MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR STUDYBy Marcus Bowring

DIRECTORS• These are some of the most famous music video directors:

Spike Jonze

Hype Williams

Michel Gondry

SPIKE JONZE• Director, actor, screenwriter and

producer Spike Jonze was born Adam Spiegel on October 22, 1969, in Rockville, Maryland. Related to the Spiegel family and an heir to its catalogue fortune, Jonze grew up in the Washington D.C. with his mother and older sister. By the time he entered high school, he had adopted the name "Spike Jonze" and was participating in competitive skateboarding and BMX bicycling.

• Immediately after his graduation from high school, Jonze moved to Los Angeles and began working as an editorial assistant at Freestylin', a biker magazine. In 1991, he helped found Dirt, a spin-off of the popular teen magazine Sassy, aimed at teenage male readers.

SPIKE JONZEJonze's breakthrough video was for the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, was an inspired take-off on 1970s cop shows; the video earned four MTV Video Music Awards, including one for Jonze (best director). That same year, Jonze cemented his reputation for innovation and creativity with his eye-catching video for Weezer's "Buddy Holly," in which the alternative band performed their hit single in the middle of what appeared to be an episode of the 1970s sitcom Happy Days.

SPIKE JONZEThroughout the 1990s, Jonze directed music videos for many other prominent artists—including R.E.M., the Breeders, Puff Daddy, the Chemical Brothers and Björk—as well as a number of memorable television commercials for companies like Nike, Sprite, Nissan, and Coca-Cola. His interest and talent also extended to the other side of the camera: He was dragged behind a van in a TV spot for Levi's 501, and played bit parts in the films Mi Vida Loca (1993) and The Game (1997).

HYPE WILLIAMS• Williams was born in Queens, New

York and is of African American and Honduran descent. He later attended Adelphi University. Williams' big break came when he began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniels created Williams' first opportunity with the "Filmmakers With Attitude" moniker (FWA), which was Williams' first video company.

• A signature style used by Williams throughout the vast majority of his videos was the Fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus. This was used by the tandem Williams/Perez in "Gimme Some More" by Busta Rhymes and ‘The Rain’ by Missy Elliott, however it was dropped by 2003, when he experienced his lowest level of production activity since the beginning of his career as a music video director.

HYPE WILLIAMSAwards Williams has received for his video work include the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year (1996), the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check", the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual Music Video Production Association Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It", MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs", and the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West's "Gold Digger". In 2006, Williams was honoured by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honour of his achievements as a filmmaker.

MICHEL GONDRY• He grew up in Versailles with a

family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui.

• Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting a Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.

MICHEL GONDRYIn his video clips and commercials, he was a pioneer for a lot of things. For example the video clip he made for IAM (Je danse le Mia) was the first video clip using the morphing technics. And above all he invented the technique of several cameras taking pictures in the same time around somebody. This technique was used for the first time in a commercial for insurance, then in Björk's "Army of Me" video clip and in The Matrix (1999).