Director Analysis

Jared Leto

Background: 

• Lead singer of rock band 30 Seconds To Mars.
• Has directed all the bands videos since 2006, (sometimes under the name Bartholomew Cubbins)
• Also an actor, starring in films such as Fight Club, Mr. Nobody and Requiem For A Dream.

I chose this director to analyse, because as of yet we don't know what genre the song we will be doing the video for is going to be. Its most likely to fall under a sub-genre of rock. So this director was chosen because the videos are normally something a bit different from conventional music videos and I like the fact that they are something different and it seems that they are treated more like a film than a music video.

In all of 3STM's videos a lot of effort is put into the narrative and a majority of their videos are the length of a short film, the full length of Hurricane being over 13 minutes. This could be because of Jared Leto's experience in the movie industry. The videos have also been described as surreal and artistic which could be a result of working with directors such as David Fincher. Of these three videos The Kill and Kings and Queens combine narrative and performance whereas Hurricane focuses on narrative and is the longest of the three. By focusing so heavily on narrative and making them so long, it subverts the codes and conventions we are used to seeing in rock videos and music videos of other genres.

30 Seconds To Mars

The Kill (Bury Me)

We can see from the very start that this has been treated differently than a normal 3 minute music video. There are conventions of film throughout the video. For example, the video opens with a title screen with the song name and then cuts to a low angle close up shot of the lead singer. There is non-diegetic ambient music to set the tone of the video, a convention that is more commonly used in film. The song does not start until over a minute in and the video begins with dialogue between the band to set up the narrative, again not a typical convention of music videos in any genre. Compared with other videos I have analysed, this video uses fairly high key lighting, although does have a washed out colour palette which goes well with the genre and mood of the video. When the music does start it returns to the typical conventions of a music video with a close up shot of the lead singer lip syncing. It then switches between narrative and performance throughout the video. Cutting on the beat is very common in this video, much more than the other videos I have watched so far. The very fast pace editing used at around 3:30 in the video is still edited on the fast drum beat. Towards the end shots are cut using fade to and up from black, which contrasts with the fast pace nature of the song at this point. They are then used again at the very end of the song, which matches the pace of the song more as it loses some of the extra layers and just has a guitar melody and vocals. There are also parts of the video where the song stops and it goes back to movie conventions by using non-diegetic ambient sounds. Title screens are used throughout, something that isn't typically used in music videos. Other effects are used like flipping the shot so that it has a mirror effect towards the end of the song. I haven't seen this used in any other videos of the genre as of yet and does not seem to be a common effect to use in any genre. 

30 Seconds To Mars

Kings and Queens

Like The Kill this video doesn't have the song starting straight away and looks more like a movie opening, but the video isn't much longer than the song itself. There is an establishing shot of the Los Angeles at night to start and then slow motion shots of the narrative characters and the band, setting up the theme for the video. Slow motion is used throughout the video, and particularly on quieter parts of the song it becomes more prominent. This video uses the more conventional style of both narrative and band performance together and switches between the two regularly. The editing is done off the beat much more, almost completely, in this video which differs to what I have seen so far, not just in the other 30STM video. Compared to other videos, there are a lot of extras in the video as part of the narrative. This contrasts with the performance part of the video when it is just the band in a very isolated location; above Los Angeles at night, and they have the busy city below them. Like a lot of other music videos the singer is lip syncing in both narrative and performance. Compared to The Kill, this video is more like a conventional music video that you would see on the music channels.  

30 Seconds To Mars

Hurricane

This video is by far their longest music video (13m12s) and the original version was banned from a majority of TV networks for being too controversial. For a lot of the video the song Hurricane not played and the song doesn't start until 3 minutes in. It focuses purely on narrative as there is no performance by the band. It uses film conventions rather than that of a music video at the start by having opening credits at the beginning and ambient, atmospheric music playing. Like the Kings and Queens video the first shot is an establishing shot, this time of New York and the visual effects (lightning) and being set at night helps to set the tone. A low angle shot of skyscrapers that zoomed out was very effective in making the audience feel small in contrast with the city which is how the characters are in the narrative. Before the song actually starts there is a non-diegetic drum beat which the editing is cut to and helps to build up tension and create the right atmosphere. The narrative doesn't really begin until about 1 minute 48 when we are introduced to a character/lead singer. Before this it is more like the beginning of a movie when the director just wants to establish a location, time and the lead characters and certain aspects of their character. Sound effects are used throughout the video, another convention of film rather than music videos. Like in film it is used to emphasis things like the fight sequences to have more impact on the audience. From the start it feels a lot more like a short film than a music video as the video is focused purely on narrative and no performance. However, unlike The Kill there isn't any diegetic dialogue, although there is a narrative voice in different parts of the video, again unconventional of music videos. During the song the editing is rarely done on the beat, which is completely different to how it started. Although some of the action in the shots - like changing mid-shot to slow motion-is done on the beat to help emphasis. Slow motion shots are used throughout the video which seems to be a conventional effect for a lot of videos, because its simple and easy to to, but in this video the slow motion is put on part way through some of the shots. For example a shot may start in slow motion then change to normal speed then change back to slow motion to emphasis certain things in the shots, for example part of a fight. Once we see the lead character/singer there are quick cuts in between that show other parts of the narrative and makes the audience question what is happening, something that movie directors try to make their audience feel in films. There appears to be a separate narrative for each character as they never come together which works with the idea of isolation for each person that there is throughout the song.  The video ends with a convention of film by having end credits, not something usually used for the purpose of a music video.