In 2006 he also directed and wrote a feature film called 'vicious circle', which in 2008 won NYILFF HBO Best Picture Award. He has also directed advertising campaigns in the past for companies such as L'Oreal, Revlon, Jaguar and Dodge.
Another example of Paul Boyd's work, apart from Shaina Twain's 'Man, I feel like a woman' video, is Sugarland's 'Settlin' music video that he also directed, which fetures the band, this seems to be a convention of Boyd's music videos . . . .
This video could very easily be called a modern, more contemporary take on his later video, 'Man, I feel like a woman' as the two are very much the same in ideas, set and even scenes, while at the same time being completely different.
The very first shot is of Sugarland's lead singer, this is exactly the same as the start Boyd uses for Twain's video. He also uses the set up of having just lead again at 0;17 to 0;19, and then on/off though out the video, alone dancing again much like in Twain did in her video, however were he differs is Boyd also shows the bands lead guitar in a similar set up, alone with no one else focusing concentration on to the single person, this is at 0;10 to 0;12 when the guitar comes in and from then after this type of shot is used though out at different parts when the guitar sound is particularly prominent. There is also the varied wide, mid, close up and long shots of the band and lead singer which have been successfully edited to the fast beat of the music bringing up tempo and giving the video a energetic feel much like the music.
The music video has a very raw but polished look to it, again much like the song and sing. The way in which you see the sides of the white flats that make up the background and how at 1;19 to 1;21 you see crew moving the flats out the way to reveal the audience at 1:25, giving the raw, energetic happy feeling to the video, also it makes the viewer feel as though their part of the audience at a real live performance. This mixed with the bright lighting, dancing band and revolving stage it makes for a pretty fun and happy music video.
Boyd has also quite carefully chosen the audience in the music video. Majority of people think Country music is for the much older generations, in this video Boyd has quite subtly but effectively tried to lower that target audience. He's done this by filling the stands with young healthy, happy people ranging in age from around eighteen to mid twenty's all of whom look as though they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Boyd has also tried to mix up the stereo-types by choosing a range of young people from different social groups. Giving the impression any young person can enjoy this bands music and the unity it brings.
Reviews to this were amazing, almost everyone who left a comment on this video through YouTube said pretty much the same, "I LOVE sugarland... you might say its obsessive :)", "Love sugarland, and this is my favorite song. So inspirational! " this user goes on to say that he's only thirteen, although this is younger than the target age it is still a young person who thoroughly enjoys the song and video.
I found researching into Paul Boyd's work really interesting. I particularly enjoyed looking a audience response to his work because many of his videos are for American country artists and that genre is something that's not to widely thought of here in the UK, although recently artists like Taylor Swift have brought it more into the spotlight for young people. I also love the polished rough feel to his videos, like in Sugarlands video were you can see the flats being moved by stage hands and the simplicity of Twain's 'Man I feel like a woman', to allows the viewer to feel the artist is much more real and down to earth and just having fun with their work. This is a very cleaver technique.
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