Director

I have conducted this research with my idea for an indie rock band video for Kasabian's song fast fuse.
Samuel David Bayer born February 17, 1965 is an American commercial, music video and film director, and cinematographer.

Samuel Bayer

Bayer was a graduate of New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1987 with a degree in Fine Arts, he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and became a popular director during the alternative rock era. He has shot and directed videos for The Strokes, Nirvana, Hole and Green Day and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2005 and 2007.

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade ‘The Black Parade’ is a dramatic rock video. I have chosen it because it features a performance with guitars that focuses on the lead singer. Furthermore there is a black and white style, I plan to use both of these styles in the idea I have for my own music video which I picture to also be for a rock band. What’s more, Bayer inserts a narrative into the story, which begins as a dual narrative but merges into one. Like Bayer, I also see my video featuring a dual narrative. Bayer has clearly directed the lead singer to perform aggressively and towards the camera, breaking the fourth wall. The song I have in mind is quite rocky and I think that I will try to emulate these directions to my actor if my video was to be created.      

Green Day - American Iconography

The whole performance style video is again seen in ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Keep Your hands off my girl’ , there is a fast paced and choppy editing approach to the video, which reflects the fast tempo of the music. This pace is definitely one I look to recreate. What is also interesting, is that as well as the performances, there are symbols or narrative that reflect the lyrics. In ‘Black Parade’ the setting is a parade, ‘American Idiot’ has American imagery such as a flag and an abandoned warehouse, where as ‘Keep your hands off my girl’ features lots of dancing girls. All these meanings are very literal, and Bayer proves that simplistic and obvious imagery can still be effective.

My favourite video of Bayers collection has to be ‘You only live once’ by The Strokes.

The Strokes - Isolated white setting

Not only is the song brilliant but the room is almost exactly how I pictured my band performance part of the video. It sounds silly, but having not seen the video or associated the other ones with Samuel before my idea, I feel a lot of my ideas and Bayer’s work is similar. The urban setting of ‘Heart in a cage’ is exactly what I had in mind for my duel narrative, black and white and busy. One final thing that I will take away from Bayer’s work is the unusual occasions of the performance parts of music videos. Although I’ve pictured a white room/studio I feel that an unusual location could also be effective and will discuss this with my group.



Urban black and white setting of heart in a cage.