The conventions that my music video follows

Camera ShotsMedium Shots, medium close upsDuring the process of filming and editing I used existing music

videos from artists Beyoncé and Jessie J to follow conventions. In Beyonce`s music videos Green Light and Countdown, she is centre frame and the background is white. I liked the simple look to the shots and I chosen to use this so that the main singer would stand out more in comparison to the other 3 girls.

Extreme Close Up

I followed conventions once again, drawing inspiration from Ciara’s music video ‘I Bet. I like how her face filled the screen really draws focus to the main singer. I also directed Jess, the singer in my video, to look directly at the camera to follow conventions, just like the I Bet video. I framed this so that it was mainly her face.

PerformanceThere is a part in the song where there is a guitar instrumental and I wanted the girls in the music video to air guitar to it. I drew inspiration from the McBusted video Air Guitar as when they are playing their guitars they disappear therefore they look like they are playing an air guitar.

Make-UpMake-up wise in my music video, Jess wore red lipstick which is used in a lot of music videos such as Taylor Swifts’ ‘Blank Space’, Meghan Trainors ‘Lips are movin’ and Rita Ora’s ‘R.I.P’. The red colour is a bold statement and really draws focus to the lips, especially in the close up shots.

CostumeI have picked out four artists from different music videos that wear similar clothing to what the girls wear in my video. The artists, from left to right, include Cher Lloyd, Jessie J, Ella Eyre and Jess Glyne. By following certain styles that existing artists wear in their music videos shows that I have followed conventions.

Green Screen/locationI used the studio to film my entire music

video. I planned to originally use the green screen so that I could change the colour of the background although when it came to editing it would not work. After showing a number of peers about it, they said that the green looks good. Using a bright colour as a background reminded me of the ‘Love is on the Radio’ video by Mcfly.For the main singers background I chose to use a white background to contrast her to the other three girls. Also her clothes stand out well and go with the background well. I got inspiration from Beyonce's video Countdown.

Lighting

For my music video, I have used high key lighting to follow conventions and to give the video a light and happy feel to it. If I had used low key lighting, the music video would not have the same effect because high key lighting is light and makes people feel happy.

Editing

For the shot with four lips in different colours I drew inspiration from the music videos Green Light, Countdown (Beyoncé) and Wings (Little Mix). I thought it was a good effect to emphasize the lips and adding different colours made it more interesting.

The three way split screen is a really good effect that I have seen in a couple of videos such as I Bet by Ciara. Using this split screen looks and works really well with the music video.

I have used yet another type of split scree where here it is split into 9. I have seen this effect used in Beyonce`s Countdown video

I used a double split screen on a couple of parts in my video. I really like the look of them and I think the make the video more fun to watch. I took inspiration once again from Beyoncé's video Countdown.

Lip syncingOne of the most noticeable conventions in music videos is lip syncing which appears in a lot of music videos. The lip syncing shows the artist singing their song and looks like they are singing it right there. In my music video, Jess is lip syncing as she is the main artist. Achieving good lip syncing means that the track needs to be played through filming so that it is not out of syncing and look unprofessional. I have used Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand and Beyoncé's Grown woman videos as examples.

How I challenged conventions

I would say I didn’t challenge as many conventions as I wanted my music video to look professional. However, I

would say I did challenge conventions by the choice of the location. I used the same, continuous location for the

whole video which in the process of planning I was worried about. I chose to keep the green screen because one; when I applied a different colour background, the

keying tool on Final Cut Pro made the clothing on the go funny which didn’t look good. Therefore I challenge

conventions by keeping the green screen as a background.