Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek was born September 8th 1958 in Chicago Illinois. As a youngster Romanek attended New Trier East public school North Chicago, this is where his love for film started as he participated in a four year film production- theory program at school. Romanek left school early 70’s and moved to New York to study cinema and photography at Ithaca College. After leaving college with a degree he got involved in the film business and his first major role was a 2nd assistant director for Brian De Palma for a film called “Home Movies”, which was a movie about Brian De Palma life. On the Set he met Keith Gordon who Played brain De Palma in the film. Few years later Keith helped him release his first film in 1986 called Static which didnt become a big hit, and struggled to get his name into the industry. After being part of the film industry for few years he decided to focus on making music videos as it was personal Interest and got himself involved with satellite films who signed him to work with music stars. He has worked with many successful music artists, at satellite films and is still making music video today he has worked with…
Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Cold Play, Jay Z, Linkin Park, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Madonna, Fiona Apple, Beck, Macy Gray, Mick Jagger, Lenny kravitz , Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Sonic Youth.
He became very popular in the music industry in the early 90’s for making unknown artists become stars and Bands wanted to work with him as he video where known for being unique. He didn’t mind what genre and will happy to work with less main stream performers. He loves all different types of music and love creating a visual story for music. He His first real popular video was with Nine Inch Nails with “Closer” in 1994. The video shows events from 19th century-style scientist's laboratory that deal with sexuality, animal cruelty, and terror. This became popular as critics said the video was Demented and disturbing. This is one of the reasons it was so popular, as people wanted to see if it was actually as bad as people have said. Romanek was inspired by the film "The Street of Crocodiles", as most of the veido set is an recreation of the film sets. The video was also motivated by the disputes in world as that current time, such us Terror, animal cruelty etc. The video received frequent rotation on MTV, though the network made extensive edits to the original version, which they said to be too graphic. The audience responce to this video was good as it was voted top 20 videos of alll time on VH1. the video itself (censord version) has had 48,324 views on youtube and comments such as "I love the song and this video". the unsensord version had had 14,143 veiws on Video swift.
Above (Cencord version)
Before Nine Inch Nails he worked with many popular artists such as Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians with "Madonna of the Wasps" and "One Long Pair of Eyes” in 1989. Also worked with David Bowie “jump they say” and has won VMA awards with Lenny Kravitz in 1993 Also Madonna with “Rain”. After his hit with Nine Inch Nails All stars wanted Romanek to work with them as his video’s was so unique and he was good to work with. In 1995 he teamed up with Two of the most popular artists of all time Michael and Janet Jackson with there song “Scream”. This was also the most expensive video Romanek has ever made and most expensive of that era with a price tag of $7 million. This song appealed to all ages as it already had fans from Michael and Janet Jackson, but drew in a younger audience as the video was made to look futuristic and modern. The audience had a good response to this as it made the top 10 in the UK single charts this gave Romanek his first award in the music industry “Grammy award” for best short form video.
This video has had 1,037,097 views since late 2008, and has reviews such as "WOW best video". His motivation for this was the trouble that Michael was in with the press the video represents Jackson in his own world away from the press. After he won a Grammy award he became hot property and all artists wanted him for ideas and to direct there video. He went on to work with "Little Trouble Girl," Sonic Youth (1996),"Novocaine for the Soul," Eels (1996),"El Scorcho," Weezer (1996),"Devils Haircut" Beck (1996),"The Perfect Drug," Nine Inch Nails (1997),"Criminal," Fiona Apple (1997). He won two VMA’s out these one for Beck “devils haircut” and for “criminal” Fiona Apple, he was noticed for making Fiona a star as she won Nemours rewards for best new comer. After his fame with Fiona Apple he was delighted to get an opportunity to work with Janet Jackson again in 1997 to win another Grammy award for Best Short form video, again. The song itself didn’t make top 20 in the USA charts but the video was very popular among artists and critics. In the same year of 1997 he also won a "vangaurd" award for his overall contribution to the music world, this was a great achievement as previous winners have been music artists. Next Big star Mark help to create was Macy Grey in 1999 with I try. This was his second song he did with Macy as in 1998 he directed “if you can’t say no” Which was on Macy mix tape. The Album with I try ended up going multi platinum at the end of 1999 as “I try” was the most popular track on the album. In the early millennium he began to work with more commercial acts and produced well known videos which are still played on a regular bases on the music video channels. "Hella Good," No Doubt (2002), "Cochise," Audioslave (2002), "Hurt," Johnny Cash (2002),"Can't Stop," Red Hot Chili Peppers (2003),"Faint," Linkin Park (2003),"99 Problems," Jay-Z (2004),"Speed of Sound", Coldplay (2005). All of theses songs succeeded in there area of music and most of them won rewards this was all help to the video. The most popular video was “hurt” by Johnny Cash which originally sung by Nine Inch Nails in 1994 and Romenak also did the video. Fans loved the video for Johnny Cash’s version as it represented Johnny’s life as the song was released shortly before Johnny passed away. Critics say “its one of the best video’s ever” it was given the “best video of the year” award at the Grammy’s. The most successful video that Romenak has ever taken part with was in 2004 with Jay-Z “99 problems” 12 awards in just under a year, Romenak won “best director” of the year because of this video. Some of Romenak work has been selected to represent the country in museum of art in New York as it has been said to be some of the most creative work ever, he has two music videos in the museum Nine Inch Nails with “Closer” and Madonna with “Bedtime Story”. Romenak has also been involved with television commercials in America and has directed adverts such as Apple Computer, Acura, Nike, Calvin Klein, American Express, ESPN, Saturn and Honda. He hasn’t directed a music video since 2005 as he has been concentrating on a new project in directing theatrical films, and is in the process of directing Wolf man which is due to be released early 2010.
a Review of Marks book from amonzon
“I've been a fan of Mark's before I even knew who he was, because all of my favorite videos were directed by him. This beautiful book is wonderful in that it displays many of the breathtaking images experienced in the dream-like environments he so masterfully creates. The book, however, doesn't make him any less elusive and mysterious, because the few pages of text don't elaborate much on him - but I guess - what can you expect, it's a book of video stills. After breathing in each page, you're left unfulfilled. You want more images, more pictures, more Mark! This is an absolute must buy for any fans of the art of music videos, Mark Romanek, and Milla Jovovich :)The fabric cover/binding is beautiful and the picture is perfect eye candy. I'm ready for the Mark Romanek Video Archive !”
Biography
www.markromanek.com
www.youtube.com
www.wikipeida.org
www.markromanek.com/video
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