Music video director (Case study)

Richard Ayoade

Known most famously for his portrayal of the socially inept IT Consultant Maurice Moss in 'The IT Crowd', Richard Ayoade is a comedian, actor, writer and TV presenter (Gadget and Travel Man). He is perhaps least known for being a director, which is surprising to me, as I believe some of his best work to be in the area of cinematography. He has two feature films under his belt, both of which have been moderately successful, however, Ayoade has quite a portfolio of music videos that he has directed as well. His area of music video directing is often in the indie/alternative genre, whether this is deliberate or from mere opportunity is unknown.

Richard Ayoade was born in Hammersmith, England in 1977, he began his directing in his early days of television work, where he co-wrote and starred in Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, a spoof horror British comedy show. A lot of Ayoade's directing displays satire, especially concerning the horror genre.

I was inspired by Richard Ayoade's tendency to portray horrific events such as a werewolf massacring an audience in Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'Heads will roll' or Vlad the Impaler existing in modern times in a light and comical way in Kasabian's single of the same name. I admire the satire and black comedy in making light of a rather gruesome situation, the way that Ayoade does in numerous videos of his.

I also like Ayoade's style of intertextual referencing, often paying homage to films and genres. For example, the video to 'Vlad the Impaler' by Kasabian has consistent intertextual referencing to that of 'Grindhouse' horrors and the general horror genre of 1970s cinema. This is communicated through colour grading, the after effects on the overall footage and in the conceptual aspect of the music video. There is an obvious connection between lyrics and visuals in that comedian Noel Fielding is portraying the historical figure Vlad the Third, who's nickname was Vlad the Impaler as he used to impale his enemies and leave them to die over days in the forest outside of his castle. By using a comedian to portray a widely considered evil and brutal person of history forms its own satire, and through creating the narrative of Vlad the Impaler in modern times killing people, this creates a kind of black comedy effect. 

Richard Ayoade exhibits a pattern of satire and violence across his music video portfolio, along with Vlad the Impaler, another good example of this is the music video to the single 'Fluorescent Adolescent' by Arctic Monkeys. In this video, a group of clowns and a group of men in black are having a gang fight in an abandoned estate in Sheffield. Straight away the video, though violent, appears light-hearted because of its bizarre inclusion of clowns as 'thugs'. The narrative in this video follows the head clown and the head man of the opposing side who know each other from childhood, which is cut to during the music video. At the end of the video, the clown ends up killing his childhood friend. 

Though overall, the video is quite comical to watch, it does have elements of sadness and is quite uncomfortable, as the characters display emotional connection before trying to kill each other. I would like to try and achieve a similar element to my music video: I want it to be a comical video that people can watch and not take seriously, but that, upon closer inspection, can be shown to display darker themes, such as media stigmatisation and self-fulfilling prophecies, along with an ultimate murder.



Perhaps my favourite music video of Ayoade's is 'Heads Will Roll' by a band called the 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs'. As a fan of all these songs and their artists, I was thrilled to discover that a comedian whom I already admire had also directed these enjoyable pieces. 'Heads will roll' follows a performance/narrative video that blends into one at the end. The band sing to their audience and have a werewolf who dances to their song for the audience (the dancing is also resemblant of Michael Jackson, forming another intertextual reference) and when a blinding light flashes and angers the wolf, he chases after and slaughters everybody in the underground venue.


In my original concept at the beginning of the year, I wanted an outdoor concert where a band perform to an audience in a back garden, and the music video would cut to the narrative of a group of vampires experiencing social stigma in a number of different ways. At the end of the video I was going to have the performance and narrative blend together as the group of vampires invade the concert and kill everybody there. For copious reasons, this concept was rather unfeasible, but it was an idea heavily influenced by this Richard Ayoade music video.

In some ways I would say that my new music video concept is more akin to the 'Vlad the Impaler' music video, but that's more down to the character and its comical deliverance rather than the plot.