Spike Jonze, an American music video director, has paved the way in my influence for creating this music video. Spike uses a plethora of signature film techniques in each production he does, ranging from the one-take ‘steady cam’ shooting style of Weezer’s ‘Undone’ music video, which was filmed with the band playing the song at double speed and it being slowed down for the post-production editing - or the ‘handy cam’ voyeuristic guerrilla style of Fatboy Slim’s music video for ‘Praise You’ which was shot outside a movie theatre in California. His independent style of shooting has influenced me to not be afraid to try something far out and seemingly strange in my production or shooting style.
Famously, whenever Spike worked on the Beastie Boy's video for "Sabotage", he had planned for some underwater footage, but had no underwater camera. Spike took the camera and figured it would be alright if he just put it into a clear plastic bag - which actually didn't work, and the camera was ruined. In the same shoot, he had mounted a camera to a car that was supposed to drive down a hill at 80 mph, but when the car hit a bump in the road, the camera flew off, and was broken too. Spike broke two $200,000 16mm cameras on a shoot for a video that was budgeted at $55,000.
Spike has a very creative and unique eye in his productions; anybody that has ever worked with him has praised him by stating that it’s not his brilliant eye, his colours or his editing, it's his style that is so influenced by his personality. Spike has a playful yet very clever approach to his productions, which I would like to be able to carry over to my production.
A selection of videos that I particularly like, and have taken influence from, are Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” and “Weapon of Choice”, Weezer’s “Undone” and “Buddy Holly” and the Beastie Boy’s “Sabotage”.
A common name on a lot of the industry’s minds’ today is music video director Saam Faramand. Saam has recently come to light in today’s ever-growing music video industry by directing and creating some of the most successful videos in the UK indie genre such as New Young Pony Club, Klaxons and most recently – The Futureheads.
Saam takes influence from a lot of musicians and their moving image associated with their music. He has experimented with animation and footage as a hybrid, and both respectively. Saam is a great influence on my production as I will in some ways creating homage to some of the work he has done. A particular favourite of mine is The Futureheads video for ‘The Beginning of the Twist’, which actually presents the video as pre-production materials such as raw green screening and fake storyboards where the band are playing in live with real pre-production scribblings, amongst others.
Saam’s style is strongly based around the use of black and white contrast, the use of continuous motion to make the viewer feel like they are part of the video and the constant innovation in his styles that make his videos very unique and ‘now’. Saam has often quipped that his approach to productions is always somewhat influenced by what he calls his “gay side”; Saam has been know to say that he openly loves Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson’s music and that their music has influenced his eye and style whenever he creates his video ideas.
I would like to utilise Saam’s sense of creativity, mise en scene and cinematography within my music video – as I see parts of my video almost paying a direct homage to a lot of his work.
A selection of videos that I particularly like, and that I have taken influence from, are The Klaxons’ “Golden Skans” and “Its Not Over”, The Futureheads’ “The Beginning of the Twist” and Good Shoes’ “All In My Head”.
Finally, another popular video director has added an established edge to my influences – and this is in the form of American director Joseph Kahn. Joseph has worked with the ‘who’s-who’ of 20th century artists and has created some of the most visually recognisable videos in the public domain. Not only is a music video director, but he has created major commercial advertisements and feature films in his career to date.
Joseph’s video are stylised with great purpose; i.e. the video isn’t just put out there for the audience to take their own perception, Joseph lets the audience see what the purpose of the video is through his creative eye.
The one way Joseph’s influence differentiates between my other influences is the fact that Joseph mainly works with mainstream artists that have already strongly established themselves, where as my other influence still have a sense of independence about their style and ethic. Joseph’s video are often big budget, but with big impact.
His videos are influential because of the way he tells a story within the lines of the song, the camera angles and the mise en scene amongst other methods of channelling. Often praised for his sheer cinematic artistry, which has been know arguably outdistance some of the more prestigious current offerings that are in the public domain, video veteran Joseph Kahn has a very unique style and approach which he will forever have a reputation for. 
From Joseph, I would like to take an element of mainstream hype and implement it into my production. I hope that his influence will almost boost my production values, even though I’m working on a shoe-string budget of very little!
A selection of videos that I particularly like, and that I have taken influence from, are Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia”, Moby “We are all made of stars”, Blink 182’s “Always” and Garbage’s “Cherry Lips”.
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