Horizon

IIRC Hitchcock in Truffaut's book of conversations, says that all aspirant filmmakers should begin by making silent films. The greatest directors were schooled in that period. Before TV it was the proscenium arch that threatened cinematic style (think of De Mille) and of course, once the magic rectangle got going, well... (Not against TV as such--so not necessary to rehearse the intellectually insecure argument--just noting that it is a major banalizing force whilst at the same time giving the likes of me a crash course in world cinema when I was a kid: BBC don't bother doing that sort of thing anymore mind you)

It's not uncommon for filmschool students to shoot silent films as their projects for purposes of budget. Or at least it didn't used to be; now everyone's using digital so there's less motivation.

Speaking of films I just saw Tarkovsky's first student film: an adaptation of "The Killers". Yeah, the Ernest Hemingway story. Even in filmschool Andrei was obviously a genius.

Sort of following this logic, could an argument be made that the filmmakers who cut their teeth on music videos have an advantage?

I'm not sure what logic that would be. Cutting ones teeth on music videos is probably the worst thing you can possibly do if you ever hope to make a decent film. Well, based on my own observations, although I have found exceptions.

People who jump from music videos and other kinds of commercials tend to be technical geeks with no idea how to direct an actor, let alone what might make for a good human story. At their worst they believe that it's a good idea to make a 1.5 hr long narrative film with the same editing style and cinematography that served them so well when they were making promos for White Zombie. Ugh!

But, like I say, there are exceptions to that. And on the other hand all of the finest short work by far is currently being done in the music video genre. On the whole, though, it's a bad sign if a new director's experience is in music videos.

The pop promo film was a good idea that opened up the gates of hell and shoved popular music through them. In the great fall of popular music to its present state of squalor, the diversion of ingenuity to the ancilleries of the music: technology, videos, different formats were the chief villains. A lurch towards pornographic mediocrity was inevitable.

I had been thinking that perhaps because they don't deal in dialogue, music video makers might develop special skills. But the skill they acquire is the ability to keep the viewer's attention, which is probably why videos veer towards the pornographic. The problem in a music video is that there is no story, which is what distinguishes a director of such from a film director.

Quentin Tarantino and the English director Guy Ritchie are good examples of how the pop video sensiblity has bled into films: empty, flash visuals and the use of music for no other reason than the director likes it. This may not seem unreasonable, but when some thought has gone into the selection, a richer effect is achieved. Take Scorsese, the supreme user of pop music in film: he uses music in a way that enhances the meaning or the theme of a scene or film, instead of having the whole film descend for a few minutes into the director's private pop video. He can be broad as well as subtle in this: Gimme Shelter, say, when Henry Hill is coke-paranoid in Goodfellas, and the music from Godard's 'Contempt' when De Niro and Pesci argue in the desert in Casino, and later at the end.
On the other hand I think of sequences in Tarantino where the music is at best tenuously connected but often just whim (the hideous torture scene in Reservoir Dogs excepted); and with Ritchie: the scene in Snatch where he choreographs a whole boxing scene to Golden Brown for no reason I could see other than he likes the record. That film was studded with flash cutting and visuals that occasionally advanced the story or expanded such theme as may have been present, but mostly were just 'slap you around' pop video stuff.
But in a culture where 'the educated' know more about deconstruction than Aristotle, all complaints on this subject will be regarded as prententious.
The other great enemy of film is tv adverts: you only have to see the films that Ridley Scott makes to see that.

But the skill they acquire is the ability to keep the viewer's attention, which is probably why videos veer towards the pornographic.

Yes, good point. And what's more, every project they work on they are handed some music and the only criterion of success is that it looks cool. So they spend all their time thinking about "visuals". And of course most videos are completely meaningless, quite apart from lacking a narrative. How could you make a meaningful Limp Bizkit video? I don't think it's possible.

The best music video directors are either extremely clever at finding a story to tell in five minutes, or are good at distilling a song into images that either enhance or counterpoint the song. But that is rare; I know of only a handful of people of that description. And, actually, two of them have gone on to direct films. They are just about the only exceptions I can think of.

Michel Gondry

Spike Jonze

Another good short filmmaker who hasn't done a feature is Chris Cunningham.

This one is rather good, no director credited, though.

Grant Gee has done some excellent videos as well. I can't provide a link because Radiohead is so mega-huge that anyone connected with them ceases to have a separate identity on the internet (and probably in real life, too).

Oops. My mistake. That Beck video was directed by Mark Romanek.

'And of course most videos are completely meaningless, quite apart from lacking a narrative. How could you make a meaningful Limp Bizkit video? I don't think it's possible.'

Indeed, but--putting my structuralist hat on--they are incredibly meaningful.

Are you saying that their complete meaninglessness makes them incredibly meaningful?

'Are you saying that their complete meaninglessness makes them incredibly meaningful?'

No, I'm saying that by studying the content of them you can get a real insight into the culture that makes them and consumes them.