Music Video Director Research: Tony Petrossian

Tony Petrossian is a music video director who specializes working with well known mainstream rock and metal bands/artists such as Serj Tankian, Rise Against and Slipknot. Tony has been awarded for his works such as his hit Slipknot music video entitled "Vermillion" which won the audience award at the SXSW Film Festival in 2006.

"Vermillion" - Slipknot



The style of stop motion used in the above music video appeals to me because I like how the director has chosen to isolate the actress from her surroundings. An example of this is towards the end of the video where the location of the shot is appears to be in an underground train station, which shows everyone rushing by ignoring her presence.

The use of live performance and stop motion seems very unrealistic due to the frames per second used for the video making it feel like a hallucination or a dream like state.

"Prayer Of The Refugee" - Rise Against




The fast paced editing of the live performance reflects the genre of the track quite well,examples of the fast paced cuts are at 1:56 - 2:06 shows how chaotic and fast paced the track is throughout the music video.

There are many close ups which focus on the lead singer throughout the music video, this shows the image of the band and their style.

Tony has taken the opportunity to promote the awareness of fair trade in the USA by leaving a strong impact through the use of cuts between the band and items around them such as the bananas and toy car. I particularly how the music video ends because of the way the message is put across to the audience.

"Empty Walls" - Serj Tankian



I like how the music video portrays real life events that had been happening at the time of the music video, in the video the children play fighting are portraying the war in Iraq.

The scene from 0:16 - 0:40 shows a young girl building two towers of blocks. A boy launches a toy airplane into the towers, knocking them down and upsetting the girl, and she is shown to want revenge. I like how this again shows an innocent portrayal of life events.

I like the use of the young children being innocent and play fighting portrays real events as games until the ending when the realize it isn't all fun and games in which a coffin is carried and put into a hearse, the coffin is of a solider and you can see this due to the soldiers carrying it and the American flag laid over it.