Spike Jonze: Music Director

Music Director Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and screen play writer. His work includes music videos, TV adverts, film and television. Spike Jonze is well known for music video collaborations with Fat Boy Slim, Beastie Boys and Jay z. Furthermore he is the co-creator and executive producer of MTV’s Jackass. He has been nominated for four academy awards including Best Director.

Spike Jonze Directed Fat Boy Slims music video - Praise You. He shot the the film in a guerrilla style which is a form of low budgeting film making. Simple props were used only, for example - chairs, hats etc. The video only cost $800 to make with most of that money being spent on food and drink for the crew. Scenes were shot without any warning, quickly in public locations (without the permission from landlords and owners). This was to create a sense of shock, excitement and amusement. Jonze was praised highly for this style by other directors by the simple creativity of this video. The video won three major awards at the 1999 MTV Music Video awards, including: Best Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Choreography. However it was voted for Best Dance Video but didn't win.

Search for a song

While searching for a song i came to the conclusion that it would be best to chose a song from a band or someone who was unsigned, as this would prevent any possible restrictions and allow me to be unique with the way i want to shoot my video.

 After searching many websites i figured that SoundCloud and unsigned.com were the best websites to use as this is where bands upload their music with their aim to gain recognition.

I also asked friends for advice on what song i would choose and i found this band called Pears and Till's on SoundCloud. I liked this band and studied the song 'On the Ground' as i could picture myself creating a music video for this song as it had a great tech/house sound which i liked and felt i could do something effective and vibrant with their music.

Another band I found on unsigned.com - Baby Stepz Music had a song called Feeling you, Feeling me. I liked the way this band had combined elements of house with hip-hop and R&B, this I felt really pushed boundaries and had its own sense of identity which I liked.

Another artist I liked was Jordan Morgan who made a song called Obsession, i came across this song whilst searching on SoundCloud. I particularly felt that this song was right as I felt I could create a clear plot-line. Also it had a good beat along with vocals in there which i felt would be effective.

However after some in depth research into artists I finally found the one i thought i should use, from an artist with the stage name - LarsM who had a song called criminal. I really liked this song as i could visualize different shots i would use to the beat of the music. Although there were no lyrics in this song I feel I could use it to my advantage and challenge the points made by Andrew Goodwin.

Target auidence

As I have decided to go for the genre of house I did some research into the audience that may enjoy this type of music. The listeners of this genre I believe would be mainly young adults with a mixture between male and female fans, however the male audience is probably more prominent. Important factors when aiming your product at an audience demographic is trying to get to know them, and what they do in their spare time, with their money etc. A major source of entertainment or social factors surrounding this audience is that they go to a lot of clubs/bars to listen to different music played by DJ's and also to dance and socialise. Moreover most of the target audience would fall under the NRS social class of grade E, therefore they would be seen as working class/students and would have much money to spend. Most of their money would go towards a big even such as a festival

I decided to do some in depth research into the type of clothes that may be worn by this target audience so when  it comes to doing my filming I'd be fully prepared and know how to costume my protagonist. Some items I came across when searching included, jeans, casual shirt and sunglasses.

I also looked at some house artists that were

similar to mine in order to see how they dressed.

Lip Syncing

This is my lip syncing trial for my music video. Even thought there wasn't any lyrics in my song, i felt that it was still important to do a lip syncing trial in order to familiarize myself with the camera a little bit more. Furthermore doing this lip syncing trial i was able to use a variety of different shots and test out what i thought may look good in my video.

                                        

Richard Dyer Star Theory