Music Video Conventions

Music Videos vary depending on their genre but they all follow certain codes and conventions to highlight the artist’s particular genre.

Camera Shots:

Music Videos tend to contain many long, mid and close up shots. This is said to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Close ups are also commonly used to reflect and represent the meaning of the song with the lyrics.

Our music video will contain many of these shots to establish the contrasts between the two characters and we shall also be using some close ups to express the emotion in a shot.

Camera Movement:

A music video would typically use a tracking shot to follow the band, but could also use other camera movements such as tilts and pans to further create emphasis on the artist.

We will be using the technique in our music video; however we will be displaying the characters using pans and a variety of angle shots to show the power difference between the two characters.

Editing:

A common editing technique used in music videos is the jump cut which allows one scene to suddenly change to another. If this technique is used, transitions such as fade or dissolve are very common in music videos as they create more of an effect than just using cuts.

Our music video will contain some fades to black to dramatically create a desired effect and will be very useful in the scene where one of the characters passes out.

Mise-en-scene:

This is a very important element in music videos as it clearly shows the audience what to think about a certain character in a narrative or the artist performing.

Similarly, the mise-en-scene in our music video will be very important as it will be used to distinguish the contrast between the two characters in our narrative.

The lighting in music videos can differ as some can be purely set in black and white to help emphasise a particular mood, whereas other music videos have artificial lighting to enhance the artist or band.

In our music video, we will be using split screen to show the two characters. One will be in more naturalistic lighting which could be enhanced to show the audience that he is the successful character. On the other hand, during the scenes with the other character we will be using editing to make the lighting appear a lot duller and thus reflect the characters ‘dull’ lifestyle. This will represent that he is the unsuccessful character which should hopefully be noticed by the audience.

The sound mainly consists of the vocals of the song, with the occasional sound effect to add a desired effect.

However, our music video will purely rely on the song and its lyrics to go with the video.

