A Brief Inquiry of Spike Jonze
From a young age, Spike Jonze always had an interest in capturing exciting moments and stories. Whether it was photographing BMX riders or skateboarders, he had a knack for getting fast pace action shots that conveyed a certain rawness and authenticity through whatever medium he produces. Over his career he has grown from making homemade style skate and music videos, to Academy Award winning narrative films. In order to understand this growth, we’ll take a look at some of his most influential projects which carried him to this great success.
Born Adam Spiegel, Spike grew up in Maryland with his mother. During his teenage years he worked within the community at a BMX shop, where he would photograph many professional bikers. Jonze landed a job at Freestylin’ Magazine and moved to California to pursue a career as a photographer. Through the next few years Spike continued to photograph not only BMX riders but also pro-skateboarders, many of which he became close friends with. He was a big contributor to Transworld Skateboarding and began working at World Industries, where he would produce promotional skate videos. His break-out film “Video Days” is what launched his career in filmmaking and is still considered to be influential around the skate community. Spike would then use his skate videos to gain the attention of bands and musicians to direct their music videos. His first music video was for the band Sonic Youth, which featured skateboarders from his previous projects. With his first music video under his belt, Spike would further explore the world of music videos and films, which is what ultimately resulted in some of his best works.
Some of my favorite music videos of his include, Beastie Boys “Sabotage” video, Notorious B.I.G. “Sky’s the Limit” video, Arcade Fire “The Suburbs” video, Daft Punk “Da Funk” video, Kanye West & Jay Z “Otis” video and his most recent being the Apple HomePod commercial. Through all of his work, Spike Jonze continues to push himself to experiment with new styles of art direction and unique concepts. Though he never fails to include elements of his roots in skateboarding and rebel culture, even in his most abstract endeavors. For example, in his most recent feature film “Her”, Spike explores the aspects of intimacy and love through a non-conventional relationship of a man and his computer. Even though this film is a departure from his grunge like and badass visual look, featuring pretty color palettes and melancholic tones with an emphasis on beautiful cinematography, he never abandons the feeling of what it’s like to be an outsider, or different. This is what I believe is his greatest skill, to give inspiration to those who don’t want to follow a status quo of how things should look on a screen. Spike shows us that no story is too small or unimportant to tell, he gives a voice to a generation of kids to make their stories in the most creative and rebellious way.
Like any artist, time will tell their influence on society and how impactful that influence was. I think Spike Jonze is one of the most influential artists of not only the past few decades, but also decades to come. Being as young as he is (for an artist) with the kind of creative touch and feel that he possesses, I think his magnum opus is still to come. There’s no doubt he will produce more commercials and even films, but like many great artists, as he continues to create more and more projects, he continues to refine his craft to a point where he is only getting better with each new artwork. Though his lasting influence on the youth will be remembered the most.
References:
(2019, September 5). Spike Jonze. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jonze
Daft Punk — Da Funk
emimusic. (2009, February 23). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmi60Bd4jSs
UNKLE — Heaven
UNKLEofficial. (2009, March 22). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=sJTJR83wWfI
Pretty Sweet (2012)
(2019, September 5). Retrieved from
Beastie Boys — Sabotage
BeastieBoys. (2009, June 21). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE
Apple “Welcome Home” — HomePod TV Spot
TV, H. H. W. (2018, March 7). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k70OczvX45k
Notorious B.I.G. — Sky’s The Limit
B.I.G., T. N. (2011, September 16). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3vOeCkeCNA
Jay Z & Kanye West — Otis
West, K. (2011, August 11). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoEKWtgJQAU
Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
Fire, A. (2010, November 22). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Euj9f3gdyM
