2. Nigel Dick Biography.
โข Favourite colour: Blue
โข Lucky Number: 21
โข Ambition: To ride l'Alpe d'Huez without getting off the bike
โข Hobbies: Guitars, cycling
โข Hates: People who don't recycle
โข Birthday: March 21st
โข Previous professional endeavours: Architectural
Draughtsman, Busker, Cab Driver, Construction Worker, Farm
Labourer, Motorcycle Messenger, Packaging Clerk, Record
Company Publicist, Scaffold Erector's Mate, Travelling T-shirt
Salesman and of course Waiter.
3. Nominations and Awards.
Awards:
โข 3 MTV awards
โข 2 Billboard Awards
โข 3 MVPA awards
โข 1 Brit Award
Nominations:
โข 21 MTV awards
โข 26 Much Music Awards
โข 1 Grammy
4. Artists heโs worked with:
โข ALICE IN CHAINS โข RICKY MARTIN โข THREE DOORS DOWN
โข ANASTACIA โขJOHN MAYER โข TRAIN
โข BRYAN ADAMS โข MATCHBOX 20 โข TINA TURNER
โข BACKSTREET BOYS โข PAUL McCARTNEY โข TRAVIS
โข BAND AID โข MEAT LOAF โข THE WANTED
โข CHEAP TRICK โข MANDY MOORE โข LIVING COLOUR
โข CHER โขJOE McELDERRY
โข ALICE COOPER โข NICKELBACK
โข THE CORRS โข N SYNC
โข SHERYL CROW โข OASIS
โข RODNEY CROWELL โข THE OFFSPRING
โข DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL โข OZZY OSBOURNE
โข DEF LEPPARD โข PUSSYCAT DOLLS
โข CELINE DION โข R.E.M.
โข FUEL โข EROS RAMAZZOTTI
โข GOOD CHARLOTTE โข SMOKEY ROBINSON
โข GLORIA ESTEFAN โข SAVAGE GARDEN
โข GUNS N' ROSES โข SIMPLE MINDS
โข ENRIQUE IGLESIAS โข JESSICA SIMPSON
โข IL DIVO โข BRITNEY SPEARS
โข ELTON JOHN โข STAIND
โข BEN E. KING โข ROD STEWART
โข CHAD KROEGER/JOSEY โข STING
โข SCOTT โข TEARS FOR FEARS
โข BARRY MANILOW โข THIRD EYE BLIND
5.
6. Films heโs worked on:
"American Pie 2"
"Centre Stage"
"Drive Me Crazy"
"The Karate Kid Part II"
"Making Mr. Right"
"The Mask Of Zorro"
"Message In A Bottle"
"Mona Lisa Smile"
"Music Of My Heart"
"Nightmare On Elm Street IV"
"Pokรฉmon"
"Scooby Doo 2"
"Spiderman"
"Spiderman 2"
"Stand By Me"
"Timecop"
"True Lies"
"The Truth About Cats And Dogs"
"Wayne's World"
"Wild Wild West"
7. Types of Music Video according to Nigel Dick.
1. PERFORMANCE VIDEO:
E.G. Evenflow (Pearl Jam), Party Hard (Andrew W.K.)
2. TOTAL CONCEPT VIDEO:
E.G. Sabotage (Beastie Boys), Tool Videos
3. STORY VIDEO:
E.G. Thriller (Michael Jackson),
4. GAG VIDEO:
E.G. Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel), Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz)
5. FILM CLIP VIDEO:
E.G. Chad Kroeger (Hero - Spiderman)
6. DANCE VIDEO:
E.G. Baby One More Time (Britney Spears) Praise You (Fatboy Slim)
8. Examples of some of his videos:
Oasis - Wonderwall. Black Britney Spears - Baby One
and white, close ups of More Time. Close ups of
old vinyl records, old Britney performing in front
fashioned styling of a dance troop. Typical
throughout. Close ups of โPopโ artist, belly showing
the singer, shots of the and dance routines.
band.
9. โWritten out mood board for Guns Nโ Roses,โ
GUNS N' ROSES - Welcome To The Jungle - Nigel Dick.
df #171
written 7/10/87
GUNS N' ROSES will perform the number onstage at the Whiskey. We will shoot the band's close-
ups during the day and then let in a regular audience that evening and shoot them during their
live show. They will play the song perhaps two or three times during the show. There will probably
be a need for some extra lighting for the stage show in addition to what they have at the
Whiskey but we are not talking about massive lighting rigs etc. We would like to have access to a
small crane.
THE CONCEPT: (To be intercut with performance):
PART ONE
Axel (the lead singer) steps off a Greyhound bus in Hollywood at night. He has just arrived in
town complete with case and guitar. (To be shot on location day 2).
PART TWO
Axel walks up to a Television store and looks into the window. (Night ext. day 2).
PART THREE
Axel's POV of the television store window. There are a number of TV sets all showing various
scenes of violence, civil unrest, contemporary advertising etc. These pieces of footage would
need to be obtained from a library. The TV ads could be anything from the last 5 years but does
not need to show package shots or product names. All the TV sets should be different. I would
suggest we build this window on a set. (To be shot in a studio day 2).
10. PART FOUR
Axel is in a seedy hotel bedroom with a girl. They are watching a number of TV sets. Once
again the screens are filled with violent images. Amongst these images we must include
Manson, the Nightstalker and other 'key' figures. I would suggest that this room is built on a set.
(To be shot in a studio day 2).
PART FIVE
Axel is now strapped into a large chair in a clinical room. He wears a straight jacket and a
head brace. He is forced to watch a bank of modern high tech TV monitors. (These are not
the monitors we have seen previously). Once again the images on the screen are of violence.
