Case study of Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves was a director that made short films at university. He used a short film called ''Calling Card'' to get himself into the game, it was nominated for awards and got attention from bigger companies. This got him attention from a bigger company that went by the name of Factory Films.

He began his career by shooting three low budget videos, each costing around five thousand pounds to film. 

The environment under which music video directors work is very cutthroat, typically record labels will look at two or three different video variants and the ones that are not selected do not get paid for their work. 

Thraves submitted variants for two music videos and both of his works were accepted 

the first video was for Radiohead's ''Just.''

They had a £100,000 budget

The video was filmed in three days 

This video is like a miniature film, showcasing Radiohead performing in a flat and a man laying on the pavement for no explicable reason. The story begins with a different man minding his own business eventually noticing the man laying on the floor, upon reaching him he tries to figure out why the man is there, but he does not get any answers. The only answer provided by the man laying on the floor to the first man and all the ones that approach him thereafter are that he wishes to be alone and that he cannot give any answers as this would have some kind of bigger impact than the characters initially realize. This keeps not only the characters within the world of the text interested, but the audience as well. This music video and story are very open ended which means that they can be interpreted in a number of ways based on who is watching. Additionally, it is worth noting that the music and the video are not related in any way which may confuse some audiences and distract them from trying to infer some kind of meaning from this unique music video.

The second video was Coldplay's ''The Scientist''

They had a £200,000

This video was also filmed in three days 

This video is also like a mini film, strongly emphasizing the fact that Jamie had or has dreams of eventually becoming a film director. The music video shows events in a reverse chronological order. This may be hard to follow for the audience at first, but eventually we learn of the tragic event that the character within the video had gone through. The car accident resulted in the death of the woman he was currently with and he was supposedly hospitalized or at least experiencing heavy personal emotional problems. In a way, the video shows the characters desire to be alone now that he has lost the one he was with. In a way, the lyrics agree with the video in certain cases though maybe not thoroughly, as the say ''lets go back to the start'' whilst the video is rewinding and going back to a time before the tragic event.

The most recent music video produced by Jamie Thraves was Japanese Popstars - Song for Lisa, it can be seen below.

The fourth and final example of a music video directed by Thraves is ''Death Cab For a Cutie -  I Will Follow You Into The Dark''

Just as with other works from Jamie Thraves, this video tells a story. This one focuses on religious symbolism, a strictly catholic lad notices a hole in the middle of his room after waking up, and eventually symbolism between heaven and hell is heavily implied. The size of the hole in the floor expands and the man falls in, he tries to climb back out but eventually finds himself in the hole anyway which means that he has accepted his fate. This video tries to explain the consequences of sinning as a catholic.

Currently the budget Jamie Thraves uses a budget of around £20,000 for each music video and takes a shooting time of around two days.

Thraves used music videos as a way to enter the film business, his work shows that he wants to be a film director, instead of a music video director, this is because each one of his music videos tells a story.

He has so far shot three features

1. The Low Down
2. The Cry of the Owl
3. Treacle Jr

Jamie Thraves' tip for interpreting his music videos is to use the lyrics, but not be too literal, attempt to interpret the emotional flow of the lyrics.