AN - Francis Lawrence Case Study

AN - Francis Lawrence Case Study

Francis Lawrence is an American music video and film director who was born on March 26, 1970 in Vienna. He first began his work in the Media as the second assistant camera on the film, Pump Up The Volume (Allan Moyle, 1991) which was prior to earning his bachelors degree in film production at Loyola Marymount University Film School. 

The first music video that Francis Lawrence directed was A Man Rides Through by obscure metal band, Tidal Force. The video switches between performance and narrative, as it tells the story of a reverend having to kill a wanted criminal in the Wild West. From this point onwards, Francis Lawrence went on to become a multi-award winning director who worked on big videos such as Emotion by Destiny's Child (the video that our group is working on for our coursework) and what can be consisted has his highest profile project, Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head) by Will Smith made to tie with the terrible sequel, Men in Black 2 (2002, Barry Sonnefield).

When looking at Francis' videos, he tends to implement a sense of narrative into the music videos he directs because it his part of his style of filming and by providing a narrative within a music video it will give it a deeper meaning, "It's a way to practice your craft. I tried to master tone, character and story arcs. But narrative was always of utmost importance to me, going all the way back to film school." 

He then had the chance to direct his first feature film after pitching his ideas and drawings for a big screen version of Constantine, based on the DC Comics/ Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels. With control of the film's development in the palm of his hand, Francis was able to see this film as a natural extension of his music videos. This allowed him to tell a deep, complex story, "In music video, you're often limited by the song, the tempo, the pace, the lyrics. You learn to work within those guidelines." 


A few years later, Francis went on to direct another feature film called I Am Legend which is considered one of the most expensive films ever made with a budget of £150 million. He also went on to direct the videos for Circus by Britney Spears and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.