Case Study - Emil Nava

Emil Nava is a British music video director who freelances for OB Management. He began his career as a runner for film production companies, but after graduating to Assistant Director he would manage the video shoots. Nava freelances for OB Management, which is an agency that matches clients with suitable directors. OB Management work as agents for people like Nava and their aim is to nurture talent, work withe production companies and record labels and to match the right director to the right artists.

After gaining recognition and signing for an academy he was given many opportunities to manage video shoots. One of his well known music videos is the song by Ed Sheeran called "You need me, I don't need you". The video had a budget of £35,000 which is quite low, but it was a success. It features a young man hand signing Ed Sheeran's lyrics in an empty drama studio. The audience are not really shown to Ed Sheeran as the production were not sure whether people would like his looks. However, after the video was put out people liked the way he looked and the video got a good reception.

Another well known music video that Nava has worked on is "Do it like a dude" by Jessie J. The video was so good that it was nominated for Best Pop video and Best Cinematography at the UK Music Video Awards in 2011. The budget for this video was even less than Ed Sheeran's video, only costing £25,000. We can see that Nava focuses more on the artist in this video to bring out the lyrics that Jessie J is singing. Unlike the Ed Sheeran video there is much more going on and there are different types of dance scenes happening. 

After looking through some music videos directed by Emil Nava I have noticed that he likes to use close ups wherever possible. Nava has previously worked on adverts such as L'Oreal, but he says that it's not as enjoyable as directing music videos. Even though he receives a much higher budget, there is less room for creativity and imagination. This is because when the project is given to him the client has a specific message that they want to get across.