research on director
TRANSCRIPT
Anthony Mandler
A quick introduction
• Anthony Mandler is an American music video director. He was raised in Hollywood with celebrity classmates and industry people around him. A USC Film School graduate, he knew early on what he wanted to do as he realized his passion for photography and film.
• Starting off as a photographer, his photos featured on the front covers of major magazines such as Entertainment Weekly, Esquire and ESPN. He is notably a frequent collaborator with Rihanna (having directed ten of her music videos). [Wikipedia]
Style
• Anthony uses a unique style of story telling which I like. He tells a story to the audience in an unclear way, so that it doesn’t come across as a complete film adaptation of the song.
• Anthony also uses his photographic talent to portray more emotion and beauty.
Who?
Anthony Mandler works with mainstream
artists. Rhianna is a favourite of his and he
has directed 10 of her music videos. The
reason behind working with mainstream
artists is that he is a stylish, contemporary
director whom has experience in
mainstream photography.
As you can see in these screen grabs Anthony uses buildings to set the scene.
This shot is of a motel. It provides an image of a run down town, almost dead. It is also quite working class.
One republic – stop and stare
TI – Live your life
Eminem - Beautiful
The shot of the house is quite eerie. The gates also add to the effect.
This historic building is quite significant as we later see that Eminem sings most of the song within this building.
Eminem – Beautiful
Eminem – Beautiful
Daniel Merriweather – Red
Daniel Merriweather – Red
Anthony has used in both these videos, run down buildings to reflect the emotions of the song. It is also interesting to notice the use of dark and light. It appears he sometimes blacks out the artist and makes it appear to be a shadow. However he also uses the light to make the artist appear to be in the spotlight. The use of darkness and light is something in which he has learnt through his photography.
Eminem – Beautiful Daniel Merriweather – Red
One republic – stop and stare TI – Live your life
In what I have seen Anthony always includes a shot of the singers feet. In these screen grabs I have noted that they are usually the main focus of the shot.
I find this quite interesting as it is something you end up noticing in every single one of his videos, looking out for the feet!
The shots of the feet remind me of the roots of life, and how they provide us with the ability to keep moving forward, and keep moving on.
Eminem – Beautiful
One Republic – Stop and Stare
TI – Live your life
Anthony does include the instruments and microphones in his videos. As we can see from the TI and Eminem screen grabs microphones are used when a singer is a singing. In the One Republic shots we see the instruments as well. This gives us and “as live” effect. I like how it is only for a short period of time that we see the instruments as we then also get the story line.
Eminem – Beautiful
One Republic – stop and stare
TI – Live your life
Anthony also includes extra’s in his music video’s to present his stories. They often include people whom the singer/band would have attached to them, for example with Eminem, the poor working class people in society are associated with him and his music as he grew up in a poor working class underprivileged family.
Another example is TI, where gangster’s are associated with him as he presents himself as a gangster in his music.
The use of these extra’s allows the camera to turn away from th singer as well so that we do not get bored of staring at them constantly.
Eminem - Beautiful
Daniel Merriweather – Red
One Republic – Stop and Stare
TI – Live your life
I like how Anthony uses a variety of different shots.
The use of his extreme long shots is very unique as we end up focusing on the artist as well as the scenery
The close ups also allow us to show the expression and emotion so we get a feel for the story.
I like how Anthony includes photographic scenery into his music videos as they make the video appear more cultural. I like the variety of different scenes as well, from buildings to nature.
The scenery also adds to the story telling affect. They give us a place and a time in which the story is being told.
Eminem - Beautiful
One republic – stop and stare
Daniel Merriweather – Red
TI – Live your life
Daniel Merriweather – Red
I like how Anthony has used a fading effect to blend in two different shots so that they fade into one another. This use of editing makes the video flow well and also adds for a good visual effect. It also allows the story to flow like a short film and allows for what could be a long story become a short story.
2005Snoop Dogg - "Ups & Downs/Bang Out"
M.I.A. - "Bucky Done Gun" Common - "Testify"
Kem - "Find Your Way" 50 Cent - "Hustler's Ambition"
Sean Paul - "Ever Blazin'" Eminem - "When I'm Gone"
DPGC - "Real Soon"
2006Nelly Furtado - "Maneater"
Rihanna - "Unfaithful" Ne-Yo - "Sexy Love"
Sleepy Brown feat. Pharrell & Big Boi - "Margarita" The Killers - "When You Were Young"
Rihanna - "We Ride" Beyoncé - "Irreplaceable"
Omarion - '"Ice Box" Jay-Z - "Lost One"
2007Duran Duran - "Falling Down" Beyoncé - "Get Me Bodied" Snoop Dogg - "Boss' Life"
Fergie - "Big Girls Don't Cry" Rihanna - "Shut Up and Drive"
Enrique Iglesias - "Somebody's Me" Rihanna feat. Ne-Yo - "Hate That I Love You"
The Killers - "Tranquilize"
Spice Girls - "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)"
2008OneRepublic - "Stop and Stare"
Rihanna - "Take A Bow" OneRepublic - "Say (All I Need)"
Bayje - "Find a Way" Rihanna - "Disturbia"
Maroon 5 feat. Rihanna - "If I Never See Your Face Again" R. Kelly - "Skin"
T.I. feat. Rihanna - "Live Your Life" Akon - "Right Now (Na Na Na)"
Enrique Iglesias - "Away" Rihanna - "Rehab"
Wyclef Jean feat. will.i.am & Melissa Jiménez - "Let Me Touch Your Button"
2009John Legend - "Everybody Knows"
Utada - "Come Back To Me" Robin Thicke - "Dreamworld" Daniel Merriweather - "Red"
The Killers - "A Dustland Fairytale" Melanie Fiona - "Give It to Me Right"
Eminem - "Beautiful" Jay-Z - "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)"
Daniel Merriweather - "" Maxwell - "Bad Habits"
Jay-Z feat. Rihanna and Kanye West - "Run This Town" Mary J.Blige Feat. Drake - "The One"
Ryan Leslie - You're Not My Girl
As you can see by Anthony’s music video’s, he has worked with a variety of artists from a variety of genres. His ability to work his style into any genre is one which I find influential.
Conclusion
Anthony Mandler tends to use photographic imagery in all
of his video’s to create emotion purpose and tension. He
also focuses on the lighting in his video’s making full use of
the concepts and connotations of light and dark.
Anthony also constantly uses a variety of different camera
shots, and uses cuts quite regularly never focusing on one
shot/angle for too long so that he is able to create a story.