P.R.Brown

Paul R.Brown is a Graphic Designer, Photographer, and Music Video Director based in Los Angeles and New York. He is the founder of Bau-da Design Lab which has been running since 1996. He is well known for his work with Marilyn Manson in his early career, but also for work with bands such as Korn, and Mötley Crüe.

Artists/Bands he has worked with

P.R.Brown is well known for his work with Bands/Artists that fit into the Rock/Metal genre. However, he has also worked with a few artists that do not fit into this genre such as Jack White & Alicia Keys, Seal, and John Mayer.

Metal/Rock artists include:• Goo Goo Dolls• Murderdolls• Black Tide• Slipknot• Three Days Grace• Smashing Pumpkins• Meatloaf• Avenged Sevenfold

Music Video Style

Although P.R.Brown’s work fits into the mainstream music line for metal and rock, his videos take on a look of surrealism. I found throughout watching his work that this is something that is continued through every single one, whether it is through the narrative of the music video, the location, or some of the camera angle shots. It especially shows in Slipknot’s music video for ‘Dead Memories’. As shown in the screen grabs, P.R.Brown’s directing has taken on a surreal look as we are able to see Corey Taylor looking in the mirror and a different band member being reflected in the first, and in the second Corey is shot so we can see someone crawling up the wall in the background.

Performance Aspect

P.R.Brown’s work rarely uses solely the aspect of just performance in, and usually contains a narrative. However, where it has been used, for example in Goo Goo Dolls music video for ‘Stay With You’. Performance has been used, but the surrealist effect that P.R.Brown is known for is continued with the use of props- in this hundreds of light bulbs hanging down around the band whilst they perform, and flashing in time to the music.

Use of Narrative elements

The majority of P.R.Brown’s work uses a narrative storyline. This is shown especially in Slipknot’s music video for ‘Snuff’. This video is a short film lasting over 6 minutes. The best thing about this is that the video also has dialogue that cuts in throughout the song playing in the background. Again, the narrative fits in with the surrealist style as the lead singer Corey Taylor ends up cross dressing at the end of the films narrative.

Editing style

The editing style of P.R.Brown again does not follow the norm for music videos. In his videos there is variable amounts of post production editing, some having very large amounts, some using none at all. The cutting of the music video is also something different, as it often jumps from on thing like a man standing on his own, to a monster or something totally different. Again, this fits him well with having a surreal feel to his videos.

Stone Sour - Hesitate

My interest in P.R.Brown

Without knowing it, I have been watching the music videos of P.R.Brown for many years now. As his work is based with rock/metal artists he has worked with some of my favourite bands for example, Slipknot, Stone Sour, and Goo Goo Dolls. My interest came of his work after seeing Stone Sour’s video for Hesitate, as it had an emotional factor that stood out to me. As I've watched his other work I have seen the surreal quality, and the unusualness, and its something that I think looks really visually effective, and that I generally just love! I’d really like to take inspiration from his work, and create a video with an unusual surreal quality to it.