Case Study – Director Floria Sigismondi

Case Study – Director Floria Sigismondi

Rebecca Cooper

Floria Sigismondi • Floria Sigismondi born 1965, is a Canadian photographer and director. Apart from her Art work, she is best known for directing music videos for Marilyn Manson, The White Stripes, David Bowie, The Cure, Christina Aguilera and Muse.

• She has also worked in film, writing and directing Postmortem Bliss (2006) and The Runaways (2010).

•She is most well known for her jittery camerawork which is most noticeable in Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”

Visual StyleAs well as being a music video director, Floria is also very well known for her photography and artwork. Her artistic visuals much like her video work, is very disturbing and unique which then grabs the audiences attention by not being so mainstream. Her extravagant style has been best described as a marriage to the bride of Frankenstein.

Influences & Narrative Elements

One of Sigismondi's primary influences is the work of noted photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, whose stills feature freakish characters and an disrespect for religion and art history. She has also drawn inspiration from the paintings of Francis Bacon, which is most noticeable in David Bowie’s video for Dead Man Walking, a piece notable for its angular sets and brightly tinted palette of green, blue, red and yellow.

Floria has done many videos for artists under the genre of alternative, which is shown through her videos as being very different, her work is not mainstream as it produces a uniqueness and the outcome of every video is varied. She always uses the artists in the videos to promote them further, and the visuals sometimes correspond with the lyrics, depending on the song and artist.

Incorporating it into my own videoDark imagery, is something I aspire too as a photographer and would like to incorporate some of Floria’s styles into my own production, however the artist I am using is slightly lighter and less dramatic (more classical/ alternative) so some of the visuals I have may not relate to the genre of my chosen artist. Although some of my other ideas influenced by Floria can be incorporated such as her use of jittery camerawork and stop motion which is something I would like to achieve in my own music video.

Print screen of The White Stripes – Blue Orchid

Analysis of “The Beautiful People” – Marilyn

Manson Component

Camera Fast cuts, extreme close-ups of earth worms and dismantled mannequins, handheld camera

Lighting The lighting in this video is very dark, relating to the genre of the artist, the darkness of the lighting also contributes to the storyline and visuals as it represents a nightmarish atmosphere.

Edit Jittery camerawork, intercuts, stop motion

Location An abandoned distillery decorated with medical prostheses and laboratory equipment.

Narrative Manson is presented as a ghostly, 13'-tall dictator in controversial attireand prosthetic makeup, he appears to be cheering on a crowd reminiscent to a fascist rally

Analysis of “Fighter”- Christina Aguilera

Component

Camera Constant circling of artist, focusing on her more than any of the other details.

Lighting This is Christina’s darkest and most unusual video, so the lighting is not as recognizable in this video as it may be in some of her other well known videos as she is not recognized as an artist under this sort of video genre, however it relates to the song and overall narrative and visuals.

Edit Transformations of Christina – evolving from a pupa to larvasmashing of glass, computer generated.

Location Derelict warehouse/ or studio made to look abandoned creating a more dark atmosphere

Narrative This video shows the metamorphosis of Aguilera’s slow, yet steady progression of her inner – strength, from being heartbroken, to becoming unbreakable.

Analysis of Supermassive Black Hole - Muse

Component

Camera Hand held camera, jolty, focus’s on the band

Lighting Coloured lighting to contrast with the other use of bright colours. Dark lighting to relate to alternative genre

Edit Intercut of images of dancers in Zentai suits, flashes of black circles symbolizing supermassive black holes, computer generated images – space beings

Location Small antique furniture shop

Narrative The concept of this video, is a recurring dream of Floria’s in which dancers wearing masks of their own faces fill a dark mirrored room