Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze was born October 22ed 1969 and he is an american director and producer he is a famous for directing music videos and producing commercials and films.
With fellow producers and directors Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham he co-founded "Directors Label" and this is a variety of DVD's from various famous music directors. Before this he was involved in different parts of the media, he was a magazine producer for "Dirt" and "Homeboy", he was also a photographer for magazines.
Spike Jonze has directed lots of music videos in his career, some of his notable work are...
Wonderboy - Tenacious D (2000)
Get Back - Ludacris (2004)
Flashing Lights - Kanye West (2008)
Weapon of Choice - Fat Boy Slim (2000)
Da Funk - Daft Punk (1997)
Ricky's Theme, Sabbotage, Sure Shot - Beastie Boys (1994)
Drop - The Pharcyde (1996)
These are just some examples of Jonze's work, as you can see he has been directing for a few years and is still at the current moment in time. These are just some examples of the music videos he has directed. Jonze has directed over 50 music videos.
Da Funk - Daft Punk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUIBJ_jYTU)
This music video was directed 13 years ago and it is a very strange, surreal music video. The main genre of this music video is electro, as there is no singing and it has electronic instruments playing. The music video itself also has a comedic connotations embedded with it. A dog acting like a person trying to make a living in the big city. It is funny because it is unrealistic and unique for the audience to see. It keeps the audience engaged and keep watching the music video even if they do not like the song. The dog is walking around in a big city and night time, this is a signifier clubs and night life, which relate back to the actual music. I find this video interesting as it is unique and not a obvious music video to create. This is why I think that Jonze is a interesting music director as he is a unique director and likes to add something different to his music videos.
Drop - The Pharcyde (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3qMdkucM0)
This music video was directed 14 years ago, and is a very different type of old school hip-hop, it is a unique video and some of the features are rarely seen in all types of music video, let alone hip-hop. Some of the video is in reverse mode and this is a good, feature to keep the audience engaged in the video as it is something not seen a lot today. The artist are singing the lyrics backwords so that it is in sync with the actual music. (Similar to "The scientist" by coldplay). Learning a song backwards is not an easy task to do. So from this you can immediately see the immense effort needed to create this music video.
Without listening to the music the genre is fairly obvious to point out as there are various signifiers and conventions, which represent the hip hop genre.
. Throughout the music video there is a tracking shot of the artists, acting and rapping to the camera, this is something generally seen in hip-hop music videos. The setting also helps us decode which type of genre it is, it is a set in a urban location and evidently going to be along the hip-hop/rnb genre. So evidently Jonze put a lot of effort in directing this music video, and I think it is successful and interesting and he follows the generic conventions of the genre to keep the audience engaged
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry (born May 8, 1963) is a French film, commercial and music video director and an Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
Michel Gondry is probably most famous for his work with music videos but his adverts often stand out as the adverts for Levi and Smirnoff, and out of the music videos i have watched from his my favourtie has to be the Kylie minogue video "Come Into My World" what for me is the imaginative idea of the repition of lots of different kylie's all repeating the same scene over again.
Not only ddoes he do that type of media, he has also directed successful cinema movies which add to his stuatus as one of the most creative and successful directors of his generation. His brother Olivier "Twist" Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director but it is fair to say that he does not have the same recognition as Michel and Michel success is much more substantial.
Michel is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène*. His career took off when he started to create the music videos for the band Oui Oui in which he drummed in, his creative mind caught the attention of rival band Bjork and that is when his directing caeer took off.
*What is used in the scene of theatre or film, to tell the story.
Some of his work includes;
Feature films
Gondry participating with The 1 Second Film art project.
- Human Nature (2001)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- The Science of Sleep (2006)
Music videos
- "Open Your Heart" - Mia Doi Todd (2010)
- "Soleil du Soir" - Dick Annegarn (2008)
- "Declare Independence" - Björk (2007) [3]
- "Dance Tonight" - Paul McCartney (2007)
- "Cellphone's Dead" - Beck (2006)
- "Anysound" - The Vines (2006)
- "King of the Game" - Cody ChesnuTT (2006)
- "Heard 'Em Say" (U.S. Version) - Kanye West (2005)
- "Come into My World" - Kylie Minogue (2002)
David Fincher
David Fincher is an American music video director and filmmaker who was born on August 28th 1962. He started making films from the age of 8 with an 8mm camera.
His first job was setting up cameras and undertaking other practical work for John Korty’s Korty Films. In 1980, he was employed by Industrial Light & Magic and worked production team for films such as Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He left Industrial Light & Magic to direct music videos and commercials.
His trademark was the use of lighting in his music videos and films. Fincher’s music videos all have an attitude and impression of their own but still preserve an assured feel that lets you know it was David Fincher’s work.
David Fincher has worked with many musicians such as:
Madonna - "Express Yourself" (1989), "Oh Father" (1989) and "Vogue" (1990)
Michael Jackson - "Who Is It?" (1992)
George Michael - "Freedom" (1990)
He has also worked with bands such as:
Aerosmith - "Janie's Got a Gun" (1989)
The Rolling Stones - "Love Is Strong" (1994)
Nine Inch Nails - "Only" (2005)
He has directed over 50 music videos in his career.
George Michael - Freedom (1990) - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9WSb5aXLfc)
David Fincher directed the video Freedom by George Michael in 1990. George Michael refused to feature in most of the video because he was trying to distance himself from Sony, which was his record label at the time. So he hired male and female supermodels to lip-sync the words. In the video, there is a shot of a man from the waist down - he walks and he scratches his boxers. His scene goes with the line, "When you shake your ass they notice fast some mistakes were built to last...”
Sony created an image for him to promote his album, “Faith” so in the video it featured the destruction of the three objects from "Faith" that had come to signify Michael's career at that point: his leather jacket (burned), jukebox (exploded) and guitar (exploded).
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