Auteur Theory

I will be analysing a famous American music video director - Marc Klasfeld. He has directed over two hundred music videos by artists such as Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Kid Rock, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nelly, Foo Fighters, The Script, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne and many more. He has had many MTV award wins and nominations and he has also written and directed commercials, independent films and documentaries. He is also the founder of Rockhard, a production company that also houses directors such as Ray Kay, Tony Petrossian and Steve Jocz. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Some music videos that he has directed:

Starstruckk - 30H!3 ft. Katy Perry

When You're Gone - Avril Lavigne

Bubbles - Biffy Clyro

So Far Gone - James Blunt 

All About Tonight - Pixie Lott

In detail I have looked at another video he has directed: Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles.

From the first camera shot he uses, we establish the mise-en-scene. The setting is naturalistic in what we can guess to be her house. Vanessa Carlton is wearing casual clothes and has messy hair, this implies that she is just a normal girl. This may make it easy for others to relate to her. The lyrics link greatly with the visuals because the lyrics are about her travelling a thousand miles and therefore her and her piano are moving through out the music video. The camera angles that Marc Klasfeld has decided to use mostly foucs on her, he uses many close-ups and mid-shots. This is to capture her emotion so it makes it seem like she is really meaning what she is singing. Many shots are used of her playing the piano, I think Marc Kladfeld has done this to emphasise that she can play piano and this gives us clues about her personality. It is also because it makes the beat of the song match with the visuals.

Marc Klasfeld, as a director uses mise-en-scene to fit the mood of the lyrics. He seems to use many close ups of the artists to sell the song through their looks. In all of his videos that I have looked at he seems to have a performance scene to fit the genre of the song, ie. in Pixie Lott's video she uses many dancing scenes whereas in in Biffy Clyro's video it is a performance of him singing into a microphone with people behind him playing instruments.