This isn't some YouTube joke with a 3 second clip extended to 24 hours (though that was my first guess upon hearing he'd made a video that long). Pharrell William's new music video for Happy is a full 24 hours long, with 400 different performers (and some celebrity appearances) each getting screen time as they dance to the looping 4 minute song. While a pretty nifty site has been created so that you can watch the video without any breaks or skip ahead to certain parts, you can check out the whole thing the old-fashioned way below.

First, here's the official music video which combines smaller elements from the giant 24 hour video:


Here is the entire 24 hour music video, split into 6 parts of 4 hours each (but really it's made to be watched with their player and interface here):

For more on the video, here's Co.Create:

The video's joyous vibe originated in Despicable Me 2, but the unique format came out of a collaboration between Pharrell and the Paris-based directing team We Are From L.A. In the film, Gru, the villain, sings “Happy” after he falls in love. Pharrell wanted to mimic the scene for the video, but after choosing the directors (Clement Durou and Pierre Dupaquier make up We Are From L.A., or WAFLA for short) it evolved into something far more complex, and, ultimately, historic. “Turns out WAFLA had always wanted to do a 24-hour video and were waiting for the right project,” says Mimi Valdes, the vice president of iamOTHER, the umbrella company for all of Pharrell’s various creative and philanthropic endeavors.

There was a minimal amount of crew shooting somewhat guerilla-style on a Steadicam (with location permits), even for Pharrell's 24 performances of the song (one per hour), and every performer only had one take, which makes for some interesting outtakes and bloopers, especially when you're working around real people all over Los Angeles. Each performer was shot right around the real time that it should take place in the video, and there were even some people picked up off the street at random to go along with the thousands of people who auditioned.

Pharrell-happy-24-hour-music-video

Though there may be other 24 hour music videos in existence (I know there are experimental films this long and even longer), this is definitely the first with such a big name and this many people performing in it. While it could be classified as an interactive video, the interactivity comes more from allowing you to find different spots in the video easier, which is slightly different from something like the Bob Dylan video we featured Wednesday. Regardless, it's still impressive to put all of this together and make it a seamless experience.

The whole video is currently playing "live" on the 24 Hours of Happy site, but you can skip forward or back wherever to watch specific performances. You can find some of the celebrities like Kelly Osbourne around 1:30AM, Magic Johnson around 5:39AM, and Steve Carell around 5:08PM.

To read more about the making of the video, check out the Co.Create post.

Link: 24 Hours of Happy -- Pharell -- Happy Music Video

[via Co.CreateThe Verge & Hypetrak]