Research Into Music Video Director

There are lots of music video directors who have moved onto other things like making movies and making TV programmes, 2 of these examples are Michael Bay who started off his career by directing music videos for Tina Turner, Lional Riche and Meat Loaf, and is now filming movies such as Bad Boys and Transformers. McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol) has started his career making music videos and again has moved on to TV programs like Chuck. Most music video directors also direct short films and major motion pictures; an example of one of these people is Samuel Bayer.


Samuel Bayer was born on 17th February 1965, since then he has directed music videos for many famous artists including Green Day, Marylin Manson, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones. Bayer graduated from New York’s school of Visual Arts in 1987 with a degree in fine arts, he then moved to Los Angeles in 1991 where he was to direct he first famous music video for the rock group Nirvana. After Bayer had directed the Nirvana music video of “Smells like Teen Spirit” he then became popular with rock groups in the alternative rock era. Bayer has become hugely successful in more recent years as well as he was nominated and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2005 for his work with Green Day on their song “Wake me up when September ends”, “Holiday”, Jesus of Suburbia” and “Holiday”. If that wasn’t enough 2 years later he won the same award, and working with Justin Timberlake, Good Charlotte and once again Green Day.

Bayer’s career has not just spread over music video he has been involved in many other forms of media as well. Bayer has also done work for advertising companies including Coca- Cola, Toyota, Intel, Cadillac, Acura, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Pepsi Cola, Lincoln Aviator, Sony, The U.S. Army and Jeep. Again in doing this some of his adverts have won awards for being truly creative. Bayer has now been selected to direct the new revamp of the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” in 2010. He has also said that he will either start work on “Fiasco Heights” a new film or he will start work on an adaption on a comic book adaptation.

Bayer’s style of music video ranges from narratives to concepts as well. An example of Bayer’s Narrative work is the song “Wake Me up When September Ends”. This is a very clever music video because at the start of the video there is not any sound and that is because there is a scene in which we see 2 characters in a field with some beautiful flowers around them and they are talking saying how they love each other really much. As the video progresses we do eventually start to hear the song and while the song is going the narrative continues, but concluding in another scene where there is no music but this time the layout is very different, the lighting is still the sun but they are arguing how he went into the army. One thing I noticed about this video that the lighting always seemed to stay the same; this was clever as it gave you the feeling that it was all together. The colour in the video was much different as at the beginning of the video we saw a field of flowers of which was extremely colourful and nice but as the video progresses to when he is at war the colours have changed.



Some of Bayer’s video have a lot of interesting lighting techniques like in “Wake me up when September ends” there was a constant light when they were outside, another good example of this lighting idea is The Rolling Stones “Saint out of me” this follows the same principles as it has a sort of darker lighting and there is an effect which makes the colours contrast a bit more which again goes really well with his idea of the lighting. The colours of the video are quite dull there are no major colours which stand out above the others. Again this is a concept and not a narrative as there is resounding storyline, it is just an idea. The performance part of the music video is very good as it shows of the artists themselves due to the fact that the lead singer is getting into the song and is dancing around a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUp4ej8bVzg

Bayer’s use of lighting is very effective as it shows the artists in a good response but he also uses editing techniques as well, in the video by Green Day “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” we see the singers of green day get out of a car and start walking while we are seeing this we also see an editing technique of which flashes an old school kind of look, this effect go on throughout the whole of the video but it is still really effective. As I said earlier the lighting of Bayer’s videos are usually quite interesting and this is no exception, the video as well as having the edit effect they have very clever lighting in which is either very light or dark, the colours as well are also very dark and low, it is almost like he is trying to set a sort of depression mood in the song. The performance side of the song is very good and I think it promotes the artists well as the lighting shows them quite dark but for some reason we feel like these are good people, I think it is because they walk past lots of people and we see them as by themselves and we feel sorry for them.



Bayer’s use of the music is very good but he also uses something else other than the music and this is some of the video itself. “Working class hero” by Green day shows what I mean as at the beginning of the music video we do not go straight into the song we hear a bit about the working class as this song was originally recorded by John Lennon talking about how the working class are getting ignored. Again the same points apply as the lighting is very dark and they have used the editing effect as well of black and white. The black and white technique is good as it backs up what the video is trying to say.



