Jake Nava
- 1. Jake Nava Music Video Director Jake Nava is an English Music Video Director but also does advertising and feature films. Nava has worked with many different acts some of these including; Britney Spears, Beyonce, Leona Lewis, Atomic Kitten, Usher, Destiny’s Child, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Dido. He has been nominated for Best Video at the MOBOs and Best Director at the MTV Video Music Awards as well as a BET award. Nava also won a MVPA honour for his 2003 music video for Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" in the category of Best R&B Video. He focuses on mainstream work rather than underground and his music videos seem to be predominately female artists rather than males.
- 3. Beyonce; Crazy In Love I really like this music video that he directed, this Is because I like the fact that there is lots of dance throughout it, I also like the way Beyonce connects with the camera and the fact it’s not just shot in one or two locations there’s quite a lot of different scenes of location. I really like the bit where the car catches on fire and the camera flits between her inside of the car and the outside of the car on fire. It gives quite a dramatic effect. Throughout the music video there is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Beyonce is constantly connecting to the camera through the use of the lyrics.
- 4. There is also a clear relationship between the music and the visuals as the video contains lots of choreographed dance routines that goes with the beat of the music. The video is quite sexualised, there are many shots of Beyonce playing up to the camera in a sexualised manner. The editing in this video is quite fast paced. Their are many cuts and transitions, that are kept to the beat of the music and the lyrics of the song. He uses natural and unnatural lighting in this video.
- 5. Usher: Burn The editing in this music video is slow paced, which fits well with the song. At the beginning there are quite a few shots which fade into the next shot, which introduces the song and Usher well. There are also shots of different parts of Usher’s face which creates a build up of who it mite be. I notice that with most of Jake Nava’s music video’s, they are all based around the artist, and there are many close-up shots of them.
- 6. The lighting that he uses is mostly natural e.g. When Usher is outside, though there is some unnatural lighting e.g. When Usher is in his house. I like the use of the animated fire that Jake Nava has used when the girl is swimming in the pool and when Ushers singing outside when the palm trees catch alight. There are also random objects that catch alight, it seems to reinforce what the song is about. I also really like the little dance routine that Usher performs outside his parked car when everything is going up in flames. Its all quite dramatic.
- 7. Leona Lewis: Run The editing in this video is also slow paced, this works with slow tempo of the song. There are not loads of transitions to another shot and when there is one they just gradually fade out. There’s quite a few long shots that go into a close-up shot of Leona’s face. There are many close-up shots of Leona’s in this video, which show the emotion of the song. However this is a reoccurring thing with the music video’s Jake Nava has made, he seems to take a lot of these to make the video’s all about the artists.
- 8. The video is quite dull, there isn’t much light in it and when there is it is unnatural light, just enough to see Leona herself. This adds dramatic effect and goes well with the lyrics and tempo of the song. I really like this music video because its mainly about Leona and her voice. There isn’t much going on in the background, there are just many different shots of Leona . It has been stripped down to not be so much about the video and to be more about her and her voice. This is one of my favourite shots of the video. I think it’s quite a powerful shot of Leona in the centre with the light just breaking out behind her.
- 9. How Jake Nava has influenced my ideas for my A2 music video project... I really like the fact the Jake Nava makes his music videos all about the artists themselves and focuses mostly on them, making sure that they are at the centre on the video. I will think about this when coming to make my music video. I also really like the use of the close-up shots he uses to get through the emotion and to make it more dramatic.