just give me one)
Oh, please just give me one (Oh, please, oh, please)
Please, please just give me one (I see you're thinking)
Oh, please just give me one (I think that you feel)
Oh, please just give me one (I feel that you want)
Oh, please, just give me one (But I can't hear you)
Please, please just give me one (I only hear me, I won't stop, I, oh)
Oh, please give me just one (Please give me just one word)
Oh, please give me just one
Oh, please give me just one
Please, please give me just one word
Oh wow this is what I was missing throughout the video. I'm going to make a conscious effort to read the lyrics at the end of all my music reactions. I'm missing a vital piece of the music. The lyrics are beautiful. Thanks for translating them :)
@@dwayneslens yeah the main skill in this video is the timing and how the cards/gestures match the lyrics; my favorite part is in the second verse where the word "Welt" - world - comes up twice and it is the same card and gesture just once forward and once backwards hitting the lyrics which means they had to plan that reverse perfectly; would be great to see the storyboard and the outtakes because I believe they had to do this like dozens of times to get it right
@@dwayneslens I'm pretty sure there was an alternative version of the lyrics with a slightly different line about the rabbits which said something about the rabbits were having sex every night. Maybe it was on the album and they changed for the single and video to be radio/TV friendly. I can't find it on google, but this line is in my head for years. my father was a fan of the band and bought the cd, I listened to it a couple of times. Could be some misheared lyrics, I was something like 14 back then.
Unfortunately you made a mistake in the second line, it's "Ich denke, dass du fühlst" your translation would be "Ich denke, was du fühlst".
And you didn't have to go through the effort of manually translating it all since the Goethe-Institute published a translation I stumbled onw hen checking the lyrics, although I wouldn't agree with a few choices of words of theirs either.
@@jasperzanovich2504 I translated "dass Du fühlst" to "that you're feeling something", did I misread somewhere?
I really miss the German pop-rock wave of the mid 2000s. Not just Wir Sind Helden, but also Juli and Silbermond. Wild to think that some of their songs are already over 20 years old.
Juli ❤
Es ist ein Kunstwerk, dass man das so gefilmt hat. Und ich denke, dass das viel mehr Arbeit war, als man meint.
Judith Holofernes (the singer/ songwriter) is a poet! Please watch it again when you have brushed up your German 😊
She absolutely is and I'm afraid to really appreciate the lyrics you need a pretty good mastery of the language because you need to catch the idioms that are being played with. It's actually a pretty simple story about how guys never talk, but it's done in such a fresh and beautiful way, it's amazing. I can't help it, but people who come up with lines like "Wenn Du schon auf den Mund fallen musst, warum dann nicht auf meinen?" I will always instantly fall in love with :P
@@BirdBrain0815
Die Zeit heilt alle Wunder
Is one of my favourites.
@@BirdBrain0815After all these years and the countless times I‘ve listened to this song, I still get excited about „in meinem Blut werfen die Endorphine Blasen“. 😊
This band is a gem. They were the „heroes“ of my youth and had a huge impact on many German bands coming after them. Judith’s lyrics are so poetic.
Wir sind Helden are on a hiatus since 2012. The concept of the video is a remake of a old Bob Dylan video.
Are? In the 00s they were really something else.. but today?
@@Mister__Jey maybe you should look up the word "hiatus".
Really??? From which song?
@@Winona493 Subterranean Homesick Blues
INXS also did a video in the same style (Mediate).
@@GeeShocker
And also Weird Al Yankowich - Bob
Another great one by them is Denkmal
thats the one i was about to recommend. def the best lyrics and sound imo
Love the song so much
The video is intended as a reminiscence of "Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues", which also works with the self-made signs in this video. This song is about lovesickness, where a person is waiting for love to return.
DANKE!!! Just didn't get it together anymore
I believe you underestimate the effort that must have gone into this music video. This band was known for their talent to make very elaborate lyrics come across effortless, deep meanings packed into simple words where when listened to everybody could think „yeah, I could have said that exactly like this, but somehow never thought of it“. In this case coupled with a video that does the same. Looks fun and easy, but is pretty well planned and probably took a lot of thought.
