Directors Essay

Jonas Akerlund is an established Swedish film and music video director who was born in 1966. He has directed various music videos for well-known popular artists as appose to upcoming artists. I will be focusing on three music videos he directed; Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ 2004, which was not only a massive hit on MTV amongst other music video channels, but also received a Special Recognition award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Pink’s ‘Sober 2008, which was the second-highest viewed of Pinks music videos, and lastly Lady Gaga’s 'Paparazzi' 2009.

As a director, Akerlunds general style is creating abstract-like mock forms of movie trailers and short films for music videos. This is one of the similarities each of the music videos share making them narrative based, however it could be argued that they also show elements of conceptual and performance. This could be linked into the 'Auteur theory' which suggests an author has a great impact on the videos we watch.

I will be using Andrew Goodwin’s 6 point theory from his book ‘Dancing in the distraction factory’ to analyse my four chosen examples.

The song ‘Beautiful’ is of a soft-rock genre and the video focuses of portraying issues with self image and domestic abuse (which Christina herself has experienced in her childhood) through the use of obvious sequences of other people showing emotions through body language, facial expressions and situational factors. It specifically relates to underweight adolescents, LGBT, and bullying. The music video is mainly narrative with performance. A genre characteristic of soft-rock are the playing on themes such as love, everyday life and relationships which are clearly demonstrated in the music video. Throughout the video the scene switches between different people to Christina singing. The song lyrics support general individuality, ‘you are beautiful, no matter what they say. Words can’t bring us down.’ Therefore, using Goodwin’s analysis, there is evidence of an illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The general mise-en-scene in the music video is dark and appears lonely which again emphasises the messages of the song and video. The pacing of the editing appears in time with the beat of the song i.e. where the song is slow, the edits are slow. Towards the end of the video, the victims of these illnesses or bullying drastically change their facial expressions from depressed to happy almost showing acceptance or a change attitude. A few seconds before the end a yellow flower is shown which could represent hope, happiness and courage which is likely because this would summarise the songs entire purpose. As expected in a popular artists music video, it is evident that the record label have requested to have a large percentage of the music video be close-ups of the star.

‘Sober’ by Pink comes under the genre of pop rock because the song is guitar-based. The music video shows scenes of a drunken nature which include socialising, sexual reference and mental institutions. It begins in the style of a film as the footage of statues and churches is not accompanied by the song, only the sounds of church bells which appears completely irrelevant to the song. The video is mainly conceptual with performance although has elements of narrative occasionally. Like that in ‘Beautiful’, the scenes go back and forth between Pink singing and other situations. The costumes used in ‘Sober’ are varied and not linked to each other appearing un-cohesive however this could seek to represent that of an intoxicated mind. For example, she is shown in an old fashioned dark coloured dress in a gloomy room filled with dusty, dated furniture, which cuts to her in a mental institution where all elements of mise-en-scene are white. Another example is towards the end of the video Pink is shown in an all black outfit which is seemingly a widowers clothing which again could explain her situation and feelings of this. Generally her outfits are attention grabbing as of that in Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ which could relate to Akerlund’s preferred style. When Pink is alone she seems sad, confused and lonely but appears to have multiple personalities depending on whom she is with. Location frequently changes consisting of woods, bedrooms and parties. Sexual behaviour is shown of Pink with an actor who is also plays Pink which could represent the extent of her loneliness and mental state. Like ‘Beautiful’, ‘Sober’ includes numerous shots of Pink herself performing.

Finally ‘Paparazzi’ is an electropop song portraying the lengths individuals could go to in order to become famous. This is the longest music video out of the three, 8 minutes in total due to Akerlund’s desire to create short films out of music videos. Similar to ‘Sober’, it begins with establishing shots and an introductory scene before the actual song begins. Whilst the audience is shown a large countryside mansion with the sound of birds and the general outside, credits appear such as ‘Serial pictures production’ and ‘Starring Lady Gaga’ clearly resembling that of an opening sequence of a film. Following this there is dialect between Lady Gaga and the character of her “boyfriend” which leads to him pushing her off the balcony as a result of his need to interest the photographers and gain star recognition shortly followed by snap shots of newspaper headlines on the matter and her body being discovered. Just before the actual song starts (already over 2 minutes into the sequence), Gaga is shown against a black and white spiral background illusion. Using Goodwin’s theory, I noticed that this was intertextual reference from the opening of the film james bond among many other films who also use this effect. She is then shown returning to the mansion after the incident in a neck brace, on crutches although costume remains glamorous which immediately generates the audience asking questions as if watching a film, as the song finally begins. Already it is evident the music video is narrative however further into the song it is clear that it is conceptual and performance also. Throughout the video scenes flash from Gaga singing, to her getting revenge in the preparation to her plan to poison her boyfriend in disguise, to the scenes of other various murders of glamorous females, presumably stars, that have been victims of this type of twisted plot as she was. Again, at the end of the song newspapers are shown only the headlines now consist of shocking news such as ‘She’s back!’, ‘She’s innocent!’ and ‘We love her again!’ However this is followed by her having mug shots taken in prison with dialect which tells us she was discovered. As a film, ‘The End’ then appears across the screen followed by a cast list in the style of that in dated films. Gaga is shown in close-up or mid-shots often which could relate to the demands of the record label. General themes portrayed in the music video are jealousy, bitterness, death and revenge which along with the themes of ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Sober’ appear negative which could suggest this is Akerlund’s most favoured style.

To conclude, it is clear that Akerlund as a director enjoys emphasising the message within the songs in the music video through features such as mise-en-scene, costume, characters and displayed emotion. From researching these three particular music videos it is evident that his ideas do not vary in the sense that he produces mainly narrative based videos that portray themes clearly.