The deep mystery of the Camp Cyprus 20: What were they thinking? The most common theory floating around is that the 20 or so Internet-employed twentysomethings who filmed themselves cavorting by the Mediterranean, even as the markets imploded and Silicon Valley shuddered, were simply drunk. Oh no, my friends: This was planned. The beer cans were expertly placed props. Think about it: The Cyprus vacation home of Wall Street power broker Bob Lessin screams "music-video set." His son, Sam Lessin, invited a number of people, including his girlfriend, Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro. She and the other bathing beauties all brought identical black-and-white checkered swimsuits. A single-take video like this doesn't just happen; in fact, it's something of an art form. It doesn't require the cinematic talent of a Welles or Scorsese, but it does require a stunning amount of free time. Here are three videos which likely inspired the Cyprus hill gang:Vimeo, the IAC-owned video-sharing site, is widely believed to have popularized the form. Here's their single-taker:

Digg recently imitated Vimeo; the social-news site's CEO, Jay Adelson, boogies down, but nerd superstar Kevin Rose only makes a cameo:


But the best one of all has to be AOL France's layoff video:

Ah yes, layoff videos. We'll be seeing a lot of those, won't we?