Indeed. He’s totally underestimating this video. It’s art. The cue cards are exactly timed even when playback is reversed. Also the gestures fit the lyrics. But how could he know if he can’t read German or understand the words they sing.
The thing is, the video looks that it was produced very easily. But just think about all these signs, being played back and forward, so they match with the actual lyrics. This already drives my brain crazy. 🙈
They took the idea from "Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues".
@@ingobordewick6480 But Bob Dylan just goes forward in his video, while this goes back and forth...
The timing is done with playing the video faster or slower every now and then, so they edited the speed of the video/cards/gestures to match the song, not the other way around. They just had to do the right things in the right order. And: most of the time it's running backwards, the last things seen were filmed first.
@@christianj.3082 I know. I didn't say they copied Dylan. I said the idea is from Dylan.
Wow, what a great video. From an editors perspective, this is a really complicated video when it comes to timing and planning and making it look so easy. Trust me, this video is highly complex and for sure needed a lot of pre-thinking! Cudos to everybody who was involved into it.
This band has some outstanding lyrics. They make the best out of german language. Its so smart. Like adding one more word changes all meaning
My favorite "Helden" music video is "Von hier an blind". It's completely animated, in the style of Hergé, the Belgian comic artist (of Tintin fame).
They also translated the song into a lot of different languages (including English of course, it's named "Walking Blind"), they're all up on RUclips!
EDIT: Ah, I just saw it was the recommended next video on the end card :D
Ah Wir sind Helden... I got to love them when their song "Gekommen um zu bleiben" came out in the early 2000 (so yes you were correct with your guess about their clothes) and bought their album "Von hier an blind" (which included this song). It was the first album I could listen to non stop as a whole. It had so many different styles of music which I also loved. But their lyrics were what stood out for me as well. "Ich werde mein Leben lang üben, dich so zu lieben wie ich dich lieben will, wenn du gehst" - the title itself is already so beautiful: "For the rest of my life I will try to learn to love you the way I want to love you when you leave" (a very loose translation by me) and the lyrics of "Echolot" is still to this day one of the most beautiful I know.
I think this video was a poor choice for a foreigner to react because it's hard for a non German speaker to understand it. In my opinion "Soundso" or "Wenn es passiert" would have been better.
the video might look as if they just shook it out of their sleeves... but the cards have the words from the lyrics on them.. and for them to show the right words at the right time takes an actual choreography. plus... "nur ein Wort" "just one word" and they are holding up cards with mostly one word on them... it's clever and poetic.
To put things in perspective: The song is from 2005, when youtube wasn't as popular a video platform for music videos as it is now (We mainly watched music videos on Mtv and such). The upload of the video is from 2010. "Wir sind Helden" kind of disbanded in 2012. Had the video been up during it's prime, it would have generated amultitude of the clicks it has now. So yes, it was a popular band in Germany, especially considering that it was a german band, which were not that well represented in the charts back then.
It is great because they had to plan very diligently. The gestures, the forwards and backwards flashing signs are always exactly on point with the lyrics. Bob Dylan used the flashcards in a very old video. This is much more thought through though…
Saddest and best song by Wir sind Helden is (at least in my opinion) " Bring mich nach Hause" (Bring me home), so sad and beautiful. They had a lot of popular songs over here such as Denkmal, Gekommen um zu bleiben,... Unfortunately they haven't released any new songs for years. But their songs still are in people's heads 😊
One of the best band when it comes to lyrics and story telling. Also amazing live band. One of my favorite bands at their time. Really sad they quit.
FM4 Unplugged is a must see.
Wir sind Helden was a pretty popular band in the 2000s/ early 2010s. The Song is from 2005 & I absolutely loved it & actually still do. It reminds me of summerbreaks back when we all were still in school & festivals with friends. 😊
I remember this time, when we had so many good German bands. ❤ Need to hear that album again.
Your guess was very close. That Album was released in 2005.
That was my guess…when I was at Uni no party in Hannover was danced without this song being played at least once
And the video is probably from a year later. Spot on
@@THomasHH Nah, IMDB lists the video's release year as 2005, and the video was nominated for the VIVA Comet in October of that year, so it must have been produced in 2004/2005.
