Jamie Thraves case study

Jamie Thraves (born James Thraves, 1969) is a British film writer and director.

The director Jamie Thraves made short films at university which was an award winning short film. he used this short film as a "calling card"to get in to get a foot in the door with the video production company factory film. he began by shooting three very low budget music video which cost around 5000 each.

Jamie Thraves began making early short experimental films in 1989 at Hull University, having previously studied illustration . His graduation film Scratch(1991) and The Take-Out (1993) (made under the BFI New Directors scheme) both went on to win numerous awards at short film festivals worldwide. He joined the Royal College Of Art in 1993 where he made another award winning film, The Hackney Downs (1994). After leaving the RCA he joined Oil Factory, a music video company, making his breakthrough video for Radiohead for their song "Just" where a man lies on the pavement and is confronted by an angry crowd, this video garnered Thraves a lot of attention for its strong narrative structure and use of subtitles, what the man says to make the crowd lie down at the end of the video still manages to cause great discussion amongst fans some fifteen years later. Thraves made one more short film I Just Want To Kiss You (1997), starring Martin Freeman which won the Fox Searchlight Award for Best Short Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1998.

 Radiohead 'just'

Thraves made his first feature, The Low Down (2000), with Film 4. It starred Aidan Gillen, Kate Ashfield and Dean Lennox Kelly. The film was named among the "neglected masterpieces" of film history by The Observer in its rundown of 50 Lost Movie Classics. Thraves has continued to make music videos for such artists as The Verve, Blur and Coldplay. His video for Coldplay's The Scientist won three Moon Men at the 2003 VMA'S in the US, including Best Direction andBreakthrough Video.

Coldplay 'The Scientist'