The document discusses the Auteur Theory in film and music videos. It provides background on the theory, noting it was introduced in the 1950s and focuses on the director's creative vision and style. An auteur is a director who brings a personal style to their work and maintains creative control. The document then analyzes several music video directors as potential auteurs, including Chris Cunningham and Samuel Bayer. It examines some of their music videos in detail, identifying signature techniques like fast editing, horror influences, and unusual imagery, locations, and characters.

1. Auteur Theory By Stacey Hall The term auteur originates from France which translates as author, which means that a director’s film reflects their creative vision. The Auteur theory was introduced in the 1950’s by French film directors like Francois Truffaut who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on the style and form of film, he quoted... “A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material” An auteur is a film maker whose style and practise is distinctive which creates a signature auteur status for them. It is also a film maker who has a personal, signature style and keeps creative control over his or her work. Making any film or in this case a music video the director is the auteur but it would not be possible for them to create the whole production on their own, instead they collaborate with others and team up with; writer, cinematographer and actors but the director is still an auteur in a sense as they control everyone and everything in the production.

2. Genre and Auteur TheoryThe auteur theory is different to the genre theory as auteur draws our attention towards what is different between film, rather than what is similar.The table below is from page 7 of the hand out given to me.Many media texts are meant to be consider as a product of individuals creativity and many are simply ‘products’ for instants, Tim Burtons Nightmare before Christmas is an auteur as you recognise his individual style of gothic tones where as Heat magazine writer is not an auteur as it is a generic product.

3. Chris CunninghamChris Cunningham is a British music video film director and video artist. Chris has worked on many projects and has produced; music video’s, video art, short films, commercials, music production, photography, and a novel. Cunningham is known for his warped style and disturbing imagery, he has worked andproduced music videos for the likes of; Aphex Twins, Bjork, Placebo and Madonna. He Won multiple awards, including break through video at the MTV awards for his video ‘All in love.’ As well as producing music video he has also produced commercials for; Gucci, Play station and orange.

4. After watching several music videos and also commercials that Chris Cunningham has directed I believe that I can establish his distinctive auteur signature style which is;Fast paced editing and sharp cuts are used in nearly all of his videos he has produced, this disorientates the audience as it creates; confusion, mystification and a non-linear narrative.

5. It reflects the horror genre by using gothic imagery such as; black crows.

6. Lots of canted camera angles are used and nearly all the camera work seem to be

7. hand held to create more dramatic, dizzying movement to illustrate the aggression in the video’s maybe?

8. All of his video’s I certainly believe are entropic, as he uses strange, unrealistic objects, sequences and people. The CGI editing used to morph people into horror characters creates entropy as this is not typical of a mainstream music video such as; creepy children. Aphex Twins- Come to DaddyIn class we altogether analysed Chris Cunningham’s music video for the Aphex Twins, this video is a great example of Cunningham’s auteur signatures.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Az_7U0-cK0This music video is a perfect example ofCunningham's signature auteur;-There is fast pace editing to reflect and illustrate the action and also to build tension and confuse and create excitement for the audience. This video seems to be inspired bythe horror genre as there are severalElements to the video which reflect it such as; creepy children, the evil spirit, the gaunt creatureand also the settings are; grungy, derelict, gloomy because of the low light and shadows created.

9. - Canted camera angles are used which I have print screed an example of above, the shot is rotated to it’s side, this creates confusion for the audience but it also looks; creative and arty as Cunningham has used editing software to create a TV image with bad signal which mesmerises the audience. As well as canted camera angles Cunningham uses nearly all hand held camera work as this creates the illusion of; chaos, thrill and excitement.-This particular video by Cunningham is incredibly entropic as it contains main unsuspecting imagery in a music video. What makes this video so entropic is it contains main shocking Elements which include; an old lady, evil spirit on the TV who then with special effects make up comes out of the TV and transforms in a gaunt creature and finally children are represented as demon which is scary but instead of just being scary child Cunningham has morphed everyone to look like the Aphex Twins.

10. Madonna- Frozen by Chris Cunninghamhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS088Opj9o0&ob=av2eAs I am investigating auteur’s I have decided to look at ‘Frozen’ music video to see if there are any similarities to Come to daddy which suggests that Chris Cunningham is an auteur of music videos as he will have signature things which makes him recognisable.- The most distinctive auteur signature of Cunningham is the horror genre inspiration. Horror is obvious a big influence on him as both Frozen and Come to daddy have horror tones to them. This video particularly represents this by using; Madonna becoming ravens, dark imagery is shown, the lighting is very dark but also calming in a sense. Finally the way Madonna is dressed is rather gothic as you can see she is wearing black floating garments.

11. The camera angles are not completely unusual, unlike Come to daddy which is very obvious that hand held canted camera work had been used in this video but there seem that steady camera work maybe on a tripod has been used to create either very; high, low, long close up shots.The editing is illustrated by the beats and rhythm of the song, so when the song sped up so did the video which creates, tension and excitement. Like Come to daddy this music videois very entropic and this could be a auteur signature from Cunningham. What makes Frozen entropic is the setting is unusual for a music video as Madonna seems to be in a disserted desert which is not glamorous which Madonna is famous for being. The special effects when Madonna turns into ravens and a dog are mesmerising and is once again a signature auteur of Cunningham.

12. Samuel Bayer Samuel Bayer is a well respected American director of music videos but also over the past 15 years he has also produced commercials for Nike, directed films such as 2010’s Nightmare on Elm street and short video’s .Bayers has worked alongside some of the best, legendry music artists and has produced memorable music videos. His clients include; Nirvana,

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