Music Video Director in Focus: Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze quickly established a well-deserved reputation as an exceptional director with a unique vision through his prolific music-video work. Making videos for more than 8 years, Spike always keeps on innovating and extending the boundaries of music-video making. Spike Jonze is among those ‘video-auteurs’ able to develop a unique and distinguished style that does not rely on the visuals’ techniques, but more on the strong plots and concepts, the incomparable irony – fluctuating from cruel to kind – the very smart references to pop culture of his generation and classic film genres, and the original structure. Jonze was responsible for casting the Beastie Boys as 1970s detectives for Sabotage and inserting Weezer into an episode of TV’s Happy Days as a 1950s teen dream band crooning their hit ‘Buddy Holly’. His video work led to the related field of commercials, including quirky adverts for denim magnates Lee and Levis; and to his feature directorial début with the strange comedy Being John Malkovich (1999), that gained him an Oscar Nomination for Best Director.

Credits: artist, title, (supplied by)
Fatboy Slim, Weapon of Choice (Satellite)
Fatboy Slim, Rockafella (Satellite)
Fatboy Slim, praise you (Satellite) (with Roman Coppola)
Weezer, Island in the Sun (Satellite)
Notorious b.i.g., Sky’s the Limit (Satellite)
Chemical Brothers, Electrobank (Satellite)
Daft Punk, Da Funk (Satellite)
Wax, California (Satellite)
Weezer, Buddy Holly (Satellite)
Beastie Boys, Sabotage (Satellite)
Mike Watt, Big Train (Satellite)
Dinosaur Jr., Feel the Pain (Satellite)
mc900 Foot Jesus, If I Only Had a Brain (Satellite)
Sean Lennon, Home (Satellite)
REM, Crush / Eyeliner (Satellite)
Bjork, It’s oh so Quiet (Satellite)