Director Analysis

Samuel Bayer

Bayer was born in Syracuse, New York. A graduate of New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1987 with a degree in Fine Arts, he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and became a popular director during the alternative rock era.

He has shot and directed videos for The Strokes,Nirvana,Holeand Green Day. Bayer claims that the reason he was chosen to direct "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was because his test reel was so bad. Bayer won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2005 and 2007.

Several of Bayer's commercials have won the Clio. Clients include Coca-Cola, Toyota, Intel, Cadillac, Acura, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Pepsi Cola,Lincoln Aviator, Sony,The U.S. Army and Jeep. His Nikespot won an Association of Independent Commercial Producers Award for Best Direction in 1997. New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes selected Bayer to helm their remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – "Payphone"

 

 

Justin Timberlake – "What Goes Around... Comes Around"

 

Green Day – "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

 

 

Green Day – "American Idiot"

 

Nirvana – "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Artist Research

Rap Artist (Styles of Beyond)

Artist Research

Singing Artist (Michael Buble) Inspiration

'What music means to me'

Track 0 - 'Torn'


Track 1 - Crazy Frog


Track 2 - 'Smack That'



Track 3 - 'Ain't No Sunshine'

Preliminary Evaluation

1. Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

I thought that the workshop day was a really fun learning experience.  It was only when I arrived at the shoot in the seward studio hhen I realised how professional it would be.  It was great to see the 5D mark II camera in action on the jib and the dolly.  I thought having the original playing on the mac computer alongside the cue sheet so it was easer to duplicate the Jessie J video as well as possible. I would say the best part of the day was watching the performances of the group, as they were both entertaining and very good, and would even say Tasha did as good a job as Jessie J in her performance.  It was also interesting to see how close to schedule you have to plan the day, as it seemed it would be very hard to fit an entire shoot into one days filming.

2. What did you learn from participating in the workshop?

I have learnt that thorough and thought out planning is essential for a succesful shoot.  I think that if we hadn't have done lipsync tutorials and studied the Jessie J price tag video prior to the shoot, we wouldn't have had a strong understanding of how we should shoot the video so it was as similar to the original as possible.  I have also learnt how time is essential when filming the video.  Through our lessons we have learnt that in the industry today, music videos are shot in such short periods of time, often one or two days, and so I thought it was great that we could also shoot our footage within such time constraints.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am really pleased with the footage we got from our shoot.  The shots we have are near duplications of the original, and where they aren't, I believe we did the best we could to make the shots look as close to the original as we could.  Obviously working on a smaller budget than the original was made on, there are some differences in our shots. For instance, instead of using a model car we used a 'little tikes' kids car, although we I do think it adds some humour to the video.  I am also pleased with our edit of the video.  We ensured that cut for cut it was the same as the original video, and to ensure this we constantly were referring to the original video as much as possible.  The edit wasn't as easy as I first thought it'd be however, I underestimated just how many shots there were, many only a few frames long, and so it was a great relief to have it finished in time for sign off. 

4. How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

I think my experience of the workshop will impact greatly on my tapproach to our next music video.  I know that I will make sure we plan even more for it so that our days filming go as well and it'll be essential to use our time efficiently.  I also think that we should use the skills and capabilities of our group members as much as possible, like we did for the preliminary.  I hope to use Tashas skills as a dancer and choreographer to perhaps create a successful performance based video, and Jeng and Francis' creative imput will prove invaluable.  From editing the preliminary video, I have also learnt that layering our footage and then cutting what we don't need in the timeline will be the most efficient way to edit the video, rather than simply editing each shot individually. 

What makes for an effective music video?

The music video is a narrative performance hybrid as it involves both shots of eminem dancing/ rapping, along with his dancers, and also a narrative involving himself and Michael Jackson.

Instant Impact- The video does make a visual impact on the audience as it opens with a shot of a Michael Jackson look-alike.  As an established music artist, we know that Eminem is not afraid of controversy and so this opening immediately establishes what the video involves.

Non-linear- The video loosely follows a narrative of the Michael Jackson character, however often cuts away to shots of the artist. 

A sense of development- There is a sense of development in the video.  The video continuously introducing new shots so the audience is engaged throughout the video.  In terms of narrative there is some chronological development with scenes in the club etc.

Strong sense of artist identity- The video contains a parody of a rap battle scene from 8 Mile in which it is Eminem, as B-Rabbit, versus Eminem, as Slim Shady.  "Snap back to reality" referring to the song "lose yourself", part of the films soundtrack.  The video shows Eminem at his most controversial.  The video makes reference to child molstation at a time when Michael Jackson is on trial for such charges, and further pop culture references such as the film 'Bad Santa', a film where a mall santa likes younger girls, also supports the recurring theme within the video

An engaging performance- Due to the various shot changes the video is constantly engaging, firslt due to the humour of the video and also it's pop culture references.  The video introduces new shots as it progresses and so so the audience are kept engaged.

References to popular culture-  It also contains several scenes where Eminem is walking down the streets naked. As he is doing this, Dr. Dre is seen driving next to him, looking disgusted. For the music video, the lyrics were edited slightly, notably the phrase "shake that ass", becoming the less provocative "shake that thing". Other changes include the muting of some parts of the second verse, and the phrase "butt naked" becoming "buck naked". Such examples of parodies that are included in this video are Michael Jackson, MC Hammer and his hit single "U Can't Touch This", Pee Wee Herman, Madonna and the movie Bad Santa, by displaying Eminem as a "mall santa" and even going so far to include Tony Cox, the actor who played the elf from the actual movie, as Eminem's helper. Some of the celebrities who appeared in this music video were Paris Hilton, Katie Cassidy, Monica Parales, Erik Estrada, Alyson Stoner, BooBoo Stewart, Mekhi Phifer and Dr. Dre. The video was later nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rap Video, but lost to Ludacris' "Number One Spot". Much Music's 50 Most Controversial Videos ranked it #50 for its jokes on famous people.