Editor

Paul Martinez

JAY Z and Mark Romanek channel the racist stereotyping of early cartoons by Disney, Fleischer and Warner Brothers for satirical purposes. And although it&#39;s brilliantly realised,&nbsp;it doesn&#39;t make comfortable&nbsp;viewing at times.&nbsp;Romanek and Jay Z certainly do not underestimate the intelligence of their viewers - and that takes courage. Because however ludicrous the idea, somebody&nbsp;out there is going to think that Jay Z identifies with this caricature.&nbsp;

United States

Mark Romanek

JAY Z

Elizabeth Newman

Daniel Midgley

Lauren Wesley

Lisha Tan Lead

Rustam Hasanov

Tim Devlin

Ilya Abulkhanov

Arcade Edit

JAY Z 'The Story Of O.J.' by Mark Romanek & JAY-Z

JAY-Z - The Story of O.J.

Those stalwarts the Chili Peppers are back, with a video with old school MTV-style heft directed by&nbsp;actress Olivia Wilde - her second video following the iPhone shot effort for <a href="http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2016/03/23/edward-sharpe-magnetic-zeros-no-love-yours-olivia-wilde" target="_blank">Edward Sharpe &amp; The Magnetic Zeros</a>.&nbsp;And here the band&#39;s characteristic goofy hi-jinx are accompanied by an all-female&nbsp;group of skaters, bearing some gnarly-looking skateboarding injuries...

Olivia Wilde

Saul Germaine

Anonymous Content

Nina Soriano

Amanda Amann

Chad Antonelli

Christopher Blauvelt

Seth Peschansky

Manny Tapia

Jade Healy

Nancy Steiner

Maxi

Beau Leon

Framestore

Devin Sarno

Warner Bros. Records

Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Dark Necessities' by Olivia Wilde

Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-'Dark-Necessities'-by-Olivia-Wilde

Actress Olivia Wilde has directed this new video for&nbsp;Edward Sharpe &amp; The Magnetic Zeros&#39; No Love Like Yours, which was shot in New Orleans, exclusively on iPhones.It sees the lead singer Alex Ebert&nbsp;in a surreal, dreamy sequence in which he&nbsp;wakes up in a tub located in a barren wasteland, before finding a troupe of dancers, musicians and artists. Then, he joins them&nbsp;in the dance, singing in an&nbsp;exaltation of love &ndash; until he comes face-to-face with a casket spewing red smoke...&nbsp;

Barbara Burchfield

Reed Morano

Eric Stern

Rock

Folk

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros 'No Love Like Yours' by Olivia Wilde

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - No Love Like Yours

In a departure from her country roots,&nbsp;Taylor Swift joins forces with Mark Romanek for this excellent&nbsp;tongue-in-cheek&nbsp;and fun promo to her single Shake It Off, from her forthcoming album 1989 (October 28).Putting in&nbsp;a stirling performance,&nbsp;Taylor raids the dressing-up box to perform with a rock band, ballerinas, cheerleaders and b-boys, sending-up video cliches in the process...&nbsp;

