Music Director Research

AWARDS ACHIEVED

MUSIC DIRECTOR RESEARCH

Music Videos are becoming an important factor in determining how successful a song will be. Not only this but the revenue and publicity increases when the music video is of a high quality. Music Directors recreate the lyrics in their unique visual style to accompany the artist and their song making it either more dramatic and hence emphasizes what the artist is trying to convey through their song. Modern music videos are used as an extention to the song and also a marketing device to thus promote the sale of the music recording. Lastly, as the 21st century is of a digital age, having a distinctive, stand-out image is what music artists require which the directers are able to do.

NOMINATIONS

Antony Mandler

Born: April 18, 1973

Worked with: Rhianna, Beyonce, Eminem, Usher, Shakira, Taylor Swift, M. I. A, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Jay Z, 50 Cent, Ne-Yo, Nicki Minaj and many more.

History: Mandler was raised in Los Angeles, California and became a USC Film School graduate. He started off as a photography and after realizing his passion for film, he became a director.

Mandler originated form America and has become one of the most famous music video directors in RnB and Hip hop. As he was raised in Hollywood, he also went to study film in Italy when he was 22 to achieve being a USC film school gradute. He started creating music videos in 1997 and in 2000 made a video for Black Eyed Peas called "Get Original" which won various awards.

For our music video, the song we plan on using is One Republic - Stop and Stare which Anthony Mandler directed. Researching about prior work and how Mandler creates the scene is important as we will know what he was trying to convey in the music video. Also, in our music video we can replicate the same the same effects or create our own dramatic and powerful atmosphere. Below are videos that are directed by Mandler which are similar as the artists are not revealed until 0.18 - 0.22 seconds of the song. Doing this allows a distinctive directive style but allows anxiety and suspense to build up which I personally liked. One Republic's 'Stop and Stare' has the similar distinctive directive style as in all of the videos, the artists are presented to be in despair, anguish and pain thus, the absense of hope is key in what Mandler wants to portray.

INTERVIEW

This is a short interview of Anthony Mandler speaking about his background and journey as a film director. Also, interestingly, he states the frustrations he went through which I felt tells me why he became so successful.

BET Award for Video Director Of The Year

MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction

RIHANNA- DIAMONDS (2013)

BET Hip Hop Award for Best Video

OTHER DIRECTED VIDEOS

This is one of the most recent examples of Mandler's work which Rhianna produced in 2012, however the two have worked together prior to releasing this single. Over the past 5 years, top charted singles have been directed by Mandler and as for example, two years ago, 'Man down' and 'California King bed' in 2011 from Rihanna's album 'Loud' reached number one in 4 countries with the United States being included in the countries.

In 2008, Mandler also directed the 'Take a bow' single and 'We Ride' which were both succesful songs that achieved to be top in the charts at the time. 'Diamonds' has also top the charts and made Rihanna achieve the AMA Icon Award 2013 after creating the single. Mandler's comments when interviewed were that he sought to create a "wider landscape" by suggesting and transfiguring ideas for viewers through the video. "They needed to feel like dream vignettes, like, when you wake up from a dream, you realize what you were dreaming about is not really what it was about, it was about something else." He also tried to relate the video's concept to Rihanna's personal life: "What's truth or fiction? You know 'Is she drowning, or is she in complete ecstasy? Are those hands coming apart, or are they finding each other?' ... we tried to bring up these deeper questions that relate to song and her life and finding beauty in chaos and finding beauty in pain and finding pain in beauty."

Eminem is another artists that Mandler has worked with over the past five years producing again, countless amounts of singles that ranked atleast top 40 each time on the 'Billboard Hot 100'. This track did however did not become top 10 but became 17th on the United States Bilboard Hot 100 and ranked 40th in the UK. The single was also nomited for the 52nd Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Solo Performance category. Other than directing this single, Mandler also directed Eminem's single 'When I'm Gone' which was released in 2005 which reached number four in the UK Singles charts.

AWARDS ACHIEVED