The man behind the all-magnetic MVs of Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Eminem, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Destiny's Child, Janet Jackson and Nelly, just to name a few, Joseph Kahn is one of the most highly sought after music video, advertising and feature film directors on the planet. The award-winning director/filmmaker made the 2004 action film Torque starring Ice Cube as well as his 2010 self-financed horror-comedy Detention. His recent work, Will You Keep Walking?, has become much talked of as the director daringly resurrects the late Thai music legend Rewat Buddhinan to ignite the spirit to pursue one's dream.
HOW DID YOUR LOVE FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY GROW?
Since my dad is in the military, we travelled around a lot, so I never really had a lot of friends. I was born in Korea. I went from Korea to Italy, and to America, so ultimately I spent a lot more time watching movies than hanging out with other kids. Then [Steven] Spielberg and [George] Lucas started coming out with all these great movies. When Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, I was 10 or 12. It was a perfect age to enjoy such movies, so I would definitely say Spielberg has been a humongous influence on me.
WHEN WORKING ON A MV, DO YOU IMMEDIATELY SEE A SONG VISUALLY WHEN YOU HEAR IT?
I hear the music and I automatically see images. To be very honest, I don't listen to music when I'm off the clock.
WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTIST TO WORK WITH?
It's hard to say as a video director, but I would say I really, really enjoy working with Kylie Minogue. There's a couple of things that I really admire. One, she protected me from the record label. When they first watched the video, one guy over there said I needed to change the edit. She called me and protected me saying nothing was changing. That was amazing for her to do that. The other thing she did was never watch the monitor. Most artists, after shooting, will go straight to the monitor to watch and study themselves. She never did that once. To me, that means the performance isn't cosmetic. She wasn't worried where the head was. And there's a trust level to the director.
DO AWARDS MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?
Awards mean nothing. They're good tools to get the next job. But they're never inspiring in terms of doing anything for the work because you're being judged by other people. And that's not the way to do art.
WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
The pursuit of my art. That's it. People say, "Oh, he's such a hard worker." But the reality is that it doesn't feel like work to me. Waking up after three hours of sleep and going on set to do this is a fantastic thing. I have the opportunity to travel the world and see things from my perspective. It's such a privilege. It's all because I can place the camera somewhere [laughs]. I just have to keep learning how to do that better.
Catch Joseph Kahn's latest inspiring work, Will You Keep Walking?, at facebook.com/JohnnieWalkerTH.
