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Samuel Bayer

Amid a prolific career as a director and cinematographer of commercials and music videos, Samuel Bayer is best known for the creation of the iconic Nirvana music video "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This marked Bayer's first effort in the realm of music videos, and he has said he felt it was his raw and untested aesthetic that most appealed to the anti-corporate grunge band. Part of Bayer's video style was derived from his lack of training in the field. As a student at New York City's acclaimed School of Visual Arts, Bayer had studied as a painter, but saw film and video as an exciting medium. He chose to shoot "Smells Like Teen Spirit" himself, and the moody video became a hit on MTV and helped launch Nirvana to stardom. It also launched Bayer's directing career. He went on to work with such popular musical acts as Hole, Green Day, and Metallica. This in turn led to a successful career as a commercial director. Then in 2010, Bayer made the leap from commercials to feature films, helming the horror remake "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with respected actor Jackie Earle Haley in the lead role as dream killer Freddy Krueger. With its gruesome effects and gritty performances from actors like Rooney Mara and Thomas Dekker, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was a hit with audiences, breaking records for midnight openings in the horror genre and eventually becoming one of the most financially successful of the Krueger franchise.