Music Video Director

For this task we had to find and research a music video director. I chose to do Joseph Kahn, a famous director in the industry who has done work for artists ranging from Taylor Swifts recent songs 'Wildest Dreams' and 'Bad Blood', to old rock classics like Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia'.

I really enjoy Joseph Kahn's recent Taylor Swift music video for 'Bad Blood'. His style of music videos focuses on the performer singing within the narrative of the song. So rather than the artist play themselves in the music video, they are portraying another character who has gone through an experience that the song is describing. This makes the music video feel more like a short film. In this example, Taylor Swift is portraying a strong female agent who has been betrayed by her old partner, and is now seeking revenge by grouping up with other female agents.There is less stage performance with actual instruments being shown, or a roaring audience in front of them, but rather more fragmented narrative with the main performer placed in the middle of the story. This is shown in quite a few of his works, for example Maroon 5's Misery. 

Here we can see Adam Levine acting in this music video. Like 'Bad Blood' he is playing a character and not himself. This character is a man who is dominated by a woman in his life. Joseph Kahn focuses on illustrating the words of the song through a great use of mise-en-scene. Here it is being taken to the extreme as the woman in the music video is assualting and attacking adam levines character. He also has a very good grip on the dynamic camera aspect of a music video. Most of his videos include lots of movement to express emotion. For example in 'Misery' the camera is constantly on the move, attempting to show Adam's desperation to escape, but halts as soon as the woman enters, showing she has control over him. He also lip syncs to the song in the music video. This makes it appear as though he is singing the song to this woman. I like this style of music video as it keeps the audience entertained and in wonder of where the music video is going to take them next. I also like this because as a generation we are people who feed of narrative and want to know every detail of the plot, so creating a music video to give an interpretation of the song visually keeps us engaged, whilst giving us a sense of intimacy with the artist.

Most of Joseph Kahn's music videos seem to be quite realistic. He tends to not use obvious symbolic imagery to represent another thought or theme. The words of the song are painted out clearly in the music video. He also uses lots of close ups on the artists face to sell them as a brand. Allowing us as an audience to feel close with the artist, giving us the opportunity to relate to them and the words they have written in the song. It almost seems as if they are a friend because the close ups extend the performers personality through the screen.