When 1984 rolled around, there had been plenty of reports that Van Halen's members were not exactly on the best of terms. That same year, the DLR-era of Van Halen would never play live again after their appearance at the Monsters of Rock Festival on September 2nd in Nuremberg, Germany.
Of course, Dave would later reunite with Eddie, Alex, and Michael Anthony in 1997, again in 2007 (sans Anthony, with Eddie's son Wolfgang), and later in 2017 (with Wolfgang). The point is this; if you had been paying attention to Van Halen (and how could you not?) during the early 80s, from the outside, it pretty much looked like the best gig in the world.
The few thematic videos they put out before the departure of David Lee Roth perfectly encapsulate the sheer joy being in Van Halen seemed to bring not only to the band but to everyone. The videos in question are Jump (the first released in support of the album 1984) and Panama. Both were filmed and directed by Peter Angelus, who worked with Van Halen in one role or another since the late 70s.
According to Angeles, they shot hours of footage for both videos. Some of the 16MM film shot for Jump ended up in Panama. Additional footage for Panama was filmed before, and during Van Halen's two-night stint at a place I remember well, the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island, on March 17th and 18th, 1984.
Other filming locations were in Los Angeles itself, such as Dave rolling around town on one of his motorcycles and Dave and Alex cruising in a sweet Mercury lowrider. There's also footage from various hotels, including several takes of a scene featuring Eddie dropping his Frankenstrat, causing the neck to pop off. Other alleged locations include the mythical hotel formerly known as the Riot House/Hyatt House where Lemmy wrote "Motorhead," and where John Bonham of Led Zeppelin once rode his motorcycle up and down the halls.
Van Halen also reportedly filmed at a recording studio owned and run by the managers of Earth, Wind & Fire at the time, The Complex in Santa Monica. I'm sure you've seen some of the 97 minutes of outtakes, bloopers, stuff that just didn't make the cut for either video, and of course the content that did. But there's plenty in here that was new to my eyes, and it's a blast to watch. The footage has been bootlegged, and the site VHBoots makes a note of the existence of two DVDs from A Rat Bastard Production containing the footage you're about to see.
The video is silent, but the YouTube user My Collection very kindly added audio from a bunch of early VH demos because they clearly love Van Halen just as much as I do.
97 minutes of Van Halen being Van Halen filming scenes for the videos 'Jump,' and 'Panama.'
