Music Video Director Research: Nigel Dick

Nigel Dick is an English director who has worked on over 300 music
videos from the early 1980s to the present day. He has a wide
variety of popular mainstream artists including: Brittany Spears,
Sheryl Crow, Nickelback, Guns N Roses, Elton John, Meat Loaf and
many more. Dick has covered a wide range of musical genres from popular music to hard
rock. His early style of music video follow what theorist Jon Gow would describe as a
pseudo-reflexive performance or performance documentaries which feature the artists
playing live performances on stage whilst the recorded track is lip-synched.

During this time, Dick would use a variety of different shots

including mid shots featuring the artist singing as well as a
partially including the accompanying instrument such as an
electric guitar. Most often however, he chooses to uses close
ups on the faces of artists and other actors or (in the case of a
pseudo-reflexive or documentary video) the crew members.
Depending on the genre and tempo of the song, these shots would vary in length. For
example, in the video for Sweet Child O Mine the pace of editing was very fast with no
shot lasting for more than a few seconds before cutting to the next. Such as these two shots
which feature close ups of the smoker and the bands guitarists
behind the scenes. Neither shot lasted any more than a second, as
they featured in a segment of the song that was incredibly fast and
upbeat. The camera movement itself was limited, with Dick often
choosing to cut between two different shots
rather than pan or tilt the camera. He would also keep the camera
fixed even if the subject moved almost entirely out of the frame. To
the audience, this adds to the fast pace of the music as they would
appear to be unable to keep up with absolutely everything going on
onscreen. By doing this, Dick is continuing to follow typical codes
and conventions of music videos as identified by Andrew Goodwin. In particularly the idea
that the there is a relationship between the music and visuals.
Dicks stylistic influences and inspirations in his music videos have come from a variety of
sources. This could be from the lyrics of the song, to unrelated locations or ideas that he
feels he has always wanted to attempt in his work. These ideas can also be heavily
influenced by the record labels who are often clear about the style of video they want and
more specifically, the kind of video they dont want. This is likely to have impacted his
decision to include close-ups more frequently than other shots in his videos.
In his more recent work, especially within the last decade, Dick has transitioned to making
more performance-narrative videos even within genres he would previously avoid

narratives, such as rock. In 2012, he directed the music video for

Daughtrys Start of Something Good. Here he included two
young actors to create an enhanced performance, telling the
story expressed within the lyrics whilst regularly cutting to shots
of the lead singer playing his guitar. Whilst Dick uses many similar
techniques as before with close ups and direct address between
the singer and the camera, he also adapts his technique to softer
tones of the modern genre. For example, instead of simply cutting
to the next shot all of the time, his editing would include
transitions such as dissolves. These reflect the positive and
often nostalgic feel of the lyrics within the narrative being
portrayed onscreen. Although still largely fixed, Dick has used
more pans and tilts in his videos to capture, slower and more
precise movements of the subjects onscreen. He will often do this to try and keep the
subject to the sides of the frame.

It was Nigel Dicks frequent work with one of my favourite bands Nickelback, which drew me
to his work as a director. Each of his music videos with the band
have also been performance-narratives, with the narrative often
telling its own, very emotive story inspired by the lyrics. My
personal favourite is the video for Lullaby. In this video, the
pace of editing is much slower to reflect the sad nature of the
lyrics. This reflection between the lyrics, music and narrative demonstrates how Dick
continues to conform to the codes and conventions of music videos within his work. While
there is no explicit mention of the narratives plot within the
lyrics, Dick intercuts the band singing the song in a
darkened, warehouse-style location with a narrative that
follows a struggling single father grieving the loss of his
partner. Where Dick would normally cut directly between
the two, in this particular video, he fades between the shots
which gives the audience a more dominant reading of sadness
and emotion that both the director and the artist intended.
Despite the slight adaptations in his style, there are many
consistencies between Lullaby and Dicks other directorial
work. These include having footage of the band performing the
song as well as close ups on the faces of the band members and their instruments at the
points in which they are most significant audibly. For instance, the close up on the piano
notes as the song opens. It is these aspects, as well as the idea of an emotive narrative that I
would most like to carry forward into my own music video, with the intention of being able
to create an equally strong story inspired by the lyrics of my chosen song.