Music Video Directors: Ellis Bahl

There are a lot of directors around at the moment with work that I particularly like, yet one of my favourites is director Ellis Bahl. As a young director, he lives in Los Angeles, California and studied at Emerson College. After working at MTV networks as an associate producer, he now directs music videos for the likes of Alt J, Bank and SIR SLY.

 Alt J 'Breezeblocks'     

 BANKS 'This is what it feels like'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SIR SLY 'Gold'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Big Sean 'Ashley'

 

Through watching a lot of his videos, it is apparent he is known for his darkened tonal ranges on shots and slow motioned frames that give each of his videos a sinister atmosphere that work well alongside deliberate underlying meanings. Also the emphasised use of close up shots and extreme close ups makes the audience identify with the characters, which reveals the true emotions of the characters in these harsh environments.


 Working with the artists above, he takes a wide range of genres on, but is now seen to be focusing on alternate indie tracks. Bahls work is quite underground at the moment, his directing on Alt J's 'Breezeblocks' being the first to be recognised due to the bands risen popularity. His unique style of filming was on this track is what is getting him noticed today, the whole narrative played in reverse of an abusive fight between a man and woman with references to the title of the song. This is a particular favourite of mine and what brought me to his attention because of this captivating way of filming.

 
His stylistic influences come from a lot of stop motion production, the simplicity yet effort that goes into every shot which makes the audience reflect on after they have watched it. He also takes influence from Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino, some of the most well-known directors of film with a noticeable and intriguing way of filming that is reflected in his own work.


His videos mainly include just a narrative element to them, only few including actual performance shots. They mainly tend to focus on a maximum of three people in each video, as if we were just observing the life of someone else for this short space of time. To keep this narrative, he consistently uses continuity editing to keep a sense of time moving on in the story, which keeps the editing from shot to shot quite unnoticeable. He also tends to use match on action editing that portrays what the character is doing in detail which becomes apparent in the story telling.


I particularly like Ellis Bahls work for a number of reasons. I am particularly fond of videos that do take a narrative that connects with the song, and the way he portrays this really works. His use of a darkened filter on the shots increases the atmosphere of the scenes, and reflects the harsh environments these stories are conveying. I also like his use of slow motion that lets the audience view every minor detail in focus, and drags out the events that either shock or question the audiences idea of what is really happening. I will defiantly consider Bahls directing techniques in my own work, as they provide slick and intriguing videos to accompany alternative indie music.