Director Study - Joseph Kahn

A short Biography...

Joseph Kahn (born 12th November 1972) began his directing career in his teens, shooting skateboarding videos of his friends while juggling an array of part time jobs to fund these early ventures into the industry. A heavily ambitious Kahn eventually enroled at NYU, only to drop out a year and a half into studies in order to fully embrase the emerging market of hip-hop videos.
Within two years, Kahn executed dozens of low budget videos where, alike Samuel Bayer, he served as a one man army; acting as his own cinematographer, editor and production designer. During this time he was able to develop his self-taught filmmaking skills that would launch him to the forefront of a new generation of emerging directors.
In 1991, Kahn set up his own production company, 'Supermega', which is now housed under HSI Productions.
Today, he is credited with launching and expanding the careers of many of the artists he works with; moulding a public image as well as delivering a popular video.

Awards and Recognition...

Kahn won several MTV Music Video Awards with nominations for Best Video for Brandy & Monica-"The Boy is Mine" and Britney Spears-"Toxic". Eminem's "Without Me" video earnt him his first Grammy and a further two MTV VMAs for Best Director and Best Video of the Year.
In addition, Kahn's video for Muse's "Knights of Cydonia"also won the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award.

A Note on his Style...

From my exploration of Kahn's work I have noticed that a prodominant number are performance based, with loose threads of narrative running throughout. The artists are ususally involved with the underlying 'story' and self-contained versimilitude of the music video.
Today, Kahn is best know for his eccentric use of expression and elements of surrealism in his work, however his style was not always this zany, as these examples of his earlier work will show;

Bryan Adams - "On a Day Like Today" -



Enrique Iglesias - "Hero" -



These two early videos, emphasised by their use of sepia tone, are comparitively subdued for Kahn.
The following examples clearly present his sharp shift to the surreal style we know and love.

Gwen Stephani - "Sweet Escape" -


Eminem - "Without Me" -


Kahn's music videos portray many conventions coherant with Goodwin's theory, particularly that of voyeurism and the representation of female artists and dancers. This can be seen most notably in the videos "Toxic" and "Womanizer", that he produced for Britney Spears (hence the fact that I decided STRONGLY against posting them!!)
I really like Kahn's almost 'over the top' pieces as although the video looks professional and stylised; they also possesses a strong element of fun and an attitude that doesn't take itself too seriously.