Director/Auteur - by Josh

 In this post I will be looking at directors, the auteur theory and their relevance to our chosen song and ideas for our music video. Since videos became popular alongside music, there has been a call for music video directors, which contribute massively to what style and how good the music video is. This can vary from the initial idea (performance vs. narrative) to the  camera shots used. The auteur theory links in heavily with this; it is how a director's personal creative vision influences all of the music videos they direct.

John Landis

 The first director I thought I should start with was the one who directed what is commonly regarded as the greatest music video: Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', as well as co-writing the screenplay with Jackson. His wife also designed the notorious red jacket to make him appear more virile. Primarily a film director, Landis was interested in working with Jackson despite film directors not directing music videos at the time. As seen from all the awards Thriller won, including two Grammys: Best Video, Best Video Album and MTV awards: Best Overall Performance in a Video and Best Choreography. Essentially, Thriller was a horror film, or more specifically, a horror-esque music video sharing similar themes from popular horror films; Landis specialised with horror films and was intrigued by the idea of inputting his experience with horror into a music video, which can be seen as his auteur influence. Some of his horror films include 'An American Werewolf in London' and the 'Twilight Zone: The Movie'. Another notable point is that he also directed another one of Jackson's videos: 'Black or White'. This was also another famous video that sold many copies and raised a certain amount of controversy surrounding the violent and sexual nature of the video. Lastly, another point on his auteur influence was his use of credits at the end of Thriller in a similar fashion to that of films.

Tim Brown and Dan Trapp

 Albeit different directors, these are the men who directed 'The City' by Madeon, a video I have analysed in my blog. These two have collaborated together on many different projects with artists of differing genres. The videos they have done together have a similar auteur influence, such as how a lot of the camera focus is on the actors' faces and feature a lot of head shots and closeups in order to show expression and emotion. This can be seen many times from The City (example image right), as well as other videos including the hugely successful 'Pass out' by Tinie Tempah and other, less well known artists such as 'Hit the Ground' by The Big Pink. The most important aspect of their videos is the use of 'breaking the fourth wall'. This shows interaction with the audience and makes the video feel more personal, which is also transferred into their commercial work in TV and on the internet.

Spike Jonze

 A director who has had a long list of music videos to his name, he has done work for artists such as: The Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Fatboy Slim and Arcade Fire. His work varies from genre to genre, but his main focus is on dance and house music. He has also done several films including Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are. The unique thing about Jonze is his auteur style; his videos are not typical of the normal style in which music videos are filmed, which has led to indie acts like Arcade Fire using him as the director for their music, since the main star image of indie bands is their kookiness and individuality. This auteur style can be seen prominently from what can be regarded as his most famous and best video:

 Featuring the famous actor Christopher Walken, this video had a huge influence on the song's popularity, similar to that of PSY's Gangnam Style; if the song did not have such a popular video, it might not have sold as many copies as it has done. The fact that the whole video is simple a man dancing and flying through an empty hotel illustrates Jonze's unique style with his visionary perspective and simplicity in his videos. This video was so highly regarded that it won 6 awards at the MTV Music Video Awards as well as the 2002 Grammy award for Best Short Form Video. This simple form is portrayed throughout all his videos, as explored with his other video for Fatboy Slim. He was often criticised for this in the early years of his directing career, people often saying his videos were too simple, didn't allow for creative expression and were destroying the art form of music videos. This was highlighted in another of Fatboy Slim's songs: Praise You.

 This film was so different from other videos at the time, it can be seen how Jonze had his critics for this. It is filmed i an almost amateurish style, using a relatively poor camera and from an angle as if it was filmed by a audience member; this video just looks as if somebody with a camera has come across a dance troupe outside a cinema, and to this day, no such professional music video exists that is similar to it, fitting in with Jonze's unique style. He actually starred in the video as the dance troupe leader along with the fictional group The Torrance Community Dance Group, with the intro stating that the video is 'A Torrance Public Film Production', this video at first glances just seems like a amateur music video for a dance group attempting to promote their dancing. Despite all his critics for this video, he went on to win Best Direction, Breakthrough and Choreography at the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards on a budget of $800, which can only be regarded as extraordinary, winning so many awards for such a simple and low cost video which rose to No. 1 in the charts in 1999, the video no doubt contributing to this massively. When Jonze sent a video off to Fatboy Slim of a solo dance of him to the song: Rockafeller Skank by Slim, it was so well received by Slim that he wanted Jonze's fictional dance group as the official video for Praise You.