This is a presentation on director Spike Jonze (9 slides)

1. Spike Jonze

2.  Lived in LA for most of his life
 Made 4 feature-length films
 Most of his films are independent (made
without being associated to any large
movie studio)
 Only works in live-action, with some CGI
 No core of actors- always shifting, but all
A-list actors
 Style is surreal and imaginative, but still
based in reality
 Target audience is mainly young adult
 Usual genre is science-fiction, with
elements of drama

3. Sofia Coppola
He used to be married to Sofia Coppola, a
fellow film director.
Sofia’s movies include Lost in Translation
and The Bling Ring.
She wrote LiT about him and their bumpy
relationship.
They broke up in 2007 – they were both
evidently really sad, but it was very clean
and was a mutual agreement.

4. Being John Malkovich (1999)
 Craig Schwartz finds a door in his office
into the mind of actor John Malkovich,
who he can control for 10 minutes before
being ejected back into his own body at
the New Jersey Turnpike.
 John Cusack plays John Malkovich,
Cameron Diaz plays John Malkovich,
John Malkovich plays John Malkovich.
 Very metaphorical
 Trailer-https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ah
IGLNNwo

5. Where the Wild Things Are
(2009)
 Based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book
 The soundtrack is killer- all songs by Karen O
 10 year old boy, Max, runs away from home
and sails across a lake to the land of the Wild
Things, where he becomes a king and
creates chaos.
 The Wild Things are actors in human-sized
puppet suits
 Most surreal of his films- all about Max’s
imagination
 Trailer

6. Her (2013)
 About Theodore Twombly, recently
broken-up with his fiancé, who falls in
love with an operating system on his
phone.
 Spike wrote it about Sofia, as a kind of
response to Lost in Translation, except
while LiT is more about their break-up,
Her is about the good times they shared
and their love-filled early stages
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMn
pxFcgBBU

7. Short Films
 Although he’s only directed 4 feature
length films, he’s directed and
produced a lot of his own short films
 His most recent work is I’m Here,
about 2 robots falling in love (30 mins)
 Love is a common theme throughout
all of these short films

8. Adverts
 Spike has also created many adverts
for primarily US brands
 Ikea Ad-https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts
QXQGaasUg
 GAP Ad-https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo
b5uobmcy8

9. Music Videos
 In the mid 90’s Spike directed a big
bunch of music videos- mainly for rock
bands, like Dinosaur Jr. and Wheezer
 Also done videos for other genres-
Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’, and
Kanye’s ‘Flashing Lights’
 His most well-known one is a 30-
minute video for Arcade Fire’s The
Suburbs (Arcade Fire also scored Her
and played in the trailer for WTWTA)