Music Video Director Profile - Marc Webb

I came across Marc Webb in a list of video directors who are now movie directors. I noticed that Webb had directed the videos of loads of big bands and artists I like, and when I read that he was also the director of one of my favourite ever films, 500 Days Of Summer, I knew I had to find out more about him.

Webb on set

After directing his debut film, 500 Days Of Summer, he was also announced to direct the new Spiderman film coming out in 2012.

Despite his new found Hollywood success, Webb began as a music video director in the late 90s. In 2001 alone he directed 18 videos, including those for Backstreet Boys, Good Charlotte and Green Day. He went on to direct loads of videos for some of my personal favourites, like Maroon 5, Snow Patrol, All American Rejects and My Chemical Romance. As well as his success in the rock world, he has also directed videos for huge mainstream artists like Miley Cyrus, Fergie, The Pussycat Dolls and Nelly.

Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue video

Webb also has a signature white lamb symbol, which appears as a motif in several of his videos including two of Yellowcard's.

Here are some of his notable videos that I think are worth talking about:


My Chemical Romance - The Ghost of You (2005)
A lot of people don't like My Chemical Romance but you can't deny that this video is moving, which is why I think it's extremely effective. It also reflects the song's sombre tone and theme about losing a loved one. The video cost over $300,000 to make and is set during World War 2, paying homage to the film Saving Private Ryan. The band themselves admitted, "we shot a movie and just edited it to be a video". The video cuts between two narratives: the classic performance and a film-like story. The performance shows the band performing in army uniform at a ballroom dance, where we see the protagonist of the video (played by the band's bassist Mikey Way) dancing with a beautiful woman. At the first note of the chorus, the video switches scenes to a gritty setting where the band and many other men are going into war. It is a pretty harrowing video, and I won't spoil the ending, but you can probably guess what happens. A daytime cut was also made, editing out some of the more gruesome scenes like soldiers vomiting and graphic wounds. During one scene, the band claim that when all the members, crew and extras rushed forward on the boat, it capsized and the band nearly drowned, proving that making a music video isn't always fun and games!





Jimmy Eat World - Work (2005)
This video was filmed at Madison West High School in Wisconsin, US, where Webb himself went to high school, showing that he likes to make videos quite close to his heart. It features interviews with students at the school who talk about life after high school and where they see themselves in the future. It also shows these students with their names and ages, filming them during a normal day at school. It fits with the song as it is apparently about doing something you shouldn't be doing, and one of the girls in the video talks about how parents worry about kids getting into trouble and making the wrong decisions, whereas she argues that these mistakes are important as we learn from them. The video again features a performance from the band, cross-cut amongst the high school concept, where they are playing underneath a tree decorated with lights and hanging photos, making it very pretty and visually exciting. The video appeals to both teenagers who like the band and their older fans, as the teenagers can relate to the normal kids in the video and understand what they mean, whereas adults may look back at their time at school and compare themselves to the people in this video and how they expected their lives to turn out. For this reason this is quite a deep video, and was probably made more to make you think than necessarily just for enjoyment.




Fergie - Clumsy (co-directed with Rich Lee) (2007)
Although not a fan of the song I admit that this video is pretty creative and fun to watch. By now a very established video director, working with another, you'll notice that the video opens with the title 'Rich and Marc present', of course referring to Marc Webb and his co-director. The concept of the video is a pop-up book where we see Fergie performing in many different outfits in different locations, including on a catwalk, in a car and a Tron-style future setting, all supposed to be pages in this exciting, interactive pop-up book. The video is very playful and colourful, fitting the style of the song and in complete contrast with the 'The Ghost of You' video. The focus is clearly on Fergie herself, making her the star of the show, and although the song is about falling in love, little attention is paid to the face of the leading man in the video: it's all about her as an artist and a brand.




All-American Rejects - Gives You Hell (2008)
Most people will recognise this video as it's quite well-known and quirky. Three versions of this video were created: the main video, with both performance and narrative, plus a full-performance version and the full-narrative version. I couldn't seem to find the normal version in good enough quality on youtube, so here is the full narrative version. It follows the story of two next-door neighbours, both played by frontman Tyson Ritter. One is a prim, proper version of himself with gelled-down hair, sweater-vests and a perfect suburban-housewife-type girlfriend. The other is a lazy, noisy rockstar who walks around wearing nothing but skinny jeans and shades, bearing his tattooed chest to his disapproving neighbour. The two fight and prank each other until their feud reaches its climax as rockstar-Tyson wakes up square-Tyson in the middle of the night playing music with his band and yelling through megaphones. The storyline fits with the lyrics as the two men are determined to "give each other hell". The video ends humorously as the two decide that the best way to settle their problems is to swap girlfriends; the blonde, perfect girlfriend would rather be with the rugged rockstar Tyson, whereas his cool, laidback girlfriend is more attracted to the nerdy Tyson. The video ends happily for everyone involved!



Webb does not have a particularly clear style as some directors do. As he has worked with so many different artists over the years, he seems to adapt well to all the different genres and song themes to create an appropriate video.

He predominantly works with rock bands, especially at the start of his career, and has made fairly dark, gloomy videos to reflect the style of music, from the grittiness of Green Day's '21 Guns' video to this highly stylised black-and-white gothic feeling video by My Chemical Romance.

However, many of Webb's videos have also been much more commercial and fun, like Miley Cyrus's colourful street-party video. This shows Webb's diversity and that although he seems to favour rock, he is not biased towards particular musical styles or genres.

Most of Webb's videos seem to have the classic format of half narrative, half performance, and I don't seem to have noticed any that are solely concept or narrative. Although this means that Webb generally sticks to music video conventions, this isn't to say that his videos are not creative and great to watch, as they definitely are. In this way Webb has inspired me for my own video as I think the best way to make a video is to have both a performance and a concept or narrative, and Webb has shown me that sticking to such conventions gives you lots of creative scope and can mean your video looks both professional and enjoyable to watch.