Analysis of music video director - Trudy Bellinger

I have decided to do an analysis on Trudy Bellinger due to the fact she has made music videos which also match the genre of music we have decided to use for our own production, which is pop. Bellinger is a British music video director. Not only has she made music videos but she has also produced television adverts for Rimmel. She assisted the artist Helen Chadwick on her Of Mutability show at the ICA (she was also a tutor at college) and she was extremely inspiring to Bellinger and helped her widen her vision to the moving image. She was creating her own body of work as an artist and created photographic installations that were very personal and autobiographical and involved performance. Film was the natural evolution and music videos combined her writing, performance and love of fashion and style and music. In her opinion the best thing about being a promo director is being able to relative creative freedom to come up with a concept to visually enhance the music and to then work closely with the artist to execute it. She also loves to see her vision crossover into a wider marker and live shows.
One of her first major videos she made was in 2004, for Girls Aloud, where she produced “The Show” and “I’ll stand by you.” In 2005 she also created a video for “I like the way (you move)” by The Bodyrockers. Bellinger has expressed that this is one of her personal favourite music videos as it is the reason she got a break into the commercial ads for Rimmel with Kate Moss.
In 2007 she made further videos for girls aloud including the songs “Sexy! No no no” and “Walk this way” also featuring the Sugarbabes. Bellinger has expressed that she is most proud of the “Sexy! No no no” video as it allowed her to take Girls Aloud to “another level.” She has also stated that the “Walk this way” video is one the hardest she has had to shoot due to the fact that it was a “technical nightmare.” It was shot over three days - one day a week with two of Girls Aloud one week, three of Girls Aloud the next week and Sugababes the following. They were all composited together in post so it appears they were all together. Every movement had to be blocked especially with Girls Aloud as she had to make sure they never crossed each others action she also had to direct them to react or respond to things she planned to shoot two weeks down the line. The set had to be rebuilt each week and had to line up exactly with the other footage. Bellinger had to match lighting and lenses exactly on all three shoot days. She has continued to keep her loyalty to Girls Aloud and in 2008 made a further two more videos for the songs “The Promise” and “The Loving Kind.” Both of these videos are very glamorous and portray the independent female artists like we want our production to. I think they are well composed and Bellinger’s work can potentially be quite an inspiration to our own production. Through my research it is clear that she is a well loved director, especially by Girls Aloud as they are loyal fans of her work as had made more than one of their videos.