Melina Matsoukas is a music video director of Greek, Jewish, Jamaican, and Cuban descent who graduated from the American Film Institute and New York University. She got her start at Gorilla Flix and now directs at Prettybird. Her videos are described as having bright colors or black and white images with smooth lighting. Matsoukas believes high-quality equipment is not necessary for a good video, which should have a well-conceptualized story that elicits reaction. Regarding "I Decided" by Solange Knowles, Matsoukas said she developed Knowles' concept and put her own mark on it.

1. Music Video Directors

2. Melina Matsoukas
Melina Matsoukas born January 14, 1981 is of Greek, Jewish,
Jamaican and Cuban descent. Matsoukas graduated at
American Film Institute and New York University where her
graduate thesis was music videos. She first started out at
Gorilla Flix film production company and is now currently a
director at Prettybird. Her work is described as, "chalk full [sic]
of bright colors or crisp black and white images, smooth
spotlights, and tasteful retro video models." Matsoukas says
that expensive equipment is not necessary for a quality video
and one should never think that way: "A good video has the
right visuals, a well conceptualised story and should be
exciting and elicit reaction.“ In an interview for Venus Zine's
Fall 2010 issue, she says about being part of the music video
world, "I love it. The quick turnaround, the creativity.“
Regarding the concept of Solange Knowles' video "I Decided",
Matsoukas stated: "This is her concept so I've definitely just
developed it and put my mark on it

3. Examples
Ne-Yo wore a "gentleman-looking" suit
dancing with a woman. Other shots also
show him alone in the center of the The music video for "We Found Love" was shot
spotlight being backed up with four in late September 2011, in County
dancers, or with a Matchless motorcycle. Down, Northern Ireland and the New Lodge
The video was nominated in the "Best area of North Belfast. The video generated
Dancing In A Video" category at the 2008 controversy for its depiction of violence and
MTV Video Music Awards, but it lost to drug use, as well as for Rihanna's removal of her
Pussycat Dolls's "When I Grow Up" which clothes during filming however won Music
would appear in Dance Dance Revolution a Video of the year at MTV’s Music Awards 2012.
year later.

4. Gil Green
Gil Green is a music video, commercial, and film director
raised in Miami, Florida. Gils first glimpse into the
music industry was when Underground hip hop
world as a DJ and sold mix tapes and CDs. Gils
passion for music and videos first evolved when he
submitted short films, engaging his classmates as his
audience. He continued to go onto to graduate in
film at New York University. His hip hop
group, Backlive headlined the video gaining national
media recognition on music television channels such
as MTV and BET. With over 100 videos shot Gil has
expanded his musical genres to cover pop, Latin and
the European market. His clients include multi
platinum artists John
Legend, Usher, Timberland, Diddy, Natasha
Beddingfield, Akon, R Kelly, Kayne West, Drake etc.

5. Examples
Gil green was first recognised Gil Green continued to expand his directing
for directing Lil Jon’s “I Don’t skills to different mediums. He went onto film
Give A..” in the 2003 source the official Pepsi commercial ad and music
awards where the music video video for the 2010 World Cup official song, ‘Oh
won “The Best Music Video” Africa’ featuring famous football stars and Akon
singing.

6. Dugan O’Neal
Jesse Dylan born January 6, 1966 is an American
film director, and the founder, CEOand
creative director of the media production
company Wondros. Dylan was born in New
York City and the eldest son of musician Bob
Dylan. Dylan is now married to Susan
Traylor and have two children together.
Dylan’s work in music videos won him a
2012 MVPA Best Alternative Video Award
for his music video “Lonely Boy,” by the
Black Keys. In 2008, he directed the Will I
Am Emmy award winning music video “Yes
we can” inspired by Barrack Obama’s
campaign for president. The music video
was created in three days featuring over 30
celebrities. Originally posted on Youtube the
song received over 26 million views just
days after the release.

