Notes on Key Directors

Key Directors

1992–2004: Rise of the directors 

In November 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. Directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi, and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as Lasse Hallström and David Fincher

Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three most expensive music videos of all time:

Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which cost $7 million to produce. 

Madonna's "Bedtime Story", which cost $5 million.

 "Scream" remains the most expensive video of all time. In the mid to late 1990s, Walter Stern directed "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve, and "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. 

JONAS ÅKERLUND 

Jonas Åkerlund (born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film and music video director, and drummer. He is best known for directing music videos, which often take a mock form of movies, trailers and short films. One of his best known videos is his video for Madonna's song "Ray of Light" won a Grammy for Best Music Video and a record seven awards at 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, including the Video of the Year.

(1998)

He first found fame as main video director for Swedish pop act Roxette. In 1997 he directed the acclaimed video for The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up", which sparked controversy due to its depiction of drug use, violence, and nudity. In 1998 he worked with Madonna for the song "Ray of Light", he has since worked with acts such as Metallica, Christina Aguilera, U2, Blink-182, P!nk, Rammstein, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga.
He is a long-time collaborator of pop singer Madonna having worked on such music videos as "Music", "American Life", which was pulled due to its graphic content and the Iraq War, and "Jump". He also directed her documentary film I'm Going to Tell You a Secret and her concert television special The Confessions Tour: Live from London.
Among his more recent works were the controversial pornographic music video for Rammstein's "Pussy", the video for the song "Telephone" by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé.


(2010)

Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera's 2011 single "Moves Like Jagger".

 (2011)

Duran Duran's single "Girl Panic!"


(2011)

Jonas Åkerlund is a well-known director and is often known most famously for his controversial videos such as 'Smack my b***h up', always pushing the boundries and he leaves viewers wondering what he will come up with next.

Director X

Julien Christian Lutz (born October 31, 1975), better known as Little X, X or Director X, is a Canadian music video director. A protégé of Hype Williams, X has been noted for his high-budget, visually distinctive music videos for popular music singles, including videos for The Wanted, R. Kelly, Usher, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Korn, David Guetta, Nelly Furtado, Sean Paul, Justin Bieber, Drake and Nicki Minaj.


His trademark is tweaking the letterbox format; instead of just using black bars on the top and bottom of the frame to frame the image, many videos by X actually feature the bars opening vertically to reveal the video and closing vertically at the end, like a letter box.

(2011)

(2012)

Through researching these directors I have got some more ideas about my own music video, especially with Director X whose videos are mainly within the pop genre.