Ari McGarry

Jeff Cronenweth

Taylor Swift 'Shake It Off' by Mark Romanek

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

When you are a leader of an industry it is up to you to forge ahead, lead the rest, inspire. Jay Z has shouldered this burden for years and now with his &#39;performance art&#39; he has again taken a step ahead of his peers. One step ahead of even the quintessentially odd Lady Gaga who too has endorsed Marina Abramavich&#39;s performance school, the Marina Abramavich Institute, in her own&nbsp;wholehearted manner.As expected the concept is on point. In a world where we want to be engaged on a more personal level day by day due to the ever growing lack of humanity in our every day, the personal performance is a natural step. Jay Z supposedly performed Picasso Baby for 6-hours straight to one person at a time to a select crowd at the Pace Gallery in NYC. Perhaps a only fault is the crowd, made up of actors, dancers, singers, writers, art dealers and metrosexuals who &quot;rep Brooklyn&quot;. Having himself grown up in Brooklyn before its recent gentrification, Jay Z couldn&#39;t be further from home.Regardless of the difference in class attending the project as a music video itself it is easily enjoyed. As with all great art it is the little details that make the difference in the big picture, in this case the audio. Having the live recording rather than the studio recorded track is a must, it lets you experience the performance that little bit more allowing the viewer to almost participate rather than simply spectate. Although its not the starting point, the end product is a music video as for all its hype and glitz as an art piece, it is&nbsp;reliant on the fact they filmed it and are putting it out to a wider audience.Even with a great idea, the direction must not be taken for granted.&nbsp;When you&#39;re Jay Z you have a wealth of talent at your fingertips; enter Mark Romanek.&nbsp;Before Romanek starts shooting the idea is just a concept and it is the candid style with which he captured the event that helps bring it to life.&nbsp;Cutting his teeth in the music video industry as far back as the 90s, his direction won acclaim and the chance to create Scream, billed as the most expensive music video ever, for Michael and Janet Jackson. His eye is award winning and thus he naturally brought his vision to the big screen. Having worked with Jay Z on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwoM5fLITfk" target="_blank">99 Problems</a>, it&#39;s easy to see why they have reunited.So what next? Kanye West x Nick Knight projected their video onto walls in 66 different locations around the world before release as an interactive version. Miley Cyrus twerked her way to the fastest 100 million viewed video, in a bold new white girl 2.0 direction. It obviously wouldn&#39;t be fair to compare our modern day pioneers to those that defined the industry in the 80s, the Michael Jacksons and Madonnas, but they are trying to make an unforgetable mark.The music video is once again a focal point at the top end of the music industry and if that means we&#39;ll see more innovation, can I get an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6m8M3Iw_k" target="_blank">encore</a>?* Check out Luke Tierney&#39;s blog,&nbsp;Word Is Cheap, or his Twitter @wordischeap, for more thoughts on his favourite music videos.

Jody Lee Lipes

Nicholas Hahn

Geoff Hounsell

Dave Hussey

Jay Z 'Picasso Baby' by Mark Romanek

JAY Z "Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film"

In it&#39;s first week of release&nbsp;Diane Martel&#39;s promo for Miley Cyrus&#39; We Can&#39;t Stop had over 32&nbsp;million views on Youtube, also breaking&nbsp;the record for most views on Vevo in 24 hours.Diane&#39;s promo, following the global success of her video for Robin Thicke&#39;s <a href="http://promonews.tv/videos/2013/04/10/robin-thicke-%E2%80%98blurred-lines%E2%80%99-ft-ti-pharrell-diane-martel">Blurred Lines</a>, see&#39;s Miley complete her transformation from child Disney star to fully-fledged rock star with this raunchy performance set against Martel&#39;s eye-catching imagery.It also features a skull made of chips. WTF!!!!

Diane Martel

Black Dog Films

Gina Harrell

Dina Ciccotello

Olivia Malone

Nick Rondeau

Kirston Thon-Webb

Derek Hansen

Skulley FX

Miley Cyrus 'We Can't Stop' by Diane Martel

Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop

Diane Martel made two versions of Robin Thicke&rsquo;s Blurred Lines. Robin and T.I. and Pharrell with some beautiful girls &ndash; one the girls are wearing tops, and one they take them off. The latter is now banned from YouTube, but viewable on Vevo and on Vimeo. Lots of press has resulted, including <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5993806/not-safe-for-youtube-how-google-draws-the-line-between-porn-and-art">this one about Google&rsquo;s take on what is and is not acceptable on YouTube.</a>
So is it art or porn&hellip; or both? Whatever, Robin can&rsquo;t be complaining.

Paul Martinez

Editor

Videos featuring Paul Martinez

2017 (1)

2016 (2)

2014 (1)

2013 (3)

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