Sophie Muller

• Born in London where she gained a Foundation Diploma in Art before Mastering in Film & Television

• Her videos usually involve the singer or band being inside a dim, isolated room.

• She regularly collaborates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Blur, Gwen Stefani and the Eurythmics.

• Recently she has worked with Cheryl Cole, Ellie Goulding and Kings of Leon.

• She doesn’t seem to specialise in any particular area, her videos are for a wide variety of both popular/commercial and less known artists. However videos to hit songs such as “Use Somebody” and “Promise This” proves that she does generally make videos for successful artists alongside her regular collaborators.

• Studios are used in her videos which often contain performances but this can vary between the artists – as can be evidenced in the Cheryl Cole video to “Promise This”.

• She makes videos which are specific to each artist without any overbearing personal style but there are common elements throughout – such as the artist being in a dimly lit room.

• I like her work because she has worked with some of my favourite artists and I particularly like her video to “Promise This”, because I like the fact it’s filmed in a studio but doesn’t appear as contrived and also the use of silhouettes and cloudy backgrounds comes across as dramatic, suiting the tone of the song. There are many iconic scenes to the video.

Dimly lit room, artist is isolated

Clouds used for dramatic effect and to contrast with the clothing of the artist.

Cheryl Cole – Promise This

Silhouettes used cleverly and to break up the pattern of choreographed dancing

Kings of Leon – Use Somebody

Live performance – shows versatility of Muller as a director and is likely that the artists had a say in the direction of the video. Also suits the genre of music and stereotype of a rock video.

Beyoncé – Broken Hearted Girl

Close up of artist shows importance placed upon them to “sell the record”, and is likely to be as a result of pressure from the record label to sell the artist along with the song. Black and White is typical of a love song and R’n’B and allows the focus to be on the artists emotions and actions rather than the colour of the environment around them.

Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie

Again the artist is isolated with the focus being placed entirely on them as a performer and as a person – also typical of Muller’s style with the artist being isolated, however not in a dark room, rather a darkened studio with light being placed upon the artist, as if it was too dark then it wouldn’t comply with the music and would look out of place.