Exploring AuteursMichel Gondry - Spike Jonze – Mark Romanek – Chris Cunningham

Jessica Townsend

Michel GondryBeginning his work in Paris, having studied Graphic Arts there, he began making music videos for the band he drummed in – “Oui oui”. It wasn’t long before this interest grew, and he began to make videos for other French bands, and, after seeing one of his videos on MTV, Bjork contacted him in 1993, and he made the music video for her song “Human Behavior”, which won every existing award at that time.

Gondry’s artistic goal was to create visuals that would compliment a song, rather than just placing it on top of it. He also aims to ‘find beauty in normal people’.

Gondry was a pioneer for many new techniques; the music video he made for IAM (Je danse le Mia) was the first to use morphing techniques, and he also invented the idea of using several camera taking pictures at the same time . This technique first appeared in a music videos in Bjork’s “Army of Me.”

Themes and techniques common in Gondry’s work include the idea of childhood, and techniques such as single-shot videos (Kylie’s “Come into my world” for example) and the 360o camera sweeps created by his multi-camera approach.

Spike JonzeSpike Jonze – real name Adam Spiegel - is a music video and film director, who has worked with musicians Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk amongst many others and often works under pseudonyms.

Having also directed many films (whose actors have won Oscars under his direction), he is intrigued by how music videos are then able to influence the world of movies and notes he’s “curious what feature films the English Chris Cunningham and the Swedish guy Jonas Åkerlund are going to make.”

Jonze’s works are noted for their offbeat visual storytelling and the mixture of live action, puppetry and animatronics. Some examples of these include to video to Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You,” shot in an amateurish, mockumentary style with a fake dance troupe in a public place, where the reactions to them are filmed and Jonze himself appears as one of his personas. A video that clearly shows his work with animatronics is Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”, where the main character has the realistic-looking head of a dog.

It is noticable that many of his music videos take on attributes of films, often with their own titles and clear storylines as seen with “Da Funk”, the video for which titled “Big City Nights” in a movie style and progresses with a clear narrative structure. His video for “Wonderboy” by Tenacious D is similar, depicting a Propp-like heroic storyline.

Mark RomanekAn award-winning American music director, Mark Romanek’s

interest in the realms of video production began when he undertook a 4-year film production and theory program at his school, New Trier East. Having later gained a degree in cinema and photography, and spending a few years writing screenplays, he joined a boutique division of Propaganda Films named Satellite Films, and began to produce music videos, his subsequent work being widely considered as the best in its medium.

Romanek has worked prominently with musicians such as the band Nine Inch Nails, his video for the band’s song “Closer” causing much public objection to its dark, demonic themes, and also worked with Michael and Janet Jackson for the video “Scream”. Whilst being thought of as the most expensive music video ever made (costing $7 Million), it also won him his first Grammy, of which he’s won three. Romanek video “99 Problems” for Jay-Z has also been met with some controversy, with complaints of it glorifying dog fighting, as well as depicting Jay-Z’s violent death, shot by unseen assailants. However, it still achieved airspace on music video networks, who usually ban videos that are in any way violent, though only with an accompanying introduction, explaining why the scene is artistically and metaphorically important for the video.

Romanek’s video for Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” was noted as “one of the most personal and moving music videos ever made”. With the poignant scenes of Cash at home, archival shots of a younger self and shots of his flood-ravaged museum won him his third grammy and moved the original artists to tears, and such themes can be seen in Romanek’s dystopian film “Never Let Me Go” too.

Chris CunninghamChris Cunningham is an English music video director, and

a visual artist. Initially working in the realms of concept design, prosthetics and animatronics, he was headhunted to oversee animatronics for the film A.I. before leaving to pursue a career as a director instead.

Cunningham is known to work closely with Warp Records and, though them, with musician Aphex Twin on several occasions, his video for Aphex Twin’s track “Windowlicker” getting him a nomination for a Brit Award in 2000. His video for Bjork’s “All is Full of Love” is also very well known, winning several awards and nominated for more.

Cunningham’s themes and techniques are clear in his work, particularly his use of prosthetics, costumes and special effects as well as his narrative perspective, giving new viewpoints to accepted ideologies.