A2 Media Research

1. DIRECTOR STUDY

2. Dave Meyers
After Graduating from University, Meyers
began work with Paramount and Fox
Studios before embarking on a new journey
by filming his first music video with rap crew
The Whoridas. Due to his hard work and
dedication he was soon noticed for his early
work, leading to Meyers directing over 200
music videos in the next few years. With his
music gaining 11 MTV Video Music Awards
including the 2003 MTV Video Music Award
for Best Video of the Year.
However some claim that Meyers is not
actually a ‘specialist’ in the field of music
videos, as he regularly films other media.
For instance in 1999, Meyer directed the
Eddie Griffin comedy Foolish, and in 2007
he directed the remake of The Hitcher which
was produced by director Michael Bay.
However despite this, is no doubt a well
renounced and fantastic director
His most impressive video in my opinion is a
recent piece of work: Kendrick Lamar’s
Humble. The reason why Meyers gained so
much praise for his work on this video is
because he challenged the conventions of a
standard rap video, by creating a video that
boasted a unique style. Meyers is most well
known for his unique ideas that are can
often be considered as controversial and
offensive to some audience members. One
example of this in Humble, is where there is
a re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-
century painting: The Last Supper where
Lamar sits in Jesus' chair.
However as summed up by Billboard editor
Brad Wete, “His raps are filter less; he tells
it like it is”. And therefore a controversial
music video is only suitable.

3. Francis Lawrence
He is considered to be one of the most
respected music video directors of all time,
due to his work with a number of superstars
of the music industry, such as: Lady Gaga,
Black Eyed Peas and Jay-Z. He is usually
associated with the music genre of pop, due
to his expertise with his visual directing
style. He is currently part of DNA inc
production company. He landed the job with
DNA inc, as throughout his career people
started noticing how innovative his music
videos were becoming, which led to
Lawrence becoming very well respected
and trusted which had a further effect of
Lawrence being granted far bigger budgets
to work with on music videos, meaning he
could pull off some of his inventive and
unique ideology that the audience love to
see.
Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, in my opinion is
his biggest success in the music video
industry. This is because this video was so
well received that Lawrence was actually
awarded a Grammy for best music video.
However the reason he was able to win this
award is because he was granted a big
budget to produce this video, allowing
Lawrence to have total creative control with
the set and costumes. The actual funding
was granted by Universal Music Group, who
are a parent company that provide funding
to the big name directors to work on big
project. This funding paid off, as the video is
so successful that is has racked up over
800 million views on YouTube.

4. Ruskin Kyle
Kyle is a director that is unique in
comparison the directors I have already
discussed. As Kyle in 2009 created an
independent production company and called
it ‘Rivers Rush’. The company specialises in
music video production, however they do
regularly converge with a larger production
company for a specific project, for the main
purpose of getting a larger budget than they
could provide.
The main aspirations of Kyle’s company,
Rivers Rush, is to produce original and
visually strong work that tell emotive stories
which connect with the audience.
Most of Kyles work that isn’t music videos,
is often eccentric yet very interesting. For
example, he has created small films based
around the highland games and hill cheese
rolling, therefore this is the unique and raw
style that is also portrayed into his music
videos.
Kyle’s most well known music video, is
when he directed and edited Ed Sheeran’s
‘A Team’, which was an incredible and
impressive feat with the budget that was
given to Kyle. As at the time Ed Sheeran
was ultimately unknown in the music
industry, and therefore he only gave Rivers
Rush £400 to produce, direct and edit the
video. After the video was created it was put
on YouTube and it had huge success from
there, which led to the video winning many
awards for its sheer brilliance. This shows
that even with huge dominant record labels,
who have access to mass distribution of a
music video; a cheaply produced music
video can still receive the most acclaim due
to the powerful internet.