Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel; October 22, 1969) is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman, which include the 1999 film Being John Malkovich and the 2002 film Adaptation, and for his work as director of the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's Jackass. He is currently the creative director of VBS.tv He is also part owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.

points taken from a Spike Jonze music video.

The Breeders, Canon ball, directed by Spike Jonze.
· Performance and concept video, concept of the rolling canon ball.
· Cuts on the beat
· Use of a fish eye lenses to match a face with a canon ball, also used in a bowl of water
· Performance is directed to a mirror not a audience.
· Shots match action and sounds i.e. tapping on the drum stand matches with coins being dropped in a jar
· Singer directs the camera in places.
· Lots of use with the idea of bubbles in water.
· Music picks up and the cuts are sharper and faster
· Use of changing colures
· Shot taken through studio equipment i.e. shots taken through a ladder.
· Filming of the band through a mirror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpoqzt2EHaA

Daft Punk, Around the World, directed by spike jonze

· Every musical element has a physical element on the stage
· Dancers move around the set matching the lyrics of around the world
· As the music picks up more musical elements are added
· Lots of bright lights in the back ground
· Camera focus on visual elements with specific musical elements
· Bird’s eye view with a camera rotating in the opposite direction
· Cut on the beat
· Zoom out showing a concept of space
· Contrast matches tempo of the music i.e. faster tempo brighter lights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4

30 Seconds to mars

30 seconds to mars

This is war

'This is war' uses the conception that light and dark can be paralleled with good and evil. However this idea is confused. In the starting scene the band walks down a white corridor, they are all dressed in white, this gives the connotation that they are good. Conflicting this though, a red gun is shown on the lead singer`s jacket. This is linked to postmodernism, through confusing the mixture of good and evil. This shows although they are represented as good innocent people at the start that have evil or a lust for blood. Now this lust for blood is either violence or revenge because the song is about the end of the world or a time to fight for it (climate change).  The climate change problem is show as they are in a dessert then going to the arctic.

This line is sung “warning to the good and the evil, this is war” there is a mixture of people in white and black. The lead singer is saying that everyone is to blame for climate change, he doesn’t take sides, this is shown in the different shots where he is dressed in black and then white.

War is also a key factor of this music video, “to the solder the civilian” and there are images of people with guns, who when they start fighting, the music starts to pick up as the violence increases. At this point in the music video, you start to understand that it’s about what we have done to our planet and how war is part of society and we just acknowledge it as the norm.

There is a part where a city scape is in the shot, covered by a red cloud of smoke. This connotes that what we have created is bad; however this is contradicted by the lyrics as it says “it’s a brand new world”. Again this has postmodernism ideas because it is being stated whilst a damaged world is highlighted.

A final point in this music video talks about religion ,“to the leader the prior to the victor the messier” this shows how religion has created so much war and instead of fixing the world it’s made it worse and the singers are ready to fight all of them. To do this they are represented as powerful people in the music video. This is shown when they enter a Chinese temple and the entire compliament soldiers (all in armor) step aside and let them in.

A good final discussion point is that Edouard Salier, seen in the video served in the Special Forces. The irony being that certainly a large part of the music video is about war/ conflict and destruction, and I’m sure that his personal experience had cosiderable influence in the creation of this music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gObAYrK6QzM

William groom