Music Video Directors

"Some believe an artist’s single isn’t official unless there’s a music video to go along with it. When you think about it, there may be some truth to that theory. Would “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” have been nearly as entertaining without Beyoncé clad in her now-infamous leotard in the video? Better yet, would the MTV Video Music Awards even exist?" (greenlabel sound)

Here are a couple of directors who directed iconic music videos, and are still directing them today.

Paul Hunter

Paul Hunter directed Christina Aguilera's award winning music video, Lady Marmalade, written for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. He has worked with other big names such as Eminem and Michael Jackson. 

Hunter uses a lot of still image shots in this video, and at low angles too. There are a lot of close ups and mid shots of the talent, who firmly takes place on center stage at all times. His take on music videos is that it is all about the artist, and that the audience should be focused on them at all times. The low angle shots of the talent help them to look powerful and authoritative. Staring at one artist for four minutes at a time can be tedious, but Hunter avoids this by changing shot around every 3 seconds, and switches from singer to singer regularly. In terms of mise en scence, this video is very visually stimulating, as it has been filled with colour props, lighting and sets that are designed to catch the eye and grab the audiences attention, keeping them fixed on the action throughout.

Hype Williams

This man is said to be one of the most sought after directors in hip hop. His most recently directed video is called Get Lucky by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams.

His style of direction runs very smoothly, to match with the song. He uses a lot of very slow panning shots, every 10 seconds or so. There are close ups of instruments and artist's faces in a running sequence, going from face to instrument, face to instrument again, then a wide shot of the band and finally a slow panning shot from right to left, left to right. This pattern is repeated throughout the song along with the interesting and creative silhouette scene in the middle of the video. This helps to break the song up somewhat, to avoid it becoming boring. These slow camera shots and angle changes fit perfectly with the songs beats, as it is not fast paced enough to need quick changes. These would likely make the video feel out of sync with the song.