Eventually Axel screams, terrified. I would suggest that this room is built on a set. (To be shot in
a studio day 2).
PART SIX
Reprise of Part Three. We see Axel's screaming face on all the TV screens in the shop window.
(NB this is the first time that the TV screens having been showing the same image as each
other).
PART SEVEN
Reprise of Part Two. Axel is standing in front of the window of the TV store. He sees himself
screaming on the TV's, shrugs his shoulders and walks away.
THE END.
I guess I didn't know how to spell Axl's name properly - I hadn't met the band when I wrote
this. The treatment was basically handed to me by Alan Niven over the phone and I put it in
order and I typed it out, which is the way Alan and I would work, I guess that's why I typed the
phrase 'key' figures the way I did. It's interesting to note Axl's early fascination with Manson
even before the release of the first album.
11. Nigel Dick โ Performance Video.
Diane Railton and Paul Watson โ Pseudo Documentary.
12. What he specialises in/His Style:
He does a wide range of different style videos. Even though there are
many exceptions, he seems to have mainly concentrated on 1980/90
Rock, before progressing with modern music moving into Pop.
He has focused on very well known bands and artists; from 80โs rock
โGuns Nโ Rosesโ to 90โs pop โBritney Spearsโ, each with different video
styles โperformance videoโ and โdance videoโ.
Nigel has a catalogue of artists, varying from Rock bands to Pop singers.
This allows room for a range of different styles of video to create. He tends
to use things within the video that match the genre of the music. Such as;
within Gunโs Nโ Roses โ Paradise City video, theyโre on stage with a huge
audience in a stadium, this shows them as an extremely popular rock
band. They show them chilling out backstage, yet still in all their โrockโ
style clothing.
Also, he tends to do a lot of his videoโs in black and white, mainly the
rock videos with Gunโs Nโ Roses - Paradise City and Sweet Child Oโ
Mine, also in Oasisโs โWonderwall.โ
13. โTen useful things to know about writingโ
- Nigel Dick.
1) No such thing as a bad idea.
2) If you canโt come up with an idea in an hour you CAN come up
with ten ideas in a minute.
3) Writers donโt write โ they re-write.
4) To be prepared to succeed you should be prepared to fail
spectacularly.
5) The idea is there โ all you need to do is get all the other crap out of
your head to get at it, whether that means writing drivel for an hour or
talking to someone else about it.
6) Prevarication is part of the process โ and it means youโll get the
washing done.
7) Keep a pencil and paper by the bed.
8) Other peopleโs dreams are boring.
9) Just like you most creative people have the same idea over and
over again.
10) Your first idea is not necessarily your best idea.
14. Where does his inspiration come from?
โFrom anywhere and everywhere. Some days it will come from a
picture in a magazine on other days from something I see while I'm
driving along in the car. Sometimes I stare at the song lyrics until
something leaps out at me. Sometimes, if I'm really short on ideas or
just desperate I'll write an idea which has nothing to do with the song
but is an idea I've always wanted to do. Other times I'll just say, I've
always wanted to shoot in this place - perhaps if I write an idea for
that place they'll like it and send me there.โ - Nigel Dick.
โYou should also remember that the label (my client) is very often
quite specific about the kind of video they want - and perhaps even
more specific about the kind of video they don't want - and this
inevitably influences any ideas that you may wish to exploreโ - Nigel
Dick.
โWhen someone tells me they have an idea already I inwardly do
cartwheels of gratitude,โ - Nigel Dick.
15. How to get the right shot for the video.
โSometimes you don't know that you've got the shot that you
want - you just have to move on because of time. โ - Nigel
Dick.
โIf there's a really important line that the artist flubs I'll go back
and do a pick up of that section and then move on. Unlike
Kubrick who was notorious for shooting 150 takes on something
I think that performances get worse after a while, not better.
They lose their freshness and the artist gets a glazed-over
expression.โ - Nigel Dick.
16. Things I like that Iโll possibly use in my video:
Documentary style shots with hand-held
cameras.
Shots of Back stage/Recording studio/Setting up
etc.
Shots that look up towards the singer/guitarist.
Emphasises their power of music, Iโd like to try
and include a few of these.
I like the close ups of the singer whilst theyโre
performing, it allows the person watching the
video to get โcloseโ to them, Iโd like to include
this in my video.
I like this shot used in Oasisโs video โWonderwallโ
as it shows the front man being the head of the
band, with the rest of them in the background.
Iโd like to include shots of the full band in my
video.
17. I like how throughout the video
lots of the documentary is in
black and white, and the live
stage performance is in colour. I
like how this looks as there is a
clear difference between the
two, Iโd like to try this out this
editing style for my video to see
if it works.
18. Why I like his work:
I chose to research Nigel Dick as one of my favourite bands is Guns Nโ Roses.
The video he directed for Guns Nโ Roses - Paradise City is similar to the video
which I am planning to do for my band Ten Minutes Behind. Itโs a
โperformance videoโ according to Nigel Dick, or โPseudo Documentaryโ as
Diane Railton and Paul Watson categorise it.
Nigel has worked with many different genre of bands, and has done many
different genre of videos. This gives more to his CV, allowing more artists
wanting to work with him. He has worked with lots of well known artists, such
as Alice Cooper and Britney Spears. I find it interesting that he has the skill to
apply his knowledge to such different styles of music, which is why I wanted
to study him.
Artists such as Britney Spears, Guns Nโ Roses, Tears for Fears and especially
Nickelback have had multiple videos directed by Nigel, showing that they
are obviously pleased with the way he portrays them, and that he is skilled at
what he does. I also like how in all of his videos, he focuses on the artist a
lot, there are many close ups through his videos, which help to promote the
artist ad Iโm hoping that during some studio performance in my video, Iโll
use some close ups.