1. Exploring AuteursMichel Gondry - Spike Jonze – Mark Romanek – Chris Cunningham
Jessica Townsend

2. Michel Gondry
Beginning 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Chris Cunningham
Chris 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.