2. 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.
3. Here are some examples of his music videos:
"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
"Criminal" (Fiona Apple)
4. "Hurt" (Johnny Cash).
Romanek won a
Grammy through this
music video.
“99 Problems” (Jay-Z)
5. Here are some examples films directed by
him:
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
