Case Studies of Iconic Directors

Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek is a three time major grammy award winning American director. He has performed extremely well many times within the music videos which he has created. The most symbolic and iconic music video was a cover of the song "Hurt", this was sung by Johnny Cash who was a big musician to be working with Mark. This was the last music video that Johnny ever did. Knowing this, Mark created what seemed to be a very simple but effective video that had a lot of personal meaning to it. The video was up for 6 nominations in the 2002 MTV music video awards and managed to win best Cinematography. In 2004, after directing Jay-Z's 99 problems music video, Mark won best director, just one of the 4 wins in which the video succeeded in. Mark Romanek has won 19 MTV awards and i believe he is great at what he does.

Below shoes a screenshot of all the music videos that Mark directed. He has directed some famous musicians show below such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Red hot chilli peppers and Taylor Swift. This shows that people do respect him and his work because of the names that he's worked with and how well those music videos came out.

How directors use media language to produce creative videos

Costumes in our Music Video

Straightjacket-
In our music video we will use a straightjacket on our alter ego character and on his normal self. The alter ego will be holding up the straightjacket on one side of the spilt screen and on the other side, his normal self will be wearing it. We are doing this to show that the alter ego character is controlling and influencing his normal self as if he is a puppeteer. As the video goes on both versions (alter ego and normal) will be getting worse and worse. We have chosen to use a straightjacket because they have a reputation of making people look mental, disturbed, dangerous and isolated. This is what we need to portray our character as.

Jumpsuit-
We will use a black jumpsuit on our artist because Jumpsuits have many negative connotations. This is because they are normally worn by criminals in prison. We have chosen to use this because our artist is a prisoner in his alter egos world and there isn't anything he could do about it even if he tried.

Blacksuit with hoodie-
A black suit would be suitable for the alter ego character to wear because the colour black has many different negative connotations such as evil, mystery, danger and violence. We want to build our alter ego character up to look like a big villain or boss. We have done our research on what bad guys wear to make themselves look like a Villain who should be taken seriously and the colour black and suits were most common. Because of this we have decided to implement this into our music video.

Paperbag-
The normal version of our artist will wear a paperbag over his head at the end of the music video to connote that he has lost his identity and that he has lost to his alter ego. This will also show that the alter ego character has changed him and turned him into himself. This would let the audience know that his fight against his alter ego is over and that he has transformed.

White t-shirt and jeans-
The normal version of our artist will wear casual clothing to start off as this will differentiate himself and his alter ego to the audience. It will make it easier to tell whats going on. After this there will be a series of prop and costume changes to show his transformation to his dark side. We have chosen to use the colour white as this colour has positive annotations such as innocence, purity, good and many more.

Filming / Editing Schedule

FILMING / EDITING SCHEDULE

The filming and editing schedule will be laid out so that everything can be done smoothly and on time, without any delay. Filming will be done over a period of a week, and editing should take around 2-3 weeks.

FILMING

START: 12^th NOVEMBER

FILMING OVER WEEKEND (12^th & 13^th) – By this point we should have done a majority of the filming and reviewing what we have done and if we need to re-film any certain sequence (if necessary).

14^th – 18^th will be the rest of our filming period. We will be filming the last few sequences for our music video over this point. Wed 16^th will be a day where all of us will be available to film.

EDITING

START: 13^th NOVEMBER

EDITING will begin as soon as shooting starts, this is for several reasons:

·        To manage our time effectively.

·        To give us more time to edit.

·        To review our footage AS we film and see if the shooting we have done is appropriate for our approach to editing the music video.

The editing period will be between the 13^th and 4th^h of December. By the end of our deadline ALL the editing should be completed and our music video should be ready for our audience. 

Props in our Music Video

Props that will be featured in our music video:

Chains and Hand cuffs- The normal version of our artist is being restrained and restricted by his alter ego therefore hand cuffs and chains would show this. Hand cuffs and Chains would also show that he is a prisoner trapped in his alter egos world. We would use the chains to dangle our artist in the air so he looks like he is being controlled like a puppet.

Jester’s hat- A jester is a professional Joker or a fool and it is normally told what activities it should do next for someone else’s enjoyment. This would work extremely well in our music video as our artists song is a conversation between his normal self and his alter ego. The alter ego is controlling and influencing his normal self therefore a Jester’s hat would make that clear for the audience.

Puppet strings- We would use Puppet strings in our music video to make our artist look like he is being controlled by someone. The strings would be attached to both arms and our artist would move in a robotic fashion.

Crucifix- The original artist makes references to Jesus in his lyrics therefore a crucifix would be appropriate for the music video.

Clock- Throughout the music video the alter ego is making his normal self even worse and he is struggling to fight it therefore having a cutaway to a clock during the music video would show that time is running out for him to overcome his alter ego.

Dreadlocks wig- The original artist makes references to “Anwar’s dreadlocks” in his lyrics therefore using this as a prop would be appropriate for the music video.

Hammer and Knife- The alter ego person in the music video has to look evil and threatening therefore a Knife and a Hammer in his possession or in the background of a location would do that for him.

Alcohol bottles and used Cigarettes- In our video we need to show to the audience the alter ego person is a very mental, disturbed and eerie. Cigarettes and alcohol have very bad reputations and they can both lead to serious illness therefore these props would be suitable for what we are trying to achieve.

Do's and Donts

 Do's and Donts for the recording and producing of the music video.

Record Labels

 RECORD LABELS RESEARCH

Shady Records

Shady Records is an American record label founded in 1999 by rapper Eminem. This record label is for the Hip Hop / Rap genre and they focus on upcoming and successful artists who seem to have potential in the industry. Since its formation, Shady Records has signed ten acts and is currently home to five. 

 Tough times were seen when Eminem, along with the artists were involved in very public feuds with one-time former affiliate Royce da 5"9, record label Murder Inc. and The Source magazine.

The label has also seen positive times when being part of the successful international Anger Management tours and, in 2006, released an album showcasing Eminem - The Re Up. This was also the label to be contracted for putting together the soundtrack to the Eminem-starring film 8 Mile, which had the lead single "Lose Yourself". The song went on to take the first ever 'Academy Award for Best Original Song' given to a song in the hip hop genre.

Spinnin' Records

Spinnin' Records is a dutch independent record label primarily focusing on releasing music from the EDM Genre. The label was founded in 1999 by Eelko van Kooten and Roger de Graaf and has since grown massively to support big artists in the likes of Martin Garrix, Adventure Club, Eric Prydz and many, many more.