Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director of music videos, he has worked with big name artists Bjork and Biggee Smalls as well as smaller niche artists.

Spike jonze is well respected for making influential and alternative videos, he is known to work with the artist to bring out true emotion and capture the artists own illustration.

The Pharcyde – drop

This is the pharcyde video directed by spike jonze, this video was ground breaking at the time of release in 19 because of the special effects. In the video the artists are filmed lip syncing backwards, the video is then played back in reverse which gives the serial effect that the artists are singing in time but everything else is in reverse. I think this is a typical spike Jonze video you can see a definite individual take on the artists style, spike has kept the artists conventional hip hop image but used the backwards lip sync to make a really interesting video.

This is an example of how spike has used a typical urban street location in Los angles to convey the typical conventions of a hip hop artist.

Yeah yeah yeahs- Y control

I think the Y control video show a different style to spike Jonze’s directing, the video has a much darker meaning and portrays the band in a different way to many of his other video’s. In the video young children are used to create this aggressive dark tone, I think spike used serial shots of young children to shock the audience and to instantly show the style of the band.

In this scene from the y control video the children are singing with the band and playing games, I think spike has used this serial contrast to create a serial sense of happiness, how mise en scene emphasises a sense of darkness which is overridden by there music.

• Live performance• I like how spike jonze uses live performance I think he has an

alternative way of inheriting live performance along side narrative. Examples of spikes use of alternative live performance are seen in weezer’s buddy holly, yeah yeah yeah’s ‘Y control’ and notorious big ‘The sky is the limit’.

I think ‘buddy holly’ by weezer has a interesting use of live performance, In the video there is an intertexual references to the 70’s TV show ‘Happy days’ the video is made to stimulate the band appearing on the show from a different view point. I think spike used a strong intertextual reference with the 70’s show as spoof to create a iconic image of the band being alternative like spike directing style.

You can see from the aritifical 70’s style mise en scene how the intertextual reference is almost a joke and has the effect of representing weezer using opposites.

This is the ‘Sky is the limit’ video by Notorious big, I like the way class is portrayed in this video, there are a number of establishing shot showing glamour and wealth. The video is entirely narrative based and a live performance is only used at the end. I think this show a very obvious representation of the music genre. This show how spike can work within a variety of genre’s and apply his own touch to make each video unique.

Spike Jonze’s directing style has influenced me to use alternative techniques to portray the artist , using the stereotypical conventions but adding a more personal touch by working with the artist to create a sense of personality and emotion. I think it is important to work closely with the artists to create a true edit which represents the bands personality, in the same way Spike Jonze represents the pharcyde in ‘Drop’ he uses the stereo typical conventions of a rap video but uses quirky effects to make the video unique.

Influence