Music video directors
A music video director is a male of female director of a music track. The music video is used as promotional tool for artists to advertise there music and a particular single. The earliest music videos were directed by television and film directors; by the 1990s music had become a specialized field.
According to Jake Taylor a music video director the essentials you’d need to have to create a music video is “a camera an idea and passion to go and create something interesting and put it to music.”
Emil Nava
Emil Nava is a successful music video director who has directed all of Jesse J's music videos to date. At school he knew he loved music and drama but only discovered his true talent when he picked up a video camera. He's worked his way up through lots of hard work and determination to become one of today's most sort after directors.
The following link takes you to a video of Emil Nava giving information on his background and how he came into directing, his thoughts on being a music director and how he got himself to where he is at the present.
He has directed most of Tinchy Striders videos, Ndubz, and is really at the fore front of the UK urban/pop scene. He has also picked up the award for Best Music Video at last years Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2010, for his promo ‘Our House is Dadless’ by Kid British and has directored the new video for super star artist JessieJ ‘nobody’s perfect’.
Both these videos are completely different Jessie J’s ‘nobody’s perfect’ is bright, colorful and vibrant with and has a mixture of over-the-top bright costumes. The first shot is of Jessie J sitting at the head of a massive dining room table filled with ridiculous caricatures and continues with Jessie J singing while in weird environments, like a tar pit. I do love certain elements to the video like the atmosphere, the colours and characters but I think the video is very over the top for the track, Jessie sings about not being perfect and nobody is I think the music would have best suited a less dramatic approach showing a more natural side of the artist. On the other hand Kid British ‘Our House is Dadless’ is very down to earth with minimal effects and natural lighting, the video goes though a variety of shots with the four members walking through various gardens and alley ways within there street, which goes with the has context with the track effortlessly.
Mark Romanek on Johnny Cash's Hurt (2003)
The following text is a small article from Mark Romanek point of view on the creation of Johnny cash’s cover of Trent Reznor’s Hurts which was to be Johnny’s last video, Romanek filmed both Johnny and his wife June at their Nashville home for the singer's last video. They both died within a few months of its completion.
"Johnny's producer, Rick Rubin, played me this track long before its release and I was so struck by it I said, 'We have to film something to go with this.' I'm a massive Johnny Cash fan and had been lined up to shoot a video for him a few years before which Anton Corbijn ended up doing instead. So this time I made Rick promise me I could make it. He called me on a Tuesday and said, 'Johnny's going on holiday to his ranch in Jamaica on Saturday so if you want to make this you better make it quick.'
I'm someone who usually takes a minimum of two weeks to prep a video but this was Johnny Cash. So I jumped on a redeye to Nashville with my producer and a cameraman and arrived on Friday with no idea of what I was going to make. I looked around the house and made a few suggestions of where we might film Johnny performing. I was making it up off the top of my head. Then I went to the House of Cash Museum and found it in total disrepair.
There was no time to clean it up so I decided that I'd just film it, and Johnny, exactly as they were. He was no longer in his prime - he was fading and that was what I wanted to show. While I was filming the opening segment of Johnny playing guitar in his living room, his wife, June, came down the stairs and watched. The look on her face was so complex: full of love and pride and concern for her husband. So I asked her if I could film her too and she agreed. But the most important element was when we discovered a film archive in the museum. When we looked back at the rushes we'd filmed at the house we thought they were good but not great. But once we dropped in the archive footage of Johnny we realised that was the soul of the video. The whole thing was so spontaneous. It's made me realise that sometimes you can be too prepared and that there's some value to urgency."
Watching the video directed by Mark Romanek was incredibly moving, the way Mark uses cuts and dim lighting to capture the essence of Cash, both in his youth and in his older years is extremely intriguing. In the montage of shots Mark includes twisted imagery of fruit and flowers in various states of decay seem to capture both johnny cash’s past and the reality of the present. As well as dimly lit images of a weathered Cash playing piano and guitar in his home is mixed with glimpses of flood-damaged Houses, the Cash museum and archival footage of the country legend as a young man. The video was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and CMA Awards, and the best video of all time by NME in July 2011.
Videos are supposed to be eye candy, hip and cool and all about youth and energy. This one is about someone moving toward the twilight of his career, this powerful, legendary figure who is dealing with issues and emotions you're not used to encountering in videos. This is what makes it so unique, emotional and memorable to watch. Romanek, who has directed videos for Madonna, Beck and Audioslave, as well as last year's film "One Hour Photo," said he made the clip with no commercial expectations or calculations, fully expecting that it would not be shown on major video outlets.
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