1. Music Video
Director
Paul R Brown

2. Basics about music video directors
What is a music video director???
A Music video director is an inspired thinker, someone who creates something of
beauty, conveying music in a unique way, a creative strategist.
Who they work with:
Music video directors work with hundreds of musicians, some of them I like, some
of them I don’t. Even if I don’t like the music, I can always admit when they have
created an incredible video. They capture the music perfectly with the visuals, and
they work with a wide range of artists, from examples such as Slayer, Wednesday
13, Amy Lee, Machine Head, Gallows, Parkway Drive (a few bands I like) and many
more, depending on the genre they work in. These bands are examples of who I
will be inspired by.
Slayer Parkway Drive Wednesday 13 Machine Head

3. Paul R Brown: In 1996 he founded Bau-da-Design Lab, which still
currently operates out of Los-Angeles & New York.
Brown is very well known for his work with some
of the most famous rock n roll musicians/bands.
He’s known very well for his album designs for
bands such as Mötley Crüe, KoRN, Godsmack and
more, he gained a particular notoriety in the music
business with his work with Marilyn Manson.
Examples of his album art
Examples of his music videos
His career in music video direction was much
more well known, he work with acts including Wednesday 13 – I walked with a Zombie
Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine, Billy Corgan Mötley Crüe – If I Die Tomorrow
(The Smashing Pumpkins) Evanescence, Prince,
Static-X, Mötley Crüe & more. A very continuous
genre style within his work as you can see from
the artists. He has made videos of a very unique
and influential style. I will be looking to make
my videos very similar to his, or at least
representing the same genre of music. Static-X – I'm the one
Slipknot – Dead Memories

4. What do I like about Paul Brown???
One of my favourite things about Paul R Brown is the way that he visually links his videos to the music he works with,
so with rock/punk/alternative genre, he manages to completely represent the genre with all their work.
They work with acts that are a lot of fun, they are energetic, and they all have a similar style. There is a key link
between his videos as to how he portrays the artists he works with. He uses a lot of staged performances, but also a lot
of scenes within the videos, such as movie flashbacks etc. He also creates a strong narrative within many of his music
videos, allowing audiences to be engaged and to follow along with the music.
As mentioned he uses similar techniques throughout his videos, such as surreal effects, such as mirrored shots of
bands, rippled camera lens’s, Photoshop animation, cartoon moving shots & more. These effects and techniques are
frequently involved in his work, and the effects are simple awe inspiring.
Below are some examples of screenshots from his videos.
Slipknot – Dead Memories (Mirrored Shots)
Static-X – I'm the one (Rippled Camera Lens)
Wednesday 13 – I walked with a Zombie (Photoshop Animation)
Mötley Crüe – If I Die Tomorrow (Cartoon Moving Shots)

5. Mise-En-Scene
When it comes to Paul Browns aspect of Mise-En-Scene, it’s a very crucial part of his music videos. As this is what helps
him to show the style of music the band are, for example if it’s a horror styled band, he’ll set it in a graveyard setting, with
knives, zombies, and dark clothing, this is a typical horror setting. If he’s setting a typical rock n roll styled band, he’ll shoot
it in a sleazy bar with typical rock aspects, such as use of women, as mentioned by Paul Goodwin as using women as things
rather then people. HE sets his videos up beautifully, I love his style and everything he does. However his videos wouldn't’t
be anywhere near as effective if he didn't’t include such strong pieces of Mise-En-Scene. This is an aspect I will be
featuring in my work, making the scene, genre and band style clear.
One very clear aspect of Mise-En-Scene that Brown uses is the use of fire, this is
used in a fair few of his videos. This is used to represent different meanings. In a
percentage it is to represent hell and how strongly rock n roll links with hell and the
devil, hence the use of fire. Fire/animation fire is used in a lot of his videos, 2 clear
example are one of animation fire (Avenged Sevenfold – Almost Easy), and one with
actual fire (Slipknot – Psychosocial).
Example of real fire.
Here is a simple shot a section
Example of animation fire.
from the movie that is shown
during the video.
An intertextual example of Paul Browns work within Mise-En-Scene would be his
intertextual references. The biggest example I could find was from Wednesday 13s
video “I walked with a zombie”. There are shots of the band playing throughout
the whole video, making it a staged performance, however they are not on a
stage, they have all been cropped, and placed onto the front layer of another
video playing in the background. The video playing in the background is the Here is a shot of the band
vintage 1968 zombie horror film ‘Night Of The Living Dead’. This is a strong link playing, as you can see they
have been cropped from a
with both the lyrics, and the name of the song. This is a clear intertextual stage and layered in front of
reference, plus it also links strongly with the genre of the band. This was one of my the movie scenes.
favourite videos. I have analysed from Browns work.

