Task 11 and 12 –Case Study of chosen music video director.

Johan Renck.

About the Director.

Johan Renck is also a film director. He is a veteran of the music video. He has worked on projects ranging from New Order’s comeback (which

inspired the Killer’s to take their name) to Kylie Minogue. He was born in 1966 and his real name is Bo. He was also born in Sweden. Johan directed ‘Hung up’ by Madonna, ‘Tripping’ by Robbie Williams, The Libertines, ‘Me, Myself and I’ by Beyonce, bat for Lashes etc. Renck recently completed his

first feature film (downloading Nancy.)

Johan Renck- All Saints – Black Coffee.

• Lighting- dark.• Edits- Quite slow.• Set/Location- Inside bedroom, dark. Some

shots are outside , city buildings, night-time.

Johan Renck-The Libertines-What became of the Likely Lads.

• Camera- Lots of Close-Ups and Long Shots. The camera is mostly hand-held. It is like a cheap, home movie and is rough around the edges. It is low budget and in a documentary styled format. I would say it has social realism and is naturalistic- not Hollywood glam.

• Lighting- Fairly dark, grim weather, natural lighting(not in a studio), mostly outside, depressing, dim and gloomy, boring colours (all done on purpose).

• Edits- Fairly slow mostly, slow motion, some fast edits, we are not looking at screens within screens and the band is not playing.

• Set/ Location- Urban, working-class surroundings. Blocks of flats, rough and old-school. Cloudy, miserable day. There is a river, shop and a house towards the end of the video. It shows two little children messing around and the video goes against the beat of the song.

• Direction, narrative and message- Council estate-stereotypically poor background. The boys are smoking-shocking and rebellious. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. There is a picture of Pete Docherty at the end. The video represents the band when they were young and poor- it is a story about going from rags to riches. That is what became of the likely lads- they managed to get rich, successful and famous.

• Key frame 1- Outside near the block of flats.• Key frame 2-At the river.• Key frame 3- Inside the house.

Johan Renck-Daniel- Bat for Lashes.

• Camera- Close up of the main artist. It is professional camera work and not naturalistic. The video is always on the move and has a steady cam. There is focus and composition and the director was not too bothered about the camera techniques as he was more focused on everything else.

• Lighting- The lights are on her. The lighting is man-made and the set is stage lit. It is non-naturalistic and planned.

• Edits- Quite fast- paced edits, there is lots of action and speed but he also uses slow motion which is contrasting and a cheap but effective trick which Johan tends to use in a lot of his videos.

• Set/ location- Dark surroundings, inside a set/studio and then in the car outside-dark and scary.• Direction- Unique, 80s comeback, good vs evil, fantasy.• Key frame 1- In the studio with people dressed in black – scary.• Key frame 2- Driving in the car outside.• Key frame 3- Still shot with her hugging a boy.

Johan Renck-Kylie Minogue-Love at first sight.

• Camera- Lots of close-ups of Kylie, professional camera work and techniques, pans from side to side. • Lighting- Quite dark, stage lighting, non-naturalistic, bland, lots of graphics, green screen, keyed out, no

colour spots. • Edits- no slow motion, he was told exactly what to do as Kylie is a major artist- strict, tight brief.• Set/location- Studio-small, computer effects, all about her, different shapes, star image.• Direction- Colourful dancers, influenced by daft Punk, relationship between the music and the visuals, no

relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

Johan Renck as a director.

• Johan Renck is a very diverse and famous director. All of his videos are all very different from each other and made to represent the particular artist he is working with. There are no stereo-types- Johan works with a range of artists whether they are huge, international stars or just starting out in the music industry. One thing Johan normally tends to use in his videos is slow motion- easy to do and very effective in most if not all music videos. His visual style is very entertaining and unique. He does not specialise in one particular genre of music. He produces mainly mainstream work. I like his work because you could put any artist too him and he would be able to shape a video for them- not necessarily to his favourite tastes but to the artist’s. He can direct videos with narrative, outside or in a studio, using the artist or actors etc. He is a very versatile and talented, non stereotypical director.

How he has influenced and inspired ideas for our A2 project.

• He has taught me that for a video to be successful and entertaining, it does not have to be high budget and use lots of different camera techniques.

• I think our video can use ideas from The Libertines video as we are planning to shoot it outside in an urban area.

• He has taught me that variety is great, as long as the video represents and conforms with the artist.