Friday 24 October 2008

Spike Jonze

I have reasearch into the work of Spike Jonze, an American director of music videos and commercials. Spike is an Academy Award nominated director and producer in film and television,most notably the 1999 film Being John Malkovich and the 2002 film Adaption. He was a producer and co-creator of MTV television series Jackass aswel as the movie, also directing some of the footage.
Some of his work includes:
  • "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West
  • "Y Control" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • "Get Back" By Ludacris
  • "Triumph of the heart" by Bjork
  • Various songs by Fat Boy Slim.

Aswell as directing music videos, he is most renown his work with the Jackass group as he helped direct, produce and star in the Jackass movies aswell as directing 16 other films. He started his career directing his skate videos in america where he gained contacts within the Jackass group. Various pieces of work are being shown on YouTube including an amusin Gap advert which never finally got realised due to it being claimed made Gap look cheap.

Spike Jonze's most reconizable work is most likely his various videos made for Fat Boy Slim. Particularly the "Praise You" video shown below. Spike Jonze is the lead dancer within this video.

1 comment:

c_fernandez said...

Matt - what is so individual about his work? You need to be more indepth than this. Refer to shots, representation, repeatability, amplification... he is an auteur so what is so special about his work? Tapping into the zeitgeist?