One Take, Six Minutes, Live Vocals, Don't Stop the Camera / PGLANG "WE CRY TOGETHER"

The problem

pgLang was founded in 2020 by two longtime friends from high school, Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free, as a "multilingual at-service company" that is neither a music label nor a studio. Alongside brand work for Calvin Klein, Converse, Cash App and others, they've built out the world of Kendrick's fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (released May 2022), across film, live performance, and touring. The album's eighth track is "We Cry Together," a duet with Taylour Paige. Kendrick has said it came out of "the state of the world over the last five years" and frustration with a reality nobody can agree on. The song itself was actually recorded almost entirely in one take back in February 2020.

The insight

According to Kendrick himself, speaking at a Q&A in LA, "the idea was a film from the start. The music came after." In other words, this wasn't planned as a music video — it was conceived as a film, with the goal of capturing everything in the writing, the texture, and the shooting itself. Director Jake Schreier had already shown his skill with one-take direction in Haim's "Want You Back," which is exactly why Dave Free and Kendrick brought him on. As Schreier put it, "The one-take isn't there to show off camera movement. It's there to tell you something is happening here that's going to overwhelm you." And what they call the real "magic trick" isn't the camera — it's the performances from Kendrick and Taylour themselves.

The idea

On March 15, 2020, they recorded live vocals in a single take. A couple's argument unfolds over a looping piano and drum beat, playing out as jazz rap / spoken word. They hurl the worst things they can at each other — Taylour sings a verse in tears — and it ends in physical reconciliation. Cannes jury president Kim Gehrig (Somesuch) called the Grand Prix winner "a trailblazer that used every strength of film craft to create something monumental and genre-defining," adding, "Camera choreography, lighting, framing, language, drama, and extraordinary performances — every single craft decision came together to make a brave piece of work that asks a question of ourselves."

What happened

The film won the Film Craft Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2023, as well as a Gold Lion. That same year, pgLang took home six Cannes Lions in total and also won the Special Award for Independent Agency of the Year – Craft. As a short film, it was also eligible for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film, and the album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammys. pgLang has since launched Project 3 Agency in 2025 and acquired Frosty to accelerate its global expansion, and in 2025 it was ranked 15th on Fast Company's list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World.

Afterthought

Six minutes, and the camera never cuts. The performances never let up either. Live vocals, a fight, tears, insults hurled back and forth, and finally, bed. Kendrick and Taylour shot the whole thing in a single take back in March 2020. The jury president's phrase, "craft gives it power," says it so perfectly there's nothing left for me to add. But I do think there's something telling about pgLang — a creative collective, not a music label or an ad agency — earning the world's highest recognition for a piece of film, and doing it as an independent agency. That feels like a sign of what 2023, and the years ahead, might hold. You don't need an ad agency. You don't need a label. The best craft can still happen. That's the kind of era we're in now.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2023

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