Conventions of Music Videos

Camera Shots/Movement/Framing • Music Videos (no matter what their genre) all use a mixture of different camera shots. • Certain camera shots are used more than others, such as: -close ups/extreme close ups -long shots (establishing shots)• Close ups are used in music videos as they help emphasise the meaning of the lyrics-

especially if there is a extreme close up of the artist lip syncing. They also help for promotional purposes as they draw attention to the artists’ face

• Music videos also use shots such as point of view shots and arial shots, these all help create a relationship for the artist with the audience and also help construct the narrative.

• For camera angles, artists can use a variety of different angles, such as high or low angles (to help signify either dominance or submissiveness), or if the video has a mysterious narrative, the angling used may be cantered, helping reinforcing this enigma.

• In terms of framing, the artist (or the main singer if it is a band) will usually take up most of the shot, to represent their dominance in the song- if it is a video that uses performance.

• Music videos will also use a range of different camera movements (Such as; tracks, tilts and pans), Whichever way the camera moves, it is a convention to follow the artist in their video, whatever they are doing- as the artists are the features of the music video that will be the target audience’s main interest.

Editing• Music videos tend to use montage editing, so they use a variety of

different shots, that may not necessarily all appear in chronological order.

• Jump cuts are the one of the most frequent edits used. For example, it could cut to the location of the artist, then to the artist performing, and then maybe another cut to a different scene, all within 5 seconds of a song.

• Other types of edits used include; transitions, fades, inserts and dissolves.

• No matter what type of edit is used, the edit is always in sync with the beat of the song- the technical aspects of the song heavily depend on what song it is; it’s genre, the beat and many other factors all affect on not only the narrative of the video but also how the video is edited.

Mise-en-scene• The mise-en-scene of the video mostly

depends of the genre of the song and the narrative or the song.

• The representation and ideology that the song is trying to give also depends on the mise-en-scene used; for example in RnB songs women are usually represented as sexual objects, there to make the artist look good.

Girl bands and pop artists will also use this kind of ideology to sell their music… such as Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video

Mise-en-scene continued…• The lighting used tends to be very artificial light. The reason this is used is to make the artist

look as dominant and enhance their appearance. Music videos can also use the lighting to indicate a shift in the song (e.g. from a verse to chorus). Depending on the genre, lighting can also be used to make the mood appear more upbeat (usually found in pop or dance videos)

• Props are also another essential part of music videos, they can help promote the ideology of the song. Again in RnB music videos, the props are an important part because they can make the performer look good (e.g. if he has lots of cars or woman around him he will look dominant and successful).

• The costume of the artist can be used to mostly reflect the genre of the artist, most of the time in music videos the costume the artist wears will make them look good, as well as helping the audience establish the genre of the music. Colours of costumes is also another important part as they can help represent the genre; e.g. rock music videos will tend to use darker colours or colours such as red to connote the ‘danger’ and ‘rebellious’ aspect of their music.

• Colour and lighting are also important aspects of the mise-en-scene. Colour-wise they may use monochrome imagery to represent a particular idea such as equality, or the lighting such as shadows or silhouettes may be used to create an enigma throughout the video.

Sound• The actual track for the music video is classed as the non diegetic sound of

the video, however, since music videos are a chance for the artist to perform and interact with the audience, artists will tend to also use diegetic sound to make up part of the narrative for the video

• In videos artists may use things such as sound fades, where an instrumental in the song may come on, and it will fade down, then the sound of actions occurring in the video will become more dominant.

• Or there may be some diegetic sound at the beginning of a video, before the track comes on, and we will gradually hear the track fading in. An example of this is in Paloma Faith’s 30 Minute Love Affair, where we hear diegetic sounds of cars passing, alarms, footsteps, then we hear the song starting to come on as she walks into a bar, and then it fades again and we see and hear a record being put on, then we see her performing which then turns back into the non diegetic sound; this helps to further reinforce the narrative.

Sound continued…• Another example of how artists use non diegetic sound in their

videos is in the beginning of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’. At the start of this video she is singing directly into the camera, looking straight into the camera it gives the idea that she is singing to the audience, calling out to them; like she is trying to provoke an emotional response from them.

• By performing the song this way at the start, the song becomes more like a story that she wrote for her audience.

Stop Motion…For my music video I am going to do a stop motion type video, therefore, I have done some research on codes and conventions of stop motion films as well as generic music videos…• Stop motion films are a collection of images placed together to make a moving image.• The process of making stop motion includes moving an object in small increments

between individually photographed frames, to create the illusion of movement when the frames are played as a continuous sequence.

• Conventionally, stop motion is done using animation (e.g. Wallace and Gromit) however, it can also be done with real life people and objects.

• Stop motion is also associated with ‘time lapse’, where still photos of a live setting are taken and combined into a continuous film-. It is a technique where the frequency of capturing film frames is a lot lower than that used to view the sequence, so when they are played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster, hence why the term ‘lapse’ is used.

• Time lapse is an extreme version of the cinematography technique ‘undercranking’ -which helps accelerate a naturally slow process by placing images of the process together and playing them in a film

• In my music video I will use a mixture of these two techniques.

Stop Motion in Music Videos…

• Example of a music video that uses stop motion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY(Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie)

• This music video uses stop motion to create the illusion of the girl moving, this only uses one setting, however, it changes the appearance of the mise-en-scene multiple times throughout the video to create different settings.