Jonathan Glazer is known for directing unconventional music videos that feature long, uncut shots and subtle narratives that relate to the themes of the songs without directly illustrating the lyrics. His videos often depict characters traveling or undergoing surreal experiences set to a slow pace that builds mystery and leaves questions unanswered. Through minimal editing and realistic camerawork, Glazer's videos encourage analysis and interpretation rather than merely showcasing the performers.

1. Jonathan Glazer Case Study

2. Jonathan Glazer has been working in music video direction 1995 after a successful career in advertising, in 1997 he won the MTV music video director of the year award and he has created a range of music videos for bands such as ‘Radiohead’, ‘Unkle’, and ‘Massive Attack’. His videos often consist of very few camera shots focused around one everyday place, with little editing and cutting. Often with a Narrative and a very gradual reveal of what is happening for example ‘Karma Police’ by ‘Radiohead’ has a long shot of someone driving down a dark road before anything happens in the video, often a slow pace for the video to match a slow song. Often having videos of travelling (walking or driving) somewhere holding the same shot for very long amounts of time to build suspense as to what is going on. His Videos often have a high amount of mystery in them leaving many questions unanswered. I really like how he creates this effect keeping interest without special effects or even many cuts.

3. ‘Unkle’- ‘Rabbit in your headlights’ This video has a man walking through a tunnel with traffic all around him, Cars drive past honking or hitting him, though he continues ignoring them twitching and muttering incomprehensible words. I like how it appears to be a literal rabbit in headlights as the name of the song suggests, cars don’t care if they hit him or not, and nobody stops to help, except one car containing the composers who drive off after the man ignores them seemingly getting more and more aggressive throughout until he throws down his coat and stands still, another car hits him only to be destroyed as if he has been gathering power from every other knock to a point where nothing can knock him down and he is an unmovable force, not just a insignificant “rabbit”. The Video uses diegetic sound in parts fading out of the music to put the focus on the narrative. This technique is rare in music videos and something I like as it emphasises the music and video combination effectively not just leaving it as something to look at while listening but actually provoking the audience to think about the song, it’s meaning and the meaning in the context of the video, it being a surreal interpretation of the meaning.

4. ‘Radiohead’- ‘Karma Police’ This Video consists mostly of a single shot from a drivers seat in a car, panning around occasionally. The only cuts are to show behind of the Man in front of the car and are styled similarly however in in-car shots all you can see in the car and what is in the headlights, in the other shots you see the headlights face on using light rather than darkness to draw the emphasis onto the silhouette of a man and his actions as the cars opposition. I like how similarly to some of his other videos the performer is in the video however not the main character, he subtlety gives them a roll although controversially his lip synching is purposefully half hearted to give him the persona of an unsure adviser from the backseat, who gets into the car unseen and leaves unheard and unseen as if he was never even there. The video only emphasises a few parts of the video showing the lyrics being sung when the music simplifies- to re-enforce the meaning. He uses a clever mix of very personal close ups and impersonal shots from within the car, hinting at the meaning of the song especially the realisation of the last lines “I lost myself” however very little of this sort of thing in his videos is done directly in time or in association with what is on screen, but only subtly hints at the theme forcing the audience to think, but allowing them to interpret the media in their own way. This is one aspect of his work that I like.

5. ‘Massive Attack’ – ‘Live with Me’ This video, like many of his others links to the subject of the song but not directly showing the same narrative, the audience assume the woman shown is the one being sung to in the music however the main theme of the video is alcohol which isn’t mentioned in the song, however it plays on the lyrics “born into trouble, you live the blues” showing a woman with a life of alcohol abuse, also the lyrics suggest the singer wants to look after her but she won’t let him, although this is a subtle undertone. I particularly like the scene where the woman's phone is ringing and she reaches for the bottle instead to emphasise her problem and also the visual metaphor of her falling down stairs. And also the camera shots, mostly mid-shots however the camera follows her quite calmly most of the time, although blurring and shaking more towards the end to emphasise her drunkenness. The final shots from the stairs case to her lying on a bench to the sky as the music drops down into just violin is well composed stressing her problems and matching the tone of the music.

6. ‘The Dead Weather’- ‘Treat me like your mother’ Again taking a theme from the lyrics of the song but not linking directly to lines the video shows an exaggerated argument between two people who are supposedly together. The characters are the two main vocalists singing their respective parts in the argument-style lyrics of the song while shooting at each other with rifles in a duel like manner, each taking each others hits marching towards each other until they run out of bullets and give up. He follows the couple walking with a rough panning mid-shot that, combined with the aggressive walking of the characters fits the music's fairly repetitive nature they start shooting as the music becomes more dramatic. I like this video because it’s a simple idea that is drawn out over the song, the audience keep watching to see who wins though neither character dies they just run out of bullets and leave, the dramatic idea of shooting each other doesn’t get them anywhere, and it takes a very powerful image and shows the futility of it in a sense that relates to the song. There is a great camera shot at the end as the man walks away and the sun shines through the bullet holes in his body for a moment reminding the audience that although he’s walking away the argument has taken it’s toll, it’s also surreal representing the band members as very powerful maintaining with their rock star image (they are literally bulletproof) also Glazer uses the reloading scenes to account for a change in the music. I like how he often matches music to events in the narrative rather than simply making the editing more exciting which could be done on any video to any song to make them match.

7. Summary. Overall I have found that Jonathan Glazer’s works differ to a lot of music videos by avoiding having a lot of cuts to cause confusion in the audience and make them watch it again, but rather he chooses to make slightly surreal videos that often provoke the viewer to think and make them want to watch it again to try and figure it out, portraying things from a fairly normal perspective but not portraying normal things only in normal places allowing the audience to relate to the video and still feel alienating them with the events, often putting the narrative first sculpting the video to the song, while still remembering the song can be appreciated without the video so making videos that are more than just the band playing their instruments. While still often incorporating the band into the video in a position of power either in the narrative or as on voyeur of the narrative to aid their Star image. He keeps a very simple editing style which I like using panning across a screen a back again in place of a straight cut sometimes or simply handheld shots following characters or panning shots making almost all his shots come from realistic viewpoints. I really like a lot of his work especially as it’s thought provoking and how he creates videos that tie in to a theme of a song however aren’t so bold as to portray the song word for word but he takes a more artistic approach to create a video that is more than just an advert for the band of them playing music from various different camera angles to make it seem exciting. After looking at his works I definitely want to create a music video with a strong narrative and one that is thought provoking in some way, although i may be restricted by my Artist’s own desires for his music video however I could easily add cuts to other shots and create a parallel narrative within my music video but i strongly like the idea of showing someone or something doing something or going somewhere to create a very gradual build up of suspense throughout the video without explaining the reasoning until the end, or possibly not at all to add mystery.