Music Video Director - Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor. His work ranges from TV advertisement to film and television to music videos. He was born in 1969 (his birth name is Adam Spiegel). He has done a vast amount of collaborative work such as being a co-founder and editor of  Dirt magazine as well as an editor for Grand Royal Magazine and senior photographer for Transworld Skateboarding. He is also a producer and co-creator of MTV's hugely successful prank and stunt series Jackass.







Jonze has been directing music videos for over 20 years now and has worked with an eclectic range of artists including; The Beastie Boys, Weezer, R.E.M, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Daft Punk, Puff Daddy, Biggie Smalls, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West.

A personal favourite of mine, and one I have always remembered from a young age is Fatboy Slim's Praise You music video (directed by Spike Jonze). Jonze actually starred in the video himself as one for his alter-egos named Richard Koufey accompanied by his factious dance crew. This video is an excellent example of 'stealing shots' as it was filmed using guerrilla style filmmaking. This is when you film at a location without any permission from the owners of the property. The music video is very simple, it has no narrative or abstract artistic edge, it is just Jonze and his dance crew dancing to Praise You outside a cinema in California as passers by observe with curious expressions and the cinema employees get aggravated by their public disturbance. In my opinion the fact this music video has no motive or goal, it has no high-concept drama or special effects is what gives the video its charm and entertainment. The video only cost $800, which was used to purchase the boombox used and food for the dancers. This goes to show that a successful video can be made on an extremely low budget, as long as the idea is simple and straightforward to achieve and has some originality and charm behind it. Despite it's low budget, the video was hugely successful and won 3 awards at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1999 including; Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Choreography.

Another example of Spike Jonze's work is Daft Punk's Da Funk music video. This video's narrative focuses on a dog/man named Charles who is wondering around New York City at night blasting the song from a boombox which he carries on his shoulders. The video follows his journey through the night as he is laughed at, rejected and ridiculed by member of the public. He then bumps into an old friend and is supposed to go to her house but when he sees the sign on the bus saying 'No Radios' he panics and does not get on the bus. Although the video has many potential interpretations and possible representations such as alienation, city life, isolation, the band have  stated that there is no message behind the story. 
Da Funk is a dance track and because it has no lyrics it may be hard for the audience to create an image of the music and therefore cannot connect with it, however Jonze has created meaning for the audience through the use of dialogue and narrative in the music video. The video is very unique as we rarely see a human dog used as the protagonist of any media text and because of this the audience is likely to remember the band/song. Therefore Jonze has successfully done his job of promoting the band. 

Jonze also uses a lot of intertextuality in his work, for example Buddy Holly by Weezer and Sabotage by Beastie Boys. Although narrative is a major element of his work, he sometimes challenges conventions of genre through postmodernism and parody. For example in Flashing Lights by Kanye West although there is the use of voyeurism with the half naked women, she is not objectified and she holds the real power and dominance in this video as she opens the boot of a car to reveal Kanye tied up who she then kills. Similarly in Drop by The Parcyde, the video appears to be going forward when actually is it going backwards. This rejection of meta-narrative and rejection to follow a normal pattern shows Spike Jonze's videos are postmodern and have conventions of their own. 

Jonze's work is inspirational to me as it is creative and daring, and often the main premises of his videos are very simple but made/performed with unique style and individuality. He also displays that a massive budget and a conventional narrative is not necessarily required to make an interesting piece that promotes and sells the artist.