Michel Gondry is an established director; from music videos to documentaries to feature films. His directorial style focuses greatly on exaggeration and how mise-en-scene can be used to create effect. Gondry's unique style and vision are shown through his work, particularly his music videos. His creativity has stemmed a very long career and has proven him to be an 'auteur' of his craft, who has a specific style which is included in his work.
The video for 'The Hardest Button To Button' by The White Stripes displays Gondry's fantastic use of stop motion animation. This is used to create a specific effect which is used in many of Gondry's videos, but is most famously used in this one. The video is highly performance based, featuring heavily on the band, who are the focus of the animation. Gondry contrasts the basic backgrounds with the constantly moving band to make them stand out. In theory the concept of this video is extremely basic, but Gondry uses special effects to make it creative and enigmatic. As well as the auteur theory being clearly shown, Gondry's video also displays Andrew Goodwin's analysis and Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory' by showing many close ups and focusing on the performance of the band. 'The Hardest Button To Button' is one of the most famous music videos of all time, and the song and video concept is parodied in an episode of The Simpsons, showing how Gondry's unique vision has created an intertextual link.
Another one of Gondry's videos that uses visual effects is 'Let Forever Be' by The Chemical Brothers. The video follows a young girl as she performs her daily duties and juxtaposes between reality and her dream world. The dream world is shown through a series of choreographed sequences, another one of Gondry's directorial styles. The simple shots are transformed and multiplied to make a high level of verisimilitude. Another way this is shown is through exaggerated mise-en-scene, a technique that is featured in many of Michel Gondry's videos.
'Everlong' By Foo Fighters also shows Gondry using imagery to contrast dreams and reality. The concept of the video follows a variety of dream sequences, again choreographed, that portray a high level of verisimilitude. As well as being conceptual, the video has a performance aspect and the band are featured heavily throughout, relating to Goodwin's and Dyer's theories. Gondry also uses black and white in contrast with colour to convey the difference between dreams and reality. He also relies heavily on exaggerated mise-en-scene, as seen in many of his other videos, to convey conceptual ideas. Many props and costumes are used in this video to amplify the concept of a dream.
Gondry uses mise-en-scene as an art form in his videos. This can also be seen in the video for 'Mad World' by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. Again, Gondry takes a very simple concept and makes it interesting by using exaggeration and creativity. Shot from a birds eye view, the video shows people making images from their bodies and moving to create a story. This simple yet effective art form is one of Gondry's unique ways of engaging an audience. No special shots or effects are used at all in this video. We also see brief glimpses of the artists, again complying with the Richard Dyer 'Star Theory', as well as some performance of the song. Gondry's technique of using people to create images became extremely popular, and has been recreated since, such as on adverts (talktalk phone and broadband).
From analysing these four videos, it is clear that Michel Gondry has a very unique style. His heavy focus on mise-on-scene show how he conveys narratives in a creative way, as well as his fond use of stop motion animation and special effects. These techniques prove him to be an 'auteur' in his own right, following the 'Auteur Theory' where an artist can create their own vision and style which they adapt and use in their work. Gondry can be seen as extremely creative with a lot of artistic flare and a pioneer of animation. His reputation as an esteemed director and artist make his work immediately recognisable.
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