6. Filming/Cinematography The filming techniques used by Paul Brown are intended to engage the audience, focus on
every little detail of what is going on, and in a high percentage of his videos, focus on the
members. His techniques are designated to linking strongly with the bands style/genre.
This gives fans a strong idea of the bands loves and passions, and favourite styles. His best
examples of this are genuinely in Wednesday 13/Murderdolls videos, or also in Slipknot
videos. In these videos he has clearly filmed them to reflect the bands genre/style. For
example in the Murderdolls video ‘Dead In Hollywood’, he has filmed it within a hospital
room, the singer singing through a drip the whole song, referring to the title ‘dead’.
However also referring to the genre of the band ‘horror rock’, mainly as the video refers to
death and horror. Linking strongly with the singer singing through a drip, this is a shot
dedicated to focusing on the vocals. In another video by Sixx A.M ‘Accidents Can Happen’,
‘Dead In Hollywood’ video (singing he uses a similar shot of the singer with his microphone, again a mid shot, focused on the
through the drip representing the
‘Accidents Can Happen’ video (singing vocals. However to represent the bands style he uses a traditional microphone, to
dead and the horror aspect).
through old styled mic representing represent the style and class of the band, suggesting they are sophisticated wearing suits
sophistication and class). etc. This is a very strong piece of filming which conveys the styles of the bands clearly.
Corey Taylor in the video ‘Snuff’,
Another thing I have noticed about the filming of Browns videos, is the standing looking sketchy in front of a
way he introduces videos. He does this in a vey unique style. For example car smoking. This is a long shot,
when he introduces Slipknots ‘Snuff’, he uses a lot of long shots, to allow allowing the audience to survey his
the audience to overview the scene, and see the character from a body language etc. He is waiting by the
distance, and recognise there behaviour. This is to create tension for the looks of things, but what for. That is
what Brown has built up tension for.
song to start or for the intro. It does that well for ‘Snuff’, mainly due to the
way the character is acting, as he is acting odd. However Brown sometimes
doesn’t make his introductions to videos long, he makes them short and
snappy. ‘Snuff was an example of a long winded intro, with many long
Another long shot used to show what
shots, mid shots, and tracking shots following him walking etc. With videos
Corey Taylor is looking at across the
such as ‘I walked with a zombie’ which I have referred to numerous times, street. This again is building up tension
he uses words and a voiceover word by word introducing the genre, band, as the audience are curious as to what
and the title of the song. The band then straight away play, this is a much he is gazing at in his suspicious way.
more rapid start compared to ‘Snuff’, Showing he uses many styles with
filming his introductions and his actual videos.
Explaining the horror/content… How you cant imagine it… The name of the band… Title of the song/content…

7. Editing (special post production effects)
What I like about Paul Browns editing, are a few very clear things. Such as the style of the editing itself. He uses many layering tools
with his videos, as he plays bands on stage on top of videos, or different people on top of different backgrounds. This is all edited very
smooth as well, as its all so well put together.
Wednesday 13 - I Walked With A Zombie
Examples of basic/skillful editing:
Corey Taylor - X-M@$
Vince Neil – Tattoos&Tequila
This video includes many different editing styles
as I have mentioned in previous slides. These 2
shots represent 2 of the techniques. First you
This gimmick video feature some strong editing
have a layering tool, which I have used and
uploaded to my blog before using Photoshop. techniques, not any that I would personally use
This is the guitarist, with a spiral background, in my own video, but yet still shots of his work
This video is shot in a basic yet beautiful way. that are influential and creative. He has shot
The shots include many out of focus, to in focus with text over the top, stating his name. This is a the whole video properly with real objects/the
technique I would like to adopt to my work. In
angles. It also includes shots of the band and the last shot is a simple green screen style shot, singer, then using a filter, altered it all to a
singer in b&w playing, with a contrasting girl in where the lead singer/guitarist is standing realistic cartoon style. This is very clever and
colour waking around a swimming pool and clearly on a stage or studio floor, but has been keeps with the feel of the song. He has used
clubs. She is in colour to represent a good thing, cut perfectly to be in a animation style grave this throughout the video, and edited it at a
a positive beauty. The band and singer are I yard, with a strong 3-d effect. This editing is fast pace, this makes it even more effective, as
dark b&w to represent there dark ways, and complex but very effective. Although this effect it brings some fun to the video. Again some
is influential, I am not sure I would adopt it to basic techniques, but very effective and
there rock n roll sleazy style.
my work. influential.