Music Video Directors

The directors of music videos are massively important and they help enable the artists' vision come to life. To replicate a good music video, when it comes to making mine it is important to research the directors and their work to see how they put the piece together. I will be looking at the top rated music video directors, big names who famous music artists use, to view their work and see why they are so popular.

1. Paul Hunter



Hunter has worked with many high profile clients such as Michael Jackson, who he directed a video for on his last album, Hunter also directed the video for the hit 'Lady Marmalade' featuring Christiana Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQa7SvVCdZk
The video is very well choreographed and follows the intertextual theme of 'Moulin Rouge!' as it was used within the 2001 film of the same name.


2. Hype Williams

Williams is a much sought after director who has worked with many stars and directed the massive hit by Daft Punk ft Pharrell Williams - 'Get Lucky' which remained at number 1 for over 5 weeks.

The video is intertextual, taking elements of performance and video game style animation - making the overall appearance of the video artistic and alternative, although it still has a classic feel given the performance shots of the band and Pharrell in suits which seems to replicate the artists of the 80s such as within the Police's 'Every Breath You Take'.

The classic performance shots of Get Lucky

The animation segments of Get Lucky

3. Anthony Mandler

 Anthony Mandler is an extremely popular music director who works with big stars and produces very artistic but classic works, such as JayZ and Justin Timberlake's 'Holy Grail'. Mandler has worked particularly with Rihanna, collaborating with her on 16 music videos - more recently they worked together on her number 1 hit, 'Diamonds'




The video for 'Diamonds' has a distinctly cinematic feel, the shots of landscape and a horse galloping captures the audiences' attention. The entire video is a mixture of performance and narrative, with Rihanna performing to the camera in different locations and the shots of a horse and fire build a sense of turmoil which is contrasted by the calm of Rihanna being submerged into a pool, the song is speculated to be about Rihanna's past unhealthy relationships - the hectic shots of the fire and war zones, and choosing a new path - the shots of her at peace in the pool, this is reflected in the lyrics of the song "I choose to be happy".

4. Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is not purely a music video director, Jonze is an accomplished film director and his videos therefore tend to have a distinctly cinematic feel.

Jonze's videos tend to be fairly unusual, a key example of this is Bjork's 'It's Oh So Quiet' which has a musical style quality with the artist and back up dancers all dancing and singing in the street, more like a film sequence than a music video.
Equally, another example of this is Kanye West's 'Flashing Lights'. The video is unusual in that it is purely narrative with Kanye West only appearing at the end of the video. Equally, the video does not conform to the generic conventions of the genre given the long takes and continuity editing, a lack of frequent cuts ties the video together making it appear to be even more like a short film. I have attached the link below - WARNING explicit/ graphic content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ila-hAUXR5U

5.  Dave Meyers

Dave Meyers is a popular music video director who used to specialise in predominantly hip- hop videos during the 90s, started to branch out and became respected for his work with pop videos.
Meyers has worked with multiple artists including JLo, P!nk, Katy Perry, Missy Elliot and Ice Cube among others.

Meyers directed the music video for Katy Perry's 'Firework' which won the VMA award for 'Best Music Video Of The Year'. It conforms to many generic conventions of the genre, the video contains lots of cuts, camera angles and close ups to showcase the artist and her lip syncing. The video is a hybrid of performance and narrative elements. Another generic convention seen within the video is the use of CGI of the fireworks to create a colourful effect making the video interesting and linking directly to the name and lyrics of the song.