Research into a Music Video Director

Liam Lynch

Liam Lynch is a little known writer, director and musician who has directed various things, from short films and music videos to full feature films. His album "Fake Songs" and its main track "United States of Whatever" were both featured in the UK and Australian top 10 of the top 40 music chart. He has writen songs and scripts for MTV shows such as 'Clone High' as well as the two feature films 'School of Rock' and 'Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny'.

One of his most well known music videos is 'Tribute' by Tenacious D. Its simplistic and comedic approach won him alot of praise from fans of the band as well as people who had previously been unaware of Tenacious D. This style of directing and writing has been carried over into many of the other music videos he's directed.

For example, when looking at the music video for the Foo Fighters song "Times Like These" we can see clearly that the style has been carried across. The video itself is a performance based piece, with the band playing against a green screen backdrop on which many abstract and 'phycadelic' animated images are shown. At certain stages of the song, cloudy skys are shown insted of the abstract animations. The animations themselves are much like the 'visualisations' that are available on most media players in the sense that they move and change in time with the music. The video also uses mostly MS and LS of the band, either all together or seperately. This video, as well as his others have many mixed responses, however most are positive. Here's some examples.

"Times Like These" By Foo Fighters Video

"Times Like These" By Foo Fighters video responses

"amazin video, they must have been really stoned"

"excellent video. totally matches the song."

"LOL no woder they did another video...
This one sucks as... Fuck it really doesn't match the kickass song"

"this video is soo cheap, but awsomee !"

"Tribute" By Tenacious D video responses

"freakin amazing song and video! totally fits!"

"this is epic always luvd tenacious d an all there videos and songs"

"umm, what? this video just looks like some cheap attempt to make what is a failing song funny..."

So as you can see, some mixed responses. His style for using excessive green screen work has been critised as being "too cheap and tacky" while others commend him on his ability to produce something good on such a low budget. Yet again, when looking at the music video he directed for "Craigslist" by Weird Al Yankovic you can see that this technique is carried across to that too with the artist standing and singing infront of a green screen with abstract images behind him. However, even though it is so simplistic, it works, in my opinion. It shows that even though something is simple and cheap in an industry obsessed with high budget CGI and Special Effects, it can still be just as effective.

"Craigslist" by Weird Al Yankovic

Overall, I think that Liam's audience is obviously fans of the band as he is not very well known at all. However, he seems to stick to a set audience which is around the Teen to Young Adult market, choosing bands that appeal to that age range as shown by his directing and writing work in the films 'School of Rock' and 'Pick of Destiny' which are also popular with that age range. He tends to stick more with the comedic music and film genre as evident in his work with Jack Black and Weird Al.