Conventions of a Music Video

Conventions
 
I did this so that I knew what I was aiming for in my final music video no matter what the genre is. By doing this it will act as a guideline and help me make my music video up to a very high standard.

Camera Shots…

The camera shots used in music videos are very varied as different genres uses different camera shots so it can be anything from a long shot to an extreme close up. Also with the more modern and different music this means the videos are becoming more strange and distorted. On most music videos the shots are used to show the artist, the tone of song, emotion and location. Long shots are more used to show the location of the artist. Close ups are used to show the emotion of the artist and usually to see them singing the lyrics.

Camera Movement…

On a music video they are always following the artist or band so it will have this like panning, tracking, tilts and craning shots. The Camera movement speed with depend on the artist and the tone of the song e.g. if the artist is running around in an upbeat way for example ‘Olly Murrs, My Heart Skips a Beat’ the camera movement will have to a lot faster to keep up with the artist. However, in something like ‘Leona Lewis, Happy’ she is moving around and the camera is following her at a slower pace as well.

Mise-en-scene…

Mise-en-scene is very important in a music video as it is basically most of the video. This is seen in the song ‘Next to you’ by Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. They are both stood on their own with the crumbling building and the dark and dangerous weather around them, this showing the isolation of the 2 men from their loves. There is also a big crack in the ground showing they are distanced from them to. There aren’t many props as they are both just running around and standing on building singing. The lighting is partially important in this video as it shows the mood, very dark and depressing as the lighting is very dark and gloomy with the frightening strikes of lightening. (I have now changed this to an acoustic music video but this shows how important mise-en-scence is in all music videos.

Editing…

The main edit used in music videos is jump cuts usually cutting between location and person if more than one. In addition, fades and dissolves are used as a different way to jump cut and make it more interesting going from one shot to the other, also going along with the music and the beat.

Storyline…

It is common in music videos to have a plot it may not be long but you can still tell a story. The story is usually directly linked to the song and lyrics. An example of this is ‘What if’ by Jason Derulo. The story line behind this is that his girlfriend and he are just moving in and then she gets hit by a car. He is saying in the video that if he never met her and they never got together that would have never happened to her.  

Lighting, props, costume and colour…

All of the things above are very much determined by the genre of the music video with the more indie music having black and white videos, whereas the pop videos would be full of bright colour. The lighting in a pop song would be very bright and happy, but in a heavy metal video it would be very dark and grungy.

Conventions of a Pop Music Video…

. Very bright and colourful

. Close ups – to show the artists face singing and their emotion

. Very upbeat

. Usually teenage audience

Example is pop artists like: Pixie Lott, lady gaga etc.

Conventions of an Indie/Rock Music Video…

. Mostly done in black and white e.g. Razorlight

. Band is shown all the way through the video

. Dark location

. Some special effects used

Example is: Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon etc.


This had helped me in finding out what I want to feature in my music video and what the conventions are that I should stick to. Also, this has also made me think about the genre of what song I am going to pick.

In the end my music video ended up being an acoustic music video which is why I have had to do a different post to show what conventions are in that sort of music video. This shows the planning and how it has developed and changed in my project to different things. However, the top part of this post is relevant to my music video with things like the a range of different shots such as close ups, mid shots and long shots. Also, this has made me think what convention I have challenged in my music video with the focus more on a character than on the artist. The camera movements do not follow the artist as he is not the main feature in my music video.