Mark Romanek

Mark Lee Romanek (born September 18, 1959) is an American filmmaker and photographer.

Romanek is best known for directing the music videos for songs such as "Closer" and "The Perfect Drug" by Nine Inch Nails, Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, "Can't Stop" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Black Tie White Noise" and "Jump They Say" by David Bowie, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz, "Devils Haircut" by Beck, "Rain" and "Bedtime Story" by Madonna, "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson, "Cochise" by Audioslave, "99 Problems" and "Picasso Baby" by Jay-Z, "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay, "Criminal" by Fiona Apple, "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, and "Sandcastles" by Beyoncé.

Mark Lee Romanek was born in Chicago on September 18, 1959, the son of Jewish parents Shirlee and Marvin Romanek.

He studied there first with Kevin Dole, a local filmmaker who was already creating music videos on his own in the mid-1970s, and then with Peter Kingsbury, a filmmaker who had studied with experimentalists Owen Land, John Luther Schofill, and Stan Brakhage at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Both teachers exposed students to works by significant figures of the American avant-garde cinema such as Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, and Paul Sharits.

Romanek subsequently attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from its Roy H. Park School of Communications with a degree in cinema and photography.

He served as second assistant director for Brian De Palma on Home Movies, an autobiographical film De Palma conceived as an exercise for his students at Sarah Lawrence College (having returned to his alma mater as an instructor of film production).

On set, Romanek met Keith Gordon, playing De Palma's alter ego.

Gordon remembers Romanek's entrance into film production:

I actually met a lot of people who became important in my life, but Mark being one of the people who was really huge.

Mark wasn't even officially one of the students in the class.

Mark was kind of like mehe was a film geek.

He was from Chicago.

And he had followed Brian around on the set of The Fury and gotten a job as a production assistant on that movie.

And when he heard that Brian was doing this project, he basically contacted him and said, "Listen, can I come to New York and basically be like one of the students, even though I'm not technically in the class?"

And Brian Said, "Fine."

So Mark became the second assistant director on the film.

And he and I just hit it off pretty quickly.

We had a similar passion for Stanley Kubrick.

He showed me his short films, which I thought were really good and showed a lot of visual flair.

Romanek released his first film, Static, in 1985.

It was co-written with Gordon and starred Gordon as a man who claimed he had invented a television set capable of showing a live picture of Heaven.

The film achieved something of a cult following on the British film scene and led to Romanek's first job at the helm of a music video for London's new wave band The The, who were featured on the soundtrack for Static.

Romanek later disowned the film, saying that he finds it an "embarrassing bit of juvenilia".

After a few years writing screenplays, Romanek decided to focus on music videos and signed on with Satellite Films, a division of Propaganda Films.

His subsequent work has come to be regarded as among the best of the medium.

He has worked with many top-selling recording artists from different genres of popular music, and his videos have been given credit for making stars out of some.

One of his notable videos was for the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer".

Its critical acclaim was only matched by its controversy, with many accusing the video as being disturbing and demonic (a big reason why the video was so popular among fans).

Romanek would again work with Nine Inch Nails for the song "The Perfect Drug".

Romanek directed the music videos for David Bowie's 1993 singles "Jump They Say" and "Black Tie White Noise".

Romanek was given his first Grammy Award for Best Short Form Video in 1996 for "Scream", a collaboration between the pop superstar siblings Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.

The video, which cost $7 million to make, is cited as one of the most expensive ever made.

Romanek won his second Grammy two years later, again with Janet Jackson, for her video "Got 'til It's Gone".

He was inspired to become a filmmaker by seeing Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey as a child.

He experimented with Super 8 and 16mm film as a teenager while attending New Trier High School.

Romanek's film work includes writing and directing One Hour Photo (2002) and directing Never Let Me Go (2010).

His music videos have won 20 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Direction for "99 Problems" and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

He has also won three Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video, more than any other director.

In 2002, Romanek shot a video for Audioslave's "Cochise" in which the band performed in the midst of a prolonged pyrotechnic display of the intensity usually seen only during fireworks finales.