@@THomasHH Probably? 🤔
Well… In fact this single (and its video) were released in May 2005. So PROBABLY its been recorded in Feb./March 2005. 😉
As simple this video might look, you have to consider, that this is a single-shot video without any cuts.
Oh I loved that song so much. It makes me feel connected to my dad who passed away exactly a jear ago. we listened to the band together and he always _ aallwwaayyss told me that he saw them live. The singer wrote so amazing lyrics on so many songs.
The video is kind of a bow down to Bob Dylan, who did the same thing in the 60's with "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Was looking for a comment like this.
@@suekellner4736 same. ;)
❤ wir sind Helden! They have made some really nice songs! „Gekommen um zu bleiben „ is also really nice!
You really need translations ready. My favorite Wir sind Helden song is "Soundso". But Aurelie is great as well.
@@nadine8742 Jetzt wo du’s sagst: Aurélie is great for a Germany reaction channel!
On the cards they wrote the lyrics of the song. The concept is genius 😊
Wir sind Helden is one of those bands I loved to here when I was young. I still love these songs, they are great with poetic texts. Also "Denkmal" and "Guten Tag" are great and you should translate them.
I don’t really get it: you’re usually quite thorough when reacting to videos but then you don’t even bother to look up the English lyrics of the songs you react to. What’s the point?
Especially with the lyrics of THIS band. Shame... Totally wasted....
They also edit the Video to make the movements of the people fit the text at the time. For example at 2:02 "die kalte schulter zeigen" (Showing the cold shoulder) she comes back into the picture raising her shoulder (wich is a rewind of somehing she did before). Planning and cutting this probably took ages.
Please, dear Dwayne, the lyrics is ALWAYS the most important!!! You cannot skip it.
My cousin's company had produced this video at the time.
Unfortunately, he has changed industries.
Judith is one of the few women that can wear light blue wellingtons to a dress on stage.
I think you can only fully appreciate the geniality of this video when you understand German (very well). All the little subtle cues... I honestly think it must have been very, very difficult to shoot because every gesture means something (it's not just the cue cards!). I LOVE "Wir sind Helden" - their lyrics are poetry!!!
I think you're right that it was cheap, BUT: as with everything that looks effortless, this actually took a great deal of thinking through and planning.
Video is probably inspired by Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
The songs was published in 2005.
This song was very popular back then. It was part of the soundtrack for a popular teen film called "Französisch für Anfänger" (french for beginners) and it's still used for a big german talkshow.
This song came out in 2005, exact date according to Wikipedia 17-may-05.
Actually they had to shoot a video for Nur Ein Wort in a pretty short time.. There were on tour that time. And Germans from that time know what that meant. They were THE german live band for about two decades. I think they had about a half day for the shot. So their production team developed the concept and the cards and they met somewhere in Germany where the current WSH concert was.
I bloody love Wir Sind Helden, and this track in particular. I think it's perfect indie pop. Also try: Guten Tag, Denkmal, The Ballade von Wolfgang und Brigitte. As others have mentioned, the video is a lift from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, only without Alan Ginsberg in the background. I'd go to see them in Germany in a heartbeat if they reform.
This video looks simple at first glance but I think it must be super complex to plan and execute because it's one take with rewind/forward but every single detail (the words on the cards, the acting of the people) is perfectly synched with the song's text.
You´ve said it. They let the vid run back and forth but in the same moment, there are always some words on the shields or gestures which perfectly fit to the words in the song. A great way to honor the bob dylan vid. Love it. And yeah, it is from 2005.
Wir sind Helden are quite popular in Germany.
They were on the Sound track of Fifa 2004, altough with the Song "Guten Tag".
The great thing in this video is that the lyrics are those papers, to match the paper in video with the lyrics is the fascinating thing
Not only words on the cue cards match the lyrics but also gestures and moves.
"Wir sind Helden" and "Sportfreunde Stiller" are two of the very few German bands that I actually liked. They stood out with their pretty clever texts.
Try Dota Kehr. You could like her music.
The song has incredibly clever, playful lyrics that you can only truely appreciate if you speak German very, very well.
