Mark RomanekBy Laxmi Shiyani

History of who he is Mark Romanek is an American filmmaker creates

work in films, music videos and commercials. He has worked with many different artists such as Audioslave, Johnny Cash, Nine Inch Nails and Red Chilli Peppers. He has directed many distinctive music videos that are iconic. He directed and wrote the 2002 hit film One Hour Photo who starred Robin Williams. Although he has created films, he is mostly credited for making music videos. Romanek has worked with many famous artists such as Jay-Z, Madonna and Michael and Janet Jackson. He was well known for the Nine Inch Nails song ‘Closer’. The main reason why this video was successful due to it being disturbing and distinctive in an demonic way.

Here are some examples of his music videos:

"Criminal" (Fiona Apple)

"Bedtime Story" (Madonna). Is now part of the collection of the museum of Modern Art.

“Scream” (Michael and Janet Jackson).

Cost $7 million to make

"Hurt" (Johnny Cash). Romanek won a

Grammy through this music video.

“99 Problems” (Jay-Z)

Here are some examples films directed by him:

His trademark/signature His style of work is very quirky, distinctive and gritty. Some of his

music videos make you feel uncomfortable due to the lighting and concept of handheld camera creating the feel of naturalism. A lot of his work has a naturalistic element for example in Jay-z 99 Problems music video the style gave the natural feel which reflected on the realistic narrative. He also creates most of his work in black and white giving that gritty realistic feel. The style of his work that he creates fits into the genre of rock, for example the music video of Nine inch Nails suits the weird gritty style. Due to his work having a very gritty twisted style this makes the video successful because of the visuals being satisfying.

Criminal by Fiona Apple From the opening of this music video the audience are given

the feel of the setting being eerie due to the deep sound of music and the dark tonal lighting; which adds up to that uncomfortable feel. From the start you can’t really tell what genre is but as it gets to the main part of the song it is clearly shown that it is a rock genre due to the rough music along with the dark setting.

There is a strong relationship between the music and visuals due to the rough deep music being in sync with the cinematography through the visuals. For example at the start of the music video the camera was panning along with the beat.

The lyrics relate to the visuals pretty well throughout the music video. For example when she says “ive been a bad bad girl”, she gives this mysterious smirk look to the camera giving an impression to the audience that she knows what she did was bad but she’s happy about it and careless. When she sings her lyrics, throughout the video, it relates well with the visuals of her expressions.

There are a lot of close-up shots of the main female artist amplifying that she is the important person throughout this video. Even though there are a lot of people in the background the main focus is on her as the lighting and cinematography frame is having her be the centre of attention. This goes along with the demand of record label as the artist in this video is being promoted highly.

 There is a frequent reference to notion of looking throughout this video of the main female artist being voyeuristic due to her performance being sexual to appeal her video to men. The target audience is girls for this music video due to the lyrics being strong where some girls can relate to.

The way she is laying around girls and boys with their legs and arms being exposed really gives you that uncomfortable feel especially due to the atmosphere being dark and gloomy.

Intertextual reference of the company ‘Positive’.

Intertextual refrence of television here