Jake NavaMusic Video Director

Jake Nava is an English Music Video Director but also does advertising and feature films. Nava has worked with many different acts some of these including; Britney Spears, Beyonce, Leona Lewis, Atomic Kitten, Usher, Destiny’s Child, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Dido.

He has been nominated for Best Video at the MOBOs and Best Director at the MTV Video Music Awards as well as a BET award. Nava also won a MVPA honour for his 2003 music video for Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" in the category of Best R&B Video. He focuses on mainstream work rather than underground and his music videos seem to be predominately female artists rather than males.

Beyonce; Crazy In LoveI really like this music video that he directed, thisIs because I like the fact that there is lots ofdance throughout it, I also like the way Beyonceconnects with the camera and the fact it’s not justshot in one or two locations there’s quite a lot ofdifferent scenes of location. I really like the bitwhere the car catches on fire and the camera flitsbetween her inside of the car and the outside ofthe car on fire. It gives quite a dramatic effect.

Throughout the music video there is a clearrelationship between the lyrics and the visuals.Beyonce is constantly connecting to thecamera through the use of the lyrics.

There is also a clear relationshipbetween the music and the visualsas the video contains lots ofchoreographed dance routines thatgoes with the beat of the music. The video is quite sexualised, there are

many shots of Beyonce playing up to

the camera in a sexualised manner.

The editing in this video is quite fast

paced. Their are many cuts and

transitions, that are kept to the beat of the

music and the lyrics of the song. He uses

natural and unnatural lighting in this

video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i38JRTyMik

Usher: BurnThe editing in this music video is slow

paced, which fits well with the song. At the

beginning there are quite a few shots

which fade into the next shot, which

introduces the song and Usher well. There

are also shots of different parts of Usher’s

face which creates a build up

of who it mite be.

I notice that with most of Jake

Nava’s music video’s, they are all based

around the artist, and there are many

close-up shots of them.

The lighting that he uses is mostlynatural e.g. When Usher isoutside, though there is someunnatural lighting e.g. When Usheris in his house.I like the use of the animated firethat Jake Nava has used when thegirl is swimming in the pool andwhen Ushers singing outside whenthe palm trees catch alight. Thereare also random objects that catchalight, it seems to reinforce what

thesong is about. I also really like thelittle dance routine that Usherperforms outside his parked car when everything is going up in flames. Its all quite dramatic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJLkWtC2Z8Q

Leona Lewis: RunThe editing in this video is also slow

paced, this works with slow tempo of

the song. There are not loads of

transitions to another shot and when

there is one they just gradually fade

out. There’s quite a few long shots that

go into a close-up shot of Leona’s face.

There are many close-up shots of

Leona’s in this video, which show the

emotion of the song. However this is a

reoccurring thing with the music video’s

Jake Nava has made, he seems to

take a lot of these to make the video’s

all about the artists.

The video is quite dull, there isn’t

much light in it and when there is

it is unnatural light, just enough to

see Leona herself. This adds

dramatic effect and goes well with

the lyrics and tempo of the song.

I really like this music video

because its mainly about Leona

and her voice. There isn’t much

going on in the background, there

are just many different shots of

Leona . It has been stripped down

to not be so much about the video

and to be more about her and her

voice.

This is one of my favourite shots of the video. I think it’s quite a powerful shot of Leona in the centre with the light just breaking out behind her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcpWQC9prm0

How Jake Nava has influenced my ideas for my A2 music video project...

• I really like the fact the Jake Nava makes hismusic videos all about the artists themselves andfocuses mostly on them, making sure that they areat the centre on the video. I will think about thiswhen coming to make my music video.• I also really like the use of the close-up shots heuses to get through the emotion and to make itmore dramatic.