Auteur Theory

Auteur derives from French meaning 'author'. It was known as a way of reading movies, on the basis of that a movie was the director's work of art and should be analysed as the product of the director's imagination. A problem with this theory is that a film is made by a large amount of people so the director's imagination can be hard to capture. 

An example of an auteur in directing music videos is Chris Cunningham, who's auteur signature is based on horror. He has worked with artists such as Bjork, Madonna and The Aphex Twins. 

This is Madonna's music video of Frozen which was directed by Chris Cunningham.

Straight away the low key lighting and dark shadows are noticeable, these connote mystery which is consistent throughout the music video Chris directs.

This screenshot shows Madonna presented in the frame at a close up, the mise en scene used such as her necklace and black dress with sheer sleeves portrays a witch-like look. This conveys the supernatural and Chris' horror theme. The editing starts off slow with faded cuts but becomes more faster as the beat of the music becomes faster. 

The setting is a desert, but is contradicted by the fact that it is not sunny and it doesn't look hot due to Madonna's clothing. This makes it seem like a fantasy world where supernatural creatures live, this brings Chris' creativity to life as an auteur.