Saba Mughal A2 Media Blog - 1618: Johnathon Glazer

Johnathon Glazer was born on 26 March 1965, and is an English film maker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and advertisements. He attended Nottingham Trent University to study Theatre Design and has directed popular campaigns for Guinness and Stella Artois and has created award-winning pieces for the working for the BBC. Since the mid-1990s he has directed a number of music videos, and was named MTV Director of the Year in 1997. Having worked with artists such as Massive Attack and the well-known Radiohead, Glazers work in these areas is often noted for its originality. Glazer doesn't usually make music videos, he is more known for his work on adverts, in total Glazer has directed;

11 Music Videos
2 Films
29 adverts (6 of which are beer)

One of his most famous pieces is his the Guiness Advert 'Surfer' (1998). What's distinctive about this video and his other beer adverts is that there is a voice over narrating a story of people going to extreme lengths to get their beer, Glazer usually tends to have a plot running through his adverts. Further, even though there is alot going on in this video, the use of CGI was very minimal and common theme within his theory is the fact that it is in Black & White. The message of this video in particular is that good things come to those who wait, which relates directly to advert length, as the adverts are quite long and the best bit is the end.

Virtual Insanity is a song by British funk band Jamiroquai, being of unusual genre their videos can come across as quite unconventional & innovative, and this is a common theme in Glazers videos. The video was made by having the floor stationary while the four walls move to give the impression that the floor is moving. There is no link between the lyrics and the video apart from the title, so Goodwin's theory cannot be applied here, the only relation to the title is the moving furniture and the random appearance of a cockroach. Frith's element of performance, including lip-syncing and dancing, can also be applied to this and many other of Glazer's music videos.

Another famous piece directed by Glazer is of the English trip-hop group Massive Attack with the song Karmacoma. This video is appealing because there is a great amount of intertextuality with the Shining - use of a hotel, long sweeping shots, and ideas from the movie such as the repetitive typing on the typewriter and the twins, there are also a number of face-paced shots which keep the audience occupied and it also links back to various characters. The video is quite eerie, despite the relatively bright lighting the use of voice over makes it strange - 'I want to be free, I am free'.