7. Examples

8. Natasha Pincus
Natasha Pincus graduated in 2002 with first class honours degrees in Law and
Science. She practiced entertainment law at a top-tier Melbourne law firm until
2004, before focusing on her writing and directing career. Natasha started writing
and directing music videos in 2007. She directed a controversial video for Paul
Kelly’s GOD TOLD ME TO which won the 2007 Inside Film award for Best Music
Video. She has since directed music clips for a number of Australia’s favourite
musicians, including Powderfinger, Gotye, Kasey Chambers, Pete Murray, Lior and
Sarah Blasko

9. Interview
• Q. What inspired you or your idea for the video?
• The song itself has always been the primary source of inspiration for any music video I’ve ever created. In a sense, music
video is a process of ‘adapting for the screen’ so it holds all the answers, all the truth.
• At a song’s core – and that might be revealed in a specific lyric, or its overall thematic - is generally where its best visual
metaphor lies. How a particular concept develops from there is then informed by the song’s music, its melodic
progression, tempo, dynamic, and the emotions it evokes.
• Q. How were you approached for the job?
• I was approached directly by Wally De Backer (the man behind Gotye) via his Manager at Eleven Music. Eleven were a
wonderful label/management to work with, leaving me to my own devices and trusting me with the project.
• Wally is an absolute marvel, so the very idea of working with him was an exciting prospect in itself. Then I heard the
song and just fell over.
• Q. What were the limitations you faced with in the production?
• There weren’t so many limitations so much as practical challenges thrown up by the extremely ambitious concept itself.
The project brought together various professionals across several different media.
• I had to facilitate the collaboration of various 2D artists – a graphic artist’s work painted as a mural by a different scenic
artist whose own work was to blend with a body painter’s paintings across two performers.
• The artists all had their own methods and needs to achieve their work so negotiating those, while also subjecting them
to the tedious, stop-start nature of stop motion photography, was tricky. We were also integrating stop motion and live
action photography, which provided technical and creative challenges. And the video had to be shot entirely out of order
because of the timings of the various paintings/reveals, which was difficult both logistically and hard on the singers in
terms of performance.
• They were also exhausted - the body painting took 7 hours per person, so we could only start some parts of the
performance work 14 hours into the a day’s shoot...so human fatigue was a limitation! A 26 hour day is grueling, no
matter how much you prepare and train for it.
• Q. Was there much experimentation/tests done before the shoot?
• Plenty, particularly focused on ensuring that the split screen would work. The concept involved stop motion proceeding
on the RHS of screen, with live action continuing on the LHS. We had to make sure it would look perfectly seamless.

10. Q. Who were your key collaborators?
• The video’s DOP was the amazing Warwick Field, who I have worked with on almost all my music videos. Music videos
are a great medium for a DOP to have the opportunity to play in their art. In my view, they are the most crucial
collaborator in your team and so it is well worth spending the time and energy and bucks to ensure you are working with
the best.
• Emma Hack is a world-renowned body artist and she did both the body art and hair and makeup for Kimbra. Howard
Clark is a genius scenic artist who painted our background mural. As is always the case with music videos, the clip was
made by a tiny team, very carefully selected.
Q. Had you worked with anyone else previously?
• Warwick is my constant collaborator. Howard Clark had also worked as a scenic artist on our clip for Sarah Blasko’s “We
Won’t Run” where he painted a 30ft mural across both a wall and floor in such a way that when the camera moved out
the surfaces ‘flattened’ to create the optical illusion of a single, straight image.
• The small production team on this video was mostly made up of usual collaborators – we even brought a musician from
another band we did a video for to help out as a camera assistant! Music video is always a ‘family’ production. It’s
incredibly hard work and you have to be surrounded by people you completely trust and enjoy being around. You all end
up putting everything you’ve got into pushing the project over the line.
Q. What was the turnaround?
• The video took a few months of preparation. That’s a key benefit of a musician-driven clip - you are working towards the
common goal of making the best video you can, rather than being forced to make decisions driven by an imaginary
deadline made up by a business person you never even meet in the flesh. I edited the video myself over a couple of
weeks.
• There were a lot of different ways to tell this story and it was important that the two ‘characters’ came across certain
ways at certain times, and the right way on balance. We shot many different performance versions for each mini scene
and because Wally and Kimbra gave such wonderful performances, I was spoiled for choice.
Q. Do you feel that the client understands the production process?
• Very rarely. That was one of the nicest elements about working with Eleven Music. They really get it – what you need as
a filmmaker, what it takes to make good work. Most of the time a record label will get you to liaise with random
marketing people who have no idea what is actually involved in the filmmaking process, and how much it all costs.
Q. What did you shoot on?
• Canon 5D. It’s great low budget camera for many kinds of video projects, but certainly not the right camera for others. It
was the perfect choice for the video because we had the rare need of using both its video and stills capacities (the latter
for the stop motion sequences). The camera position and lighting design was crucial in order to achieve the visual effect
of the blend/camouflage in camera.
Q. Where did you shoot it?
• Lot4 studio in Richmond.

11. Behind The Scenes