Jennifer Juniper Stratford
She is an artist and director well known for her use of almost forgotten pieces of technology that are decades old with how she incorporates them into her more modern work created in the digital age. She uses older pieces of equipment such as the Fairlight CVI and combines it with her interest in finding the next unique and cutting-edge methods of creation so that she can include it in her video art and experimental film inspired work. My personal favourite work of hers is definitely two music videos that she directed, No Shows by Gerard Way (Gerard Way - No Shows [Official Music Video], 2014) and Night Running by Cage The Elephant and Beck (Cage The Elephant, Beck - Night Running (Official Video), 2019) as they are both shot and aesthetically driven with a 70s/80s theme in mind that is achieved through the use of video effects and particular cameras and camera lenses, such as the fisheye lens, that will make the footage look more retro and distinct.
Therefore, you can identify a video that has been directed by her easily as her style is so unique and different to other directors’ styles nowadays so along with the inclusion of specific video effects used to achieve the sort of very different aesthetic she is now known so it is very hard to mistake her work for someone else’s work. I relate to this to myself as I am attempting to create my own personal style in the work that I create and I feel like I am able to look at someone like Jennifer Juniper Stratford who has developed theirs so well to a point where she is considered reliable and credible in the industry and I personally want to be able to get to that point in my career too.
(ABOUT — jjstratford_photo, n.d.)
(Jennifer Juniper Stratford, n.d.)
(Gerard Way - No Shows [Official Music Video], 2014)
(Cage The Elephant, Beck - Night Running (Official Video), 2019)
Garth Jennings
He is a director, writer and screenwriter who is well known for his work on music videos for songs including Blur’s “Coffee & TV”, R.E.M.’s “Imitation of Life” and Atoms for Peace’s “Ingenue”, all of which he directed himself. However, the music videos of his that are my personal favourites and are also the ones that I feel are definitely the most interesting and creative videos that he has made are the videos for Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk" (Vampire Weekend - A-Punk, 2008) and Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower" (Radiohead - Lotus Flower, 2011) because the ideas are both very simple but also engaging with the way they are filmed as it is done quite simply but not so that it is boring to watch. For example, the music video for “A-Punk” follows the common format of having a band playing their respective instruments together but it has aspects which make it a bit more entertaining and make it stand out from other music videos that are similar in nature, but this video is different in execution with the way the speed of the footage is increased and the way lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig walks towards the camera to sing the lyrics of the verses make for fun and enjoyable visuals to match an equally as fun, innocent and upbeat song.
In the music video for Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower” lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Thom Yorke dances alone in a what I think is a warehouse, but if not it is at the very least an industrial looking room, wearing a white shirt, jeans, trainer and a bowler hat. His dancing is very expressive and sporadic throughout the music video, with the different camera angles and sporadic cuts to him performing peculiar and overzealous dance moves one moment and then the next moment he is dancing in quite a calm and relaxed manner which creates a noticeable contrast but a very hypnotizing one to watch as well. I also think the fact that the video just consists of him dancing, mixed with the black and white aesthetic made using video effects is minimalism done correctly as it is not trying to be too cryptic or too vague, it is very resourceful and at its core basic but nevertheless it is still a good music video and I feel that what I take from it the most is that I shouldn’t overcomplicate what I am trying to produce because the two music videos that I enjoy the most made by Garth Jennings are both not too hard to make. However, it adds to their charm and likeability because of how they’re not too overly ambitious and knowing that a piece of work does not depend on the complexity of the idea is reassuring to me as I only have a limited amount of resources at my disposal so it is nice to know that amazing work can be conceived with anything that is available as long as the passion for the project is there.
(Garth Jennings – Imdb, n.d.)
(Garth Jennings, n.d.)
(Vampire Weekend - A-Punk, 2008)
(Radiohead - Lotus Flower, 2011)
Bibliography
Jjstratford.com. n.d. ABOUT — Jjstratford_Photo. [online] Available at: <https://jjstratford.com/ABOUT-1> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
YouTube. 2014. Gerard Way - No Shows [Official Music Video]. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsDSIEq7O08> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
YouTube. 2019. Cage The Elephant, Beck - Night Running (Official Video). [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBc08yzdB4c> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
Jennifer Juniper Stratford, n.d. Jennifer Juniper Stratford Staring Off Into The Distance At Her Workspace.. [image] Available at: <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/OA1KEPIZxAVEBTrTxST5zEMtXftV-YysT7jKoSE4AXfeVM4Z-usPNPZvRRu8ItmtEnLhwKI0wAVc3_KPNydm-THAcDKsUwFeO_5ol1k> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
IMDb. n.d. Garth Jennings - Imdb. [online] Available at: <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1134029> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
YouTube. 2008. Vampire Weekend - A-Punk. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
YouTube. 2011. Radiohead - Lotus Flower. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
Image- Garth Jennings, n.d. Garth Jennings In A Suit At A Formal Event.. [image] Available at: <https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/zl6ZWijGySSIYJRFalleAiGkxyQ.jpg> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
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