Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Conventions of a Music Video

Although the conventions of a music video vary depending on the genre, they all have basic conventions in common.

Camera Shots:

  • Close ups of the artist
  • Establishing shots 
  • Short takes
  • High or low angles 
  • Medium/long shots to show band or artist's outfit
  • Occasional extreme close up of artist's face to put an emphasis on feature


Camera Movement:

  • Tracking shots
  • Pan (to establish location)
  • Wide shot
  • Whip pan
  • Focus pull
  • Crane shot
  • Tilt
  • Zoom and reverse zoom


Editing

  • Jump cuts from artist to other focus point
  • Fast paced editing to add energy and to create the need to view the video more than once
  • Text on the screen to introduce artist, song, character or location

  • Jumping patterns
  • Musical editing - cuts to the beat of the song
Post-production digital effects
  • Change the colouring of the video, e.g. to enhance a colour, to add a filter etc.
  • Slow motion
  • Split screens 
  • Computer Generated Imagery (CGI)

Mise-en-scene
  • Costumes and make-up tend to reflect the genre of the song or artist
  • Body language - the female body tends to be sexualised, but generally it's quite raw 
  • Location, e.g. a city, beach, in a studio. 
  • Casting done to reflect the genre of the song
Lighting:
  • Low key lighting for sad or slow songs
  • High key lighting for an upbeat song
  • Theatrical lighting, e.g. spotlights
  • If in studio, bleach lighting to make the artist appear more attractive
  • Highlights the importance of some features of a video
  • Creates a particular mood or atmosphere relative to the song and it's genre
  • Quite commonly, the video will be in low key lighting but the audience can always see the artist or character's face, e.g. in Bad Blood by Taylor Swift


No comments:

Post a Comment