2. Adam Spiegel or Spike Jonze was born ion the 14th December 1911in Rockville,
Maryland, and raised in Bethesda, Maryland.
He’s a Oscar winning American director. He also works as
a producer, screenwriter and actor, whose work includes music videos,
commercials, film and television.
During his early life he was working mainly as a photographer for the
magazines ‘Dirt’ and ‘Homeboy’
He gained the nickname Spike Jonze from his childhood which was given to
him by the owner of a shop he used to often visit.
Finally he was the heir to a wealthy catalogue owning family.
3. He’s best known for his collaborated work with writer Charlie Kaufman as
director for 2009’s ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.
Jonze is also known for his Film ‘Being John Malkovich’ winning him an
academy award.
Being both the co-creator and executive producer of MTV’s Jackass is
another reason he’s know. This links in with his love for skateboarding which
is featured as a strong theme throughout.
He’s also the owner of a skatebord company ‘Girl Skateboards’ with riders
such as Rick Howard and Mike Carroll
Jonze has worked with many musicians through his career however the
video’s he’s best known for producing are in his collaborations with Weezer,
The Beastie boys and Björk
4. Jonze’s style is very mixed and seems to change depending on the
music video. An example of this could be a comparison between his
work with Björk in ‘Oh it’s so quiet’ contrasting completely with
Beastie Boys sabotage.
Sabotage is a video which is contrasts completely from it’s name.
Based around an early 80’s cop action drama it focus’s on the
catching of criminals which is not what the name infers. This can be
seen as an expression of spikes unique and unbound style.
Spikes videos swap between narrative and performance however i
have yet to see an example of concept as the performance by the
actors is entertaining enough.
5. Recorded in 2000 weapon of choice was one of two songs on a
double sided EP released by the artist fat boy slim.
This video features Christopher Walken dancing and wond multiple
awards at the MTV video music awards.
Spikes style to manipulate parts of the visual style to create a surreal
video is expressed in this. The video starts with Christopher Walken
walking normally though a hotel lobby dressed in a smart suit. This
quickly progresses into a dance routine. Which is carried on
throughout the building, finally the video loses all sense of realism.
As Christopher Walken energetically fly's from wall to wall in the
main lobby, smashing our concept of reality.
This video is a stereotypical expression of jonze’s video style
expressing a concept which breaks the norm.
6. Films Television Music videos
1999-Being John 2000- Jackass Beastie Boys-
Malkovich Sabotage 1994
2002-Adaptation 2004- Sonic Youth Björk- It’s Oh So Quite
Video Dose 1995
2009- Where The Wild 2010/2012- The Daft Punk- Da Funk
Things Are Increasingly Poor 1997
Decisions of Todd
Margaret
2013- Her Fat Boy Slim- Weapon
Of Choice 2000
Weezer-Island In The
Sun 2002
Arcade Fire- The
Suburbs 2010
JayZ/ Kanye West-
Otis 2011
7. Personally I find Jonze’s work to be quite vibrant and active, it’s
constantly changing as you can tell through the progression of his
work. This was one aspect I enjoyed, due to this his style isn’t stable
and set into a specific place.
You can see a collection of ideas by screening his work building up
a picture of his mind. Which let me see him as a person and feel a
sense of connection to his work.