Music Video Director - Sophie Muller

Bit about her

Sophie Muller was born on the 31st January 1962.

Sophie was born in London but spent most of her life growing up in the Isle of Man.

She is an English music video director.

She is most known for her long-time collaborations with artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, No Doubt, Sad, Shakira, Shakespeare’s Sister, Garbage, The Killers, Blur, Annie Lennox, Leona Lewis and Eurythemics.

Muller's first taste of professional film came working as a third assistant on the 1984 horror/thriller Company of Wolves. She then went to work for International Film and Video, honoring her for editing, producing and directing skills.

Her work

Lana Del Rey - Young and Beautiful

Alicia Keys - Girl On Fire

A main thing i have noticed is that the director uses a lot of variation of colour of light and also brightness. In both videos there is lots of variation in colour to emphasise the artist. Also there are lots of spotlights on objects or the artist used. Muller clearly likes variation in lighting. This is different from a lot of other directors and like the idea as it makes the videos different and stand out and would consider using it in my own video. Also both videos had the feature from Goodwin's Seven that there was a relationship between the music and the visuals. In the Lana Del Rey video there when the violin's were lit up, it was in time with the music and in the Alicia Keys video when the 3 generations of women were breaking the vegetables, it was also in time with the music. This was really cool and stood out within the video and also would like to incorporate it into my own video. She uses a lot of variation with shots. In Lana Del Rey's video she used lots of close ups of the artist and musicians and then used lots of long shots of them both also. Whereas in Alicia Keys' video there was less variation in shots but still different shots were captured. The main type was mid and long shots. What was interesting was that both videos were old fashioned but in slightly different and less obvious ways. In the Lana Del Rey video, the makeup and jewellery she was wearing not modern, also she was wearing a long black dress. The whole editing of the video was also made to look old. This is similar with Alicia Keys video as the introduction looks like the opening to a 1960/80s comedy tv show. Also, the style of clothing she is wearing is very formal for a 'mother'/'housewife' to be wearing. Then the storyline is that she does all the clearing up, looking after the kids and cooking then the husband comes home at the end after a day at work. The representation in this video is that women should be the housewife and the men the breadwinners. Also, with the scene of the 3 generations doing the vegetables in the kitchen, it is showing the audience that this is the way all girls should be brought up. 

Muller's previous work

She started in the professional world of film as a third assistant in a horror/thriller film.

Her big break came when through a chance meeting with John Stewart (brother of Eurythmics' Dave Stewart) and Billy Poveda of Oil Factory, an established film production company.

She has directed over 100 music videos.

She never really did much other work than direction of music videos.

Style

She doesn't have a particular style just she likes to be bold and imaginative.

Most of her work is naturalistic although sometimes her use of lighting isn't but she doesn't use CGI or any special effects in her work.

Personal opinion

In my opinion, I love her work as it is very creative and original. She has worked with a range of different artists and within lots of different genres. She has worked with the artist that I am thinking of using one of her songs for my video. This means that after researching the artists music videos, I can incorporate a lot of Muller's ideas into my own video that she used in her video. I also like her because she does mainly conceptual music videos which I am thinking of doing for my video. Overall, I think she is a great director because she creates links with the video and lyrics of the song but also has incorporates originality of her own.