Music Video Director:

Nigel Dick.

Director of over 300 Music Videos.

Nigel Dick Biography.

• Favourite colour: Blue• Lucky Number: 21 • Ambition: To ride l'Alpe d'Huez without getting off the bike • Hobbies: Guitars, cycling• Hates: People who don't recycle• Birthday: March 21st• Previous professional endeavours: Architectural Draughtsman, Busker, Cab Driver, Construction Worker, Farm Labourer, Motorcycle Messenger, Packaging Clerk, Record Company Publicist, Scaffold Erector's Mate, Travelling T-shirt Salesman and of course Waiter.

Nominations and Awards.

• 3 MTV awards • 2 Billboard Awards • 3 MVPA awards• 1 Brit Award

• 21 MTV awards• 26 Much Music Awards• 1 Grammy

Awards:

Nominations:

Artists he’s worked with:• THREE DOORS DOWN• TRAIN• TINA TURNER• TRAVIS• THE WANTED• LIVING COLOUR

• ALICE IN CHAINS• ANASTACIA• BRYAN ADAMS• BACKSTREET BOYS• BAND AID• CHEAP TRICK• CHER• ALICE COOPER• THE CORRS• SHERYL CROW• RODNEY CROWELL• DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL• DEF LEPPARD • CELINE DION• FUEL• GOOD CHARLOTTE• GLORIA ESTEFAN• GUNS N' ROSES• ENRIQUE IGLESIAS• IL DIVO• ELTON JOHN• BEN E. KING• CHAD KROEGER/JOSEY • SCOTT• BARRY MANILOW

• RICKY MARTIN•JOHN MAYER• MATCHBOX 20• PAUL McCARTNEY• MEAT LOAF• MANDY MOORE•JOE McELDERRY• NICKELBACK• N SYNC• OASIS • THE OFFSPRING• OZZY OSBOURNE• PUSSYCAT DOLLS• R.E.M.• EROS RAMAZZOTTI • SMOKEY ROBINSON• SAVAGE GARDEN• SIMPLE MINDS• JESSICA SIMPSON• BRITNEY SPEARS• STAIND• ROD STEWART• STING• TEARS FOR FEARS• THIRD EYE BLIND

Films he’s worked on:

"American Pie 2""Centre Stage""Drive Me Crazy""The Karate Kid Part II""Making Mr. Right""The Mask Of Zorro""Message In A Bottle""Mona Lisa Smile""Music Of My Heart""Nightmare On Elm Street IV""Pokémon""Scooby Doo 2""Spiderman" "Spiderman 2""Stand By Me""Timecop""True Lies""The Truth About Cats And Dogs""Wayne's World""Wild Wild West"

1. PERFORMANCE VIDEO:E.G. Evenflow (Pearl Jam), Party Hard (Andrew W.K.)

2. TOTAL CONCEPT VIDEO:E.G. Sabotage (Beastie Boys), Tool Videos

3. STORY VIDEO:E.G. Thriller (Michael Jackson),

4. GAG VIDEO:E.G. Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel), Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz)

5. FILM CLIP VIDEO:E.G. Chad Kroeger (Hero - Spiderman)

6. DANCE VIDEO:E.G. Baby One More Time (Britney Spears) Praise You (Fatboy Slim)

Types of Music Video according to Nigel Dick.

Examples of some of his videos:

Oasis - Wonderwall. Black and white, close ups of old vinyl records, old fashioned styling throughout. Close ups of the singer, shots of the band.

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time. Close ups of Britney performing in front of a dance troop. Typical ‘Pop’ artist, belly showing and dance routines.

“Written out mood board for Guns N’ Roses,” - Nigel Dick.GUNS N' ROSES - Welcome To The Jungle

df #171written 7/10/87

GUNS N' ROSES will perform the number onstage at the Whiskey. We will shoot the band's close-ups during the day and then let in a regular audience that evening and shoot them during their live show. They will play the song perhaps two or three times during the show. There will probably be a need for some extra lighting for the stage show in addition to what they have at the Whiskey but we are not talking about massive lighting rigs etc. We would like to have access to a small crane.

THE CONCEPT: (To be intercut with performance):

PART ONEAxel (the lead singer) steps off a Greyhound bus in Hollywood at night. He has just arrived in town complete with case and guitar. (To be shot on location day 2).

PART TWOAxel walks up to a Television store and looks into the window. (Night ext. day 2).

PART THREEAxel's POV of the television store window. There are a number of TV sets all showing various scenes of violence, civil unrest, contemporary advertising etc. These pieces of footage would need to be obtained from a library. The TV ads could be anything from the last 5 years but does not need to show package shots or product names. All the TV sets should be different. I would suggest we build this window on a set. (To be shot in a studio day 2).

PART FOURAxel is in a seedy hotel bedroom with a girl. They are watching a number of TV sets. Once again the screens are filled with violent images. Amongst these images we must include Manson, the Nightstalker and other 'key' figures. I would suggest that this room is built on a set. (To be shot in a studio day 2).

PART FIVEAxel is now strapped into a large chair in a clinical room. He wears a straight jacket and a head brace. He is forced to watch a bank of modern high tech TV monitors. (These are not the monitors we have seen previously). Once again the images on the screen are of violence. Eventually Axel screams, terrified. I would suggest that this room is built on a set. (To be shot in a studio day 2).

