Director's Study - Sophie Muller

She first directed the Eurythmics video ‘The Walk’ in 1982 however it was not made commercially available but can be found on youtube, but when I searched for it, I was unsuccessful. She has directed many videos for No Doubt, Shakespears Sister, Annie Lennox and Blur, as well as doing a few selective videos for slightly more contemporary artists like The Killers, Coldplay, Beyoncé, Pink and many more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Muller#Selected_videography

I came across this director after finding out she directed the video  for ‘Mr Brightside’ by The Killers; I found this very interesting, as ‘Mr Brightside’ had previously only had a very basic video   as they were signed to an independent record label (Lizard King Records), so had a small budget and  this was the UK version:

However, in America they were then signed to Island Records and the band themselves decided to make another higher budget video, starring Brandon Flowers—the lead singer— Izabella Miko and Eric Roberts, in a kind of love triangle. Sophie said it was inspired by the 2001 remake of the film Moulin Rouge! And subsequently the narrative took place within a burlesque show. It also includes the performance element of music videos as The Killers are shown to be part of the show, playing their song.

This is the higher budget video.

She said her real goal was to become a successful director in her own right, and her chance meeting with John Stewart and Billy Poveda of ‘Oil Factory’ - an established film production company - provided her with the opportunity she needed.

It is said her ‘trademark style’ in most her videos has the artist/s in a dim isolated room, ‘Mr Brightside’ on really holds true to the idea of the room being isolated, but lighting seems to be quite important within the video, with the fireworks, and high key lighting in the ‘burlesque hall’, as shown in the pictures.

Similarly the video for ‘Why’ by Annie Lennox,  has Annie sat alone, in the dark, except for her lighted mirror, upholding her style.

Blur’s ‘Song 2’ video that Sophie also directed has the group in one low lit room, with many shadows, and again alone, as is her style.

Finally the song ’4 In The Morning’ by Gwen Stefani, that Sophie directed has Gwen in an empty house, showing she is isolated, but the lighting is played with a lot in this video, as there are certain points—like in the picture, where there are many shadows and very little light at all, but other scenes where the room has quite high key lighting, that also seems very ‘warm’ sort of negating the ‘isolated’ quality of the video.

 "4 In The Morning" - Gwen Stefani

I like the style of Sophie’s videos, as many of them are narrative videos, but narratives that suit the song, which is something that often makes me like the song more, if the video is more parallel to the song. Whereas concept videos I find can detract too much from the song, and make it appear to be about something it isn’t. I also like that narrative is used in Sophie’s music videos, because the actual artists are generally a part of it. They are the ‘characters’ involved in the stories created and, I find it very interesting to see how the artists portray and act out their own song as I think it helps clearly establish exactly what the song means to that singer or band, so I can make a stronger connection to the song.