JONATHON GLAZER

Director Study

Jonathon Glazer is 47 years old and was born March 1965.

He is an English Director of Commercials and Music Videos, sometimes of Films.

WHO HE IS

B I O G R A P H Y

After studying Theatre

Design at Nottingham Trent

University, Glazer started out

directing theatre and making film

and television trailers, including

award-winning work for the BBC.

F I L M O G R A P H Y

Sexy Beast (2000)

Birth (2004)

Under the Skin 

(2012, forthcoming)

He also directed three short films of his own: "Mad" "Pool" and "Commission”.

A DV E RT I S E M E NT S

Kodak: "Husband To Be"

Pretty Polly: "Linda 2"

Mazda: "Shock ff the New"

AT&T: "Chief Executive's Wife"

Club Med: "City"

AT&T: "Sales Director"

Nike: "Frozen Moment" (1996)

Nike: "Guerrilla Tennis"

Caffery's: "New York"

Nike: "Parklife" (1997)

Guinness: "Surfer" (March 1999),

"Swimblack" (May 1999)

Levi Strauss: "Kung Fu" (January 2000)

Stella Artois (January 2000): "Last Orders”

& "Devil's Island”

Volkswagen Polo: "Protection" (January

2000)

Wrangler: "Whatever You Ride" (May

2000)

Guinness: "Dreamer" (April 2001)

Levi Strauss: "Odyssey" (January 2002)

Barclays (January 2003):

- "Evil”, "Bull” & "Chicken"

Ad-Aid (for Live Aid, 2004):

- "Bar”, "Double Don”, "Rant” &

“Razor"

Stella Artois: "Ice Skating Priests"

(April 2006)

Sony BRAVIA: "Paint" (October 2006)

Motorola Red (unreleased) (December

2006)

Sony 3D TV (June 2010)

M U S I C V I D E O S

To date, Glazer has been recognized for

having shot 12 Music Videos. Having worked

with the likes of Blur, Radiohead and

Jamiroqui, what is typical of glazer is his

choice of camerawork, use of mise-en-scene

and editing.

CAMERA WORK

Glazer tends to use a lot of close up shots

and mid shots to fully portray the tone of

the piece. In ‘Rabbits in the headlights’ his

use of these shots illustrates the

vulnerability of the lead role which goes

against male objectification conventions.

What is typical of Glazer is his cinematic-

look to his videos. This has allowed him to

fully captivate the tones of the piece,

setting it apart from usual music videos.

MISE-EN-SCENE

By taking everyday environments, Glazer tends to manipulate

them with negative or darker connotations and create

surrealism.

- For example if we look at Blur’s ‘The Universal’, Glazer

uses clinical lighting and costume to create an out-of-place feel

to the bar that the band are featured playing in. The

performance shots are interchanged with scenes of a crowd

of ordinary people standing motionless before an oddly

shaped speaker. The evident minimalist take on the video

throughout provides an ‘eerie’ and ‘unsure’ feel for the

audience.

EDITING

Slow motion and long shots are used combined

with special effects to create the enigmatic and

disturbed feel to the videos.

-In the case of Radiohead’s ‘street spirit’ uses an overlap of shots in

black and white to illustrate the feel of the piece.

In Blur’s video, Glazer uses a picture of a magnet as a symbolic reference to convey love/lust. This was added in post-production.

S U C C E SS E S

Since the mid-1990s he has directed a number of music

videos, and was named MTV Director of the Year 1997.

BAFTA Nominations:

- Best British Film

- Best Director of a British Independent Film.

- Satellite Award for Best Director

- Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film

S T Y L E

Glazer’s style has been regarded as unique. He sets

himself apart with a surreal style that employs lots of long

takes, unlike modern cut-a-second videos. he has also been

known to hire actors for videos which may explain why

some of his music videos are more like Mini-Movies. This

can explain how he later made a transition to film so

fluently. His video tend to be slow-paced but with complex

narratives and disturbing themes, which altogether

challenges the audience.

C O M M E N T S

Glazer’s style of directing is unique and is evidently a

contributing factor for his success. He appears to experiment

with his videos in an effort to spark controversy, but to equally

shed light on what can be done, without hesitating to step out of

video conventions. Glazer does make an attempt across his work

to include the features identified in Andrew Goodwin’s theory,

which suggests that usual conventions are still permitted within

Music Videos in order for an audience to interpret them

correctly.