Music Video Inspiration - Director

The music video director I would like to take some inspiration from is Samuel Bayer. As the music we're looking at working with is 'indie rock', we've decided to look at a director who creates videos in similar genres. I heard of him through the Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video as I was looking for music similar to that of Howl. We decided to research him to see if he'd done more music videos in that genre and found that he'd done loads of work with artists such as 'Green Day', 'Maroon 5', 'Iron Maiden' and 'The Rolling Stones'. He appears to stick within the rock genre, working with darker tones which match the music (Andrew Goodwin's music video conventions) however, he has ventured out of this genre with artists such as Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake as he made a name for himself in the industry and became more in demand.

Here are a few of his videos that I like:

Green Day - American Idiot

This is a really good video to take inspiration from as it incorporates lots of performance elements which are important to the rock genre and especially to a new band. However, it is also very visually interesting as he clearly used a green tint on the video to link to the name of the band - 'Green Day' and they had managed to have some members of the band performing normally whilst other members were sped up or slowed down which was very effective. They also had a torrent of green water wash over them at the end which is very similar to the 'Foo Fighters' music video 'The Pretender' where they were covered in a red liquid.  This was very effective in it's simplicity and would be good at introducing the band. 

Rolling Stones - Saint of Me

This is a bit of a strange music video that goes off down various different tangents, staying rooted to the lyrics through the constant reoccurrence of the 'angel', linking to Andrew Goodwin's suggestion that there is a link between the visuals and the lyrics of a music video. Bayer also uses special effects to make the characters appear to float, linking to the - admittedly higher budget - effects he used in the 'Payphone' video. There is also a clear level of star status here with the lead singer staring in the whole video often with close-ups and with him performing to camera. 

Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams 

I really like the effect Bayer has used in this video, making it look like it was done on damaged roles of film. I gives an edgy effect which adds to the more 'rough' feel of indie rock and definitely fits the tone of the music. This is also not a narrative video but focuses on the artists (star status) and incorporates lots of elements of performance keeping with the genre conventions.

He has also done videos in the pop genre, working with successful group 'Maroon 5' on their songs 'Payphone' and 'Animals'.

In these videos he clearly uses narratives to give a story to the song, I really like narrative music videos however they are less common in the rock genre which tends to favour performance based visuals however, there are a few such as 'Panic at the Disco's' song 'Don't Threaten me with a Good Time which has a very 'memorable' storyline.
Despite these two songs being in the pop genre, the narratives still have dark themes running through them that are more conventional to rock, especially 'Animals'. This shows that he sometimes likes to take music videos in a different direction and break the conventions of what you'd normally expect, particularly in payphone which turns into a full on short action film. The lead singer clearly has a lot of star status as he appears in every music video for the band.
Something else which is made very clear through watching these video is that he likes making the most of his budget, whether that be blowing up police cars or drenching his artists with coloured liquid at the end of his videos. This means they are always pretty spectacular to look at.

Bayer appears to stay away from concept videos, instead taking the lyrics of the song into consideration and including the artists in the video, whether that be performance or acting in the narrative. He appears to favour dark themes for his videos, whether that be reflected in the narrative or just in the general tone; this is also suggested by his only credit as a film director - 2010's remake of 'Nightmare on Elm Street'