Below are some audience responses to some of Samuel Bayer’s work of “Wake Me up when September ends” this is how the audience has responded to his work.

DavidLovesAmber1 -this song kicks ass but why can’t she understand he did it for a good cause?

kitisurhomie -a work of art :)

sgttysar -@crossfiretl2 Army is Scout sniper I imagine Marines are to but idk anything about marines im Army HOOAH

SahBillieJoeLover -I love this song +_______+

matt2ndchannel -this is a great video

timeassassin32 -what the hell happened in the video what did he do

ironhide891 -@redcell64 cuz he said that he would never leave her and then he went to war i guess

ironhide891 -@caniblezombie me to and it is a f**king beautiful song

10metube01 -women....

MrEdbadluck -hehe its funny when the uploaded say this is her/his lifetime goal

Klenki89 -make love not war, it was stupid so sign up for the army in the first place. If you fight, it should be your last choice(like if you were forced to fight for your existence). The ones who volunteer is just looking for a problem to solve, to give their life’s more meaning (at least they think it does). Who want to live without their father?
-Why did your father die?
-Because he was a little boy and wanted to fight with guns, and didn’t think of the consequences....

MrEdbadluck -I don’t like wars too because of the casualties, but u don’t have to say it is to make their life more meaningful ,dying is very painful u know, see on the bright side ok? the army are fighting the terrorists to make sure the terrorists incident doesn’t happen, although I’m not supporting both side ,so don’t say things like that ok? cheer up buddy

Klenki89 -make love not war, that’s the reason it was stupid to sign up for the army in the first place. you should be called to the army, not volunteer. The ones who volunteer is just looking for a problem to solve, to make their lives more valuable. I pity the families and friends who have to go through that:
-Why did you daddy die?
-because W bush was angry at Saddam Hussein..

Make love not war!!

lovelace92 -joined the army

lovelace92- she does at the end

As you can see the audience have really gotten involved with Bayer’s narrative and have really enjoyed his idea of having a deep and meaningful narrative. There are many other audience responses that have come back on Bayer’s work such as Green days “Working class hero”
1039SmthdOutSlpyHrs -don’t compare the two artists: one is punk pop, the other is British invasion. I think both did an excellent job promoting a message to the ppl, and both did excellent variations of the song :)

cicalinarrot -Omg, it was the only nice Lennon’s song (without the Beatles)

slytherinspy1960 -we should always fight for freedom whether it is here in our own country or elsewhere. This is an amazing tribute to not only the people of Darfur but also the memory of john Lennon. rip john Lennon, may your words touch many more.

browndd -im not sure where you learned your political history buy your are way off in you are describing socialist idea as being capitalist and in fact green day are very good capitalist just look at how much money there making and so you know taxes are not used to line the pockets of politicians but rather to make sure when you get rubbed there are cops and medical personnel to tend to you and to cap it all off their such a thing as freedom of speech and no us person has ever been arrested for speaking out

SCORCH6200000 -This is almost if not as good as John Lennon's version, Green Day did this song good

Again this shows the responses to his work and how the audience feels that this is as good as John Lennon’s version as it has been so well made. In the group of comments made just above they even start to talk about the big issue as it has shown how well made it is. if they did think that the artist done s good job with the song then they are complimenting the music video director as well.

Samuel Bayer is a truly brilliant music video director as his colours which are used in his videos are really clever as they help promote the song as well as the artist. His ideas of which he uses in his videos of editing techniques and lighting ideas are very clever as they help to affect you while you are watching the music video. Finally his narratives and concepts are truly original in the way that he has created narratives such as the “wake me up when September ends” as it had such a clever narrative and it did make you feel a bit sad. His concepts as well are truly clever as they again are original as in the music video “saint out of me” this is just an idea of what saints might look like. Overall I think Samuel Bayer provides a good viewpoint of what his imagination is like and how he puts across his ideas.