Melina Matsoukas
Most famous for her involvement with the popular, mainstream artist, Melina has created some of the most influential and extraordinary music videos of all time. Jennifer Lopez, Kyle Minogue, Rihanna, Jay Z, Katy Perry, Whitney Houston and Snoop Dogg are just some of the many music artists Melina has worked with in creating music videos. The most dominant genre of music she works with is typically R&B and pop, though as you can see from the small selection of artists above, her creativity is very versatile and she can adapt to singers such as Kyle Minogue and Whitney Houston. Some background information on the director shows that she studied at the American Film Institute and at the University of New York to begin her creative, director career. Some quotes picked out from some of her interviews about her own inspiration and work are:
"I love music video clips. I like the quick changes and the creativity."
"My work is characterized by vivid colours or abrupt black and white pictures."
"Expensive equipment is not necessary for a clip of good quality."
"A good video needs the correct visual effects and an interesting script."
The last quotation of the bunch above was the quote I most appreciated as I already understand how important it is to produce an interesting script with a good enough narrative that the audience will want to carry on viewing. Also, the effects and colours she said were just as important is another thing I will take into consideration, but something I have already realised myself when analysing the previous music videos.
Melina is very much a more modern music director, as she has only been in the business for the past 5 years, but her most popular music video was that of Ludacris' "Money Maker". After directing this music video, her career really paid off and she was signed to Black Dog Films - a very popular and famous production company itself.
Here is the video itself that changed her directing career:
After watching this video, I think the concept that definitely stands out for me is the editing. Clearly, Melina is very talented in keeping the rhythm of the music in sync with the visuals on the screen, which was why I thought it was so necessary for me to look into instruments and rhythm last week. The quick cuts between the clips, the variety of narratives and settings, and the vibrant colours that are used to make important scenes or objects stand out are just among the many things that stand out from this music video. I can definitely say I would love to create a music video with the inspiring talent that is used in this, and one concept I am going to include in my own video is the cooperation between the music and the video itself.
After reading that Melina was signed by the major production company Black Dog Films, I decided to research into this company more. Using their website, http://www.rsafilms.com/company/black-dog-uk, it gives me the chance to view some of the artists that Black Dog Films helped produce their music videos with. Some examples are Katy Perry's "The One That Got Away" and Emeli Sande's "My Kind of Love". However, after some more research I found out that she is no longer signed to this production company, and has now been signed to the company of PRETTYBIRD.
Spike Jonze
Spike is an american director and producer, who started off his music video career after his film adaptations. He is well known for his collaborations with artists such as the Beastie Boys, Jay Z and Kanye West, and many others. His take on music videos is very much by using his film experience and turning them into short films. One of his most famous film adapted videos, as talked about above, is that of Jay Z's and Kanye West's "Otis" which included "fireworks, fist bumps and a fast car". Here is the video of "Otis":
The use of a strong narrative is definitely a popular concept chosen by this music video, but what I found quite appealing was the general simplicity of it in general. Looking at it, there is only a few scenes and locations that are actually featured, and the main one is just the artists rapping to the song in an industrial lot. This compares to the sophistication and complexity of the previous music video, and contradicts it by showing how a simple music video can be effective too. However, in terms of appeal and what I want to include in my own, I think more complicated narratives are much more interesting than just watching the artists rap to their song, as you can see that when you go a live concert of theirs.
Understandably, this music has a much slower rhythm and beat to the first music video of Ludacris' that I looked at, so the visuals would obviously be catered to that more. I do think Spike did a good job of keeping the visuals and sound interlinked, but I could think of so many different ways this video could have been shot (e.g. camera shots changing with the main bass drum or some effect/camera shake when the saxophone sound is heard) to go with the audio much better.
Why have I done this?
What I can definitely take away from this task is that difference between the complex and simple style of directing. I admire both the directors choices in the music videos they created, and I understand that both songs have a very different rhythm and beat to it, so they would obviously have a much different set of visuals to them. Although, I can appreciate Melina's efforts slightly more than those of Spike's in his video of "Otis" as my personal choice would be to make the effects more exciting and the narrative more in depth in order to create involvement and entertainment that the audience is waiting for.
SOURCES
1. www.youtube.com
2. www.wikipedia.com
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