As have all Wir sind Helden lyrics. Judith is a great songwriter and plays with language very poetically.
Funny, you're discussing the video, but as always with Wir sind Helden it's about the lyrics.
That song was huge.. back when I was a teenager lol
I haven't listened to them in so long!! Thank you for reminding me! ❤
Hallo ! Try (I think) their first video "Guten Tag " a comic like one and very funny about struggeling with management and record compenies
And there is another video with card throwing video from the late 80ties - INXS "need you tonight" I believe
Yeah, good day good day,I want my life Back... awesome song
Judith Holofernes made an album first all alone, which contains almost all the songs from the first Wir sind Helden album. When you compare both records, it sounds as if having a band was like releasing the brakes. A guitar was not enough.
you should watch the video to the song "von hier an blind" from the same band.
The lyrics are really poetry at its finest ❤️🙏🏽
Close, the song came out May 2005.
Uuuuh, thanks for the reminder! Ich hab das Lied EWIG nicht mehr gehört 😍
One of the best German bands in my opinion. Denkmal rules
Video Concept: Sixties Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues. Please watch that and comment :-)
I also recommend "Guten Tag" and "Denkmal".
The lyrics are what makes this song. Not the "cheap" video... allthough it compliments the cheap look 😊
The band was successful between 2003 and 2007. What was special about them were their lyrics that were critical of consumption and the media. Their first single was already a breakthrough. And the video wasn't expensive either:
Wir Sind Helden - Guten Tag (Official Video)
Singer Judith Holofernes alias Judith Holfelder-Roy is still active today, but cannot repeat her previous successes:
Judith Holofernes - Liebe Teil 2: Jetzt Erst Recht (Offizielles Video)
Fun fact to "Guten Tag" Song: It was released by the band without even having a contract with any, even small, label. It became an instant success first in Berlin promoted by radio DJs, little later in the whole country after singer Judith Holofernes had been invited into a nationwide late night talkshow. Arguably one of the best and most influential german bands for the last 30 years.
The cost of the video was probably cheap, but the choreography definitely required a lot of planning and it actually very complex. I assume you noticed it, but the cards are showing some of the lyrics and those had to display at the correct time she was singing them.
Wir sind Helden were great and I kinda miss them. This isn't even close to my favorites by them. You should give "Guten Tag" a listen.
You should do „gekommen um zu bleiben“ from the same band… so much fun, very danceable
Wir sind Helden (We are Heroes) are no more but they where so awesome and i still miss them. My favorite from them is Ein Elefant für dich (An Elefant for you).
Well, technical they are still in existence, they are still in a hiatus since 2012. Officially the band has never broken up until today.
Note: Since 2008 there has been “public broadcasting” in Germany [on the station 'ZDF'; every Tue-Thur around 11 p.m. for 75 minutes and only covers one topic!] the political talk show “Markus Lanz”! It has been the most successful political talk show on German television since 2010! Since 2010, the musical intro and outro of the show has been this song from “We Are Heroes”!
If that doesn't fit like a glove!!!
“Just one word please” as an intro for a “TALK show!!!
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Important: A political talk in Germany is not a joke evening show like in the USA [and GB?]! Politicians and people of current interest from society come to “argue” seriously (and without fake news) about current topics! OK, politicians always like to polemicize, especially in front of the camera! :-)
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ofc its a big fat joke. especially markus lanz is usually the worst joke of them all. an idiotic twat and a terrible moderator.
The video concept is from Bob Dylan.
Funny, exactly while you were thinking this video must have cost like nothing I thought this video resp. the time to plan this must have been so expensive.. 😅
Actually, the video production wasn't cheap at all.
They shot on analogue 16mm film, which in itself isn't cheap. Then they most likely needed to rent the eqipment for that as well since most people don't have analogue film cameras laying at home + and probably hire a crew for the shoot. Then there's development, printing and/or scanning (they only did the digital scan after develoment and no analogue prints, if I remember correctly - I work at the film lab that developed the material back then), then post production... And all of that after they had someone work out the concept and plan filming (and most likely had to pay for that as well). So, no, not cheap at all.
4:15 song and video are from 2005.
Wir sind Helden was one of the first bands, who became popular without being promoted by the music industry but their own marketing.
Their first two albums are just great. I am an album listener, which means, when I listen to music I listen a whole album so all songs must be good and also be well combined.
So when you are like me and you did like, what you have heard, try those two albums.
Since I did not listen to the other two albums, this video reminded me to do it.
"wir sind helden" are german legends!!! they made german songs popular again in germany. everyone was scared of doing german songs before. they made them sound good again. btw, the video is inspired by Bob Dylan's video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues". and yes like others already mentioned shes one of our coolest poets. someone similar would be "jennifer Rostock" in which the singer "jennifer weist" is also some sort of lyrical poet but more rebel punk vibes involved.
Wir sind Helden (lit. "We Are Heroes") = VEER ZINT HEL-DEN (approx. pronunciation in English)
Nur ein Wort ("just a word") = NOOR AIN VORT (approx. pronunciation in English)
Not me as a german singing along to the whole song😊 and with the 2006- 2010 era you're at least not completly off. It could even have been a little bit earlier...The Band is exactly from that time of the early 2000s, but is not doing things anymore. And that was their most sucessfull and most famous hit
This band is so popular in Germany, I hit the like button on this video while the ads were still playing XD
Aaah, that reminds me of my teenage years, I loved this band
TVs planning for this video must have been a nightmare 😅 the backwards sections in sync to the lyrics but before also in sync to the cards and stuff.
oh i loved them, totally forgot they existed...
2:43 Creativity tops budget all the time.
The last years we got Movies that costed billions to make and most were shit.
I don't think there is a single movie out there that have cost a billion dollar. Not even close.
The most expensive movie of all time was Star Wars 7 with 533 million dollar. But I guess that kinda proves your point 😄
There is also a video here, where Judith Holofernes, the singer, react to their own videos. There she tells, that they had much more money then today for a video. What makes the video good for Germans is that they show the text of the song on the card and the reactions of the band.
At the end of the 90s and beginning 2000s the German charts were mainly English, also the German bands sang in English. Wir sind Helden was the band, who started to sing in German again and started the „Neue Neue Deutsche Welle“. I was not that big fan of them, but they had a big impact for the German music in that time.
Release was on 17th May 2005
The song is from 2005.
The Video is actually a homage to a musicvideo of Bob Dylan. One guy from the video company they work with puts an allnighter to create the concept.
It’s all the good Singstar Memories🥰❤️
Totally missing the point and geniality of the video and editing, when you don't understand the language and how perfectly it matches despite the back and forth.
Must have cost days and weeks of preparation to get it right. Such a wasted opportunity to check that art out. Well... Happens
20€ sounds about right, but you have forgotten the enormous tax in germany, which is another 100%, so its 40€ in total 🤣
😂 'The making of ..'
Nice Reaction (:
Have a nice weekend
In German outstanding!❤
Listen to her version of ,halleluja'
O yes, the greatest german band of the last 30 years!
Holofernes is one of the greats!!
Super Video damals 👍. But as some said hyghly repetitive. Und lief in jedem Radiokanal. Ständig 😊
The style of this video was obviously inspired by a video from Bob Dylan. "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
This video and his style was also pick up by Weird Al Yankovic for his tribute/style parody "Bob".
gute Wahl
One of my favorite German songs ever besides „Kassengift“ or „Die Dame von der Akademie“ by Rosenstolz. Their early songs are awesome. The later songs are awful.
Oh please, deary. Don't you know Bob Dylan?
I ❤ this song
this thing with the cards is not their idea, Bob Dylan did that in a music video in the sixties or seventies
To be fair, as far as I know this song was their breakthrough.
So I guess their later success wasn’t clear at all and the video budget probably not so high.
And it is indeed clever how it is made
No, this song was from their second album. Their first album was already a big success in Germany and made them quite famous. Their songs "Guten Tag", "Denkmal" and "Aurélie" were literally everywhere. And they already had more complex music videos to these songs.
@@Riddler0603
Oh yes, you‘re Right, got it Mixed up with „Guten Tag“.