PART SIXReprise of Part Three. We see Axel's screaming face on all the TV screens in the shop window. (NB this is the first time that the TV screens having been showing the same image as each other).

PART SEVENReprise of Part Two. Axel is standing in front of the window of the TV store. He sees himself screaming on the TV's, shrugs his shoulders and walks away.

THE END.

I guess I didn't know how to spell Axl's name properly - I hadn't met the band when I wrote this. The treatment was basically handed to me by Alan Niven over the phone and I put it in order and I typed it out, which is the way Alan and I would work, I guess that's why I typed the phrase 'key' figures the way I did. It's interesting to note Axl's early fascination with Manson even before the release of the first album.

Nigel Dick – Performance Video.Diane Railton and Paul Watson – Pseudo Documentary.

What he specialises in/His Style:

He does a wide range of different style videos. Even though there are many exceptions, he seems to have mainly concentrated on 1980/90 Rock, before progressing with modern music moving into Pop.

He has focused on very well known bands and artists; from 80’s rock ‘Guns N’ Roses’ to 90’s pop ‘Britney Spears’, each with different video styles ‘performance video’ and ‘dance video’.

Nigel has a catalogue of artists, varying from Rock bands to Pop singers. This allows room for a range of different styles of video to create. He tends to use things within the video that match the genre of the music. Such as; within Gun’s N’ Roses – Paradise City video, they’re on stage with a huge audience in a stadium, this shows them as an extremely popular rock band. They show them chilling out backstage, yet still in all their ‘rock’ style clothing.

Also, he tends to do a lot of his video’s in black and white, mainly the rock videos with Gun’s N’ Roses - Paradise City and Sweet Child O’ Mine, also in Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall.’

“Ten useful things to know about writing” - Nigel Dick.

1) No such thing as a bad idea. 2) If you can’t come up with an idea in an hour you CAN come up with ten ideas in a minute. 3) Writers don’t write – they re-write. 4) To be prepared to succeed you should be prepared to fail spectacularly. 5) The idea is there – all you need to do is get all the other crap out of your head to get at it, whether that means writing drivel for an hour or talking to someone else about it. 6) Prevarication is part of the process – and it means you’ll get the washing done. 7) Keep a pencil and paper by the bed. 8) Other people’s dreams are boring. 9) Just like you most creative people have the same idea over and over again. 10) Your first idea is not necessarily your best idea.

Where does his inspiration come from?

“From anywhere and everywhere. Some days it will come from a picture in a magazine on other days from something I see while I'm driving along in the car. Sometimes I stare at the song lyrics until something leaps out at me. Sometimes, if I'm really short on ideas or just desperate I'll write an idea which has nothing to do with the song but is an idea I've always wanted to do. Other times I'll just say, I've always wanted to shoot in this place - perhaps if I write an idea for that place they'll like it and send me there.” - Nigel Dick.

“You should also remember that the label (my client) is very often quite specific about the kind of video they want - and perhaps even more specific about the kind of video they don't want - and this inevitably influences any ideas that you may wish to explore” - Nigel Dick.

“When someone tells me they have an idea already I inwardly do cartwheels of gratitude,” - Nigel Dick.

How to get the right shot for the video.

“Sometimes you don't know that you've got the shot that you want - you just have to move on because of time. “ - Nigel Dick.

“If there's a really important line that the artist flubs I'll go back and do a pick up of that section and then move on. Unlike Kubrick who was notorious for shooting 150 takes on something I think that performances get worse after a while, not better. They lose their freshness and the artist gets a glazed-over expression.” - Nigel Dick.

Documentary style shots with hand-held cameras. Shots of Back stage/Recording studio/Setting up etc.

Shots that look up towards the singer/guitarist. Emphasises their power of music, I’d like to try and include a few of these.

I like the close ups of the singer whilst they’re performing, it allows the person watching the video to get ‘close’ to them, I’d like to include this in my video.

Things I like that I’ll possibly use in my video:

I like this shot used in Oasis’s video ‘Wonderwall’ as it shows the front man being the head of the band, with the rest of them in the background. I’d like to include shots of the full band in my video.

I like how throughout the video lots of the documentary is in black and white, and the live stage performance is in colour. I like how this looks as there is a clear difference between the two, I’d like to try this out this editing style for my video to see if it works.

Why I like his work:

I chose to research Nigel Dick as one of my favourite bands is Guns N’ Roses. The video he directed for Guns N’ Roses - Paradise City is similar to the video which I am planning to do for my band Ten Minutes Behind. It’s a ‘performance video’ according to Nigel Dick, or ‘Pseudo Documentary’ as Diane Railton and Paul Watson categorise it.

Nigel has worked with many different genre of bands, and has done many different genre of videos. This gives more to his CV, allowing more artists wanting to work with him. He has worked with lots of well known artists, such as Alice Cooper and Britney Spears. I find it interesting that he has the skill to apply his knowledge to such different styles of music, which is why I wanted to study him.

Artists such as Britney Spears, Guns N’ Roses, Tears for Fears and especially Nickelback have had multiple videos directed by Nigel, showing that they are obviously pleased with the way he portrays them, and that he is skilled at what he does. I also like how in all of his videos, he focuses on the artist a lot, there are many close ups through his videos, which help to promote the artist ad I’m hoping that during some studio performance in my video, I’ll use some close ups.