Auteur

the Auteur theory 

what is the Auteur theory

In 1954,  François Truffaut wrote an essay entitled A Certain Tendency in French Cinema. In this work he claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the personal ideas of the director. this is clear to see in music videos and films, for example in Alfred Hitchcock's films he is known for addressing mental health issues and making a cameo appearance in his films. the auteur theory is the idea that a directors work can be recognised by certain creative aspects specific to them. 



when specifically looking at music videos the auteur theory can apply through things like the way the video is edited for example hype Williams is known for using banners in his videos and using manny different dance sequences. another example is Chris cummingham, in his videos he is known for giving himself credit by putting his name somewhere in the video also his videos are notorious for being dark and he gets inspiration from the horror genre. 

I decided to have a look at and apply the auteur theory too Roman White. Roman white has worked with many big names such as carrie underwood, kelly Clarkson, billy ray cyrus, Justin Biber, collbie caillat, lady antebellum and taylor swift. 




Roman has a particular strong narrative sense, in the majority of his videos. this is common as the genre he mainly works with is folk/ country and folk/country is all about telling a story with a song. 

an example of this is taylor swifts 'you belong with me' video, the story line follows a teen girl who's in love with her neighbor , but he is in a relationship and the entire video follows her in attempt to show him he's with the wrong girl. 

white starts off by establishing the story and the idea of neighbors. in many of his videos this is the case so establishing shots are key in his videos.  

white specifically applies lyrics of the song to the video giving it a strong narrative relationship between music and visuals. e.g'she wears short skirts i wear t shirts'  

the genre of the song is country and white has worked with the conventions of the genre by incorporating a strong romance element giving the audience something to root for giving the story that empathetic side.   

white also establishes key characters for example in this video the 'villain' is the girlfriend. this re enforces the story like elements to his videos.  

the use of performance sequences are incorporated into the video to hit expectations of the music video genre but white keeps the performer in character as to not break the illusion of the story. 





white plays with the happily ever after aspect of the country genre here but in all his music videos whether its positive or negative white finishes his videos with a clear distinct ending. in this video the girl gets the boy. 

he then resolves the story with a happy ending drawing the narrative to a natural and anticipated end.







lady antebellum 'i did with you' 

   

within this music video you can also look for roman whites auter style. 

1. establishing a strong setting
2. lyrical meaning tied in with visuals 
3. strong romance element 
4. performance based segments 
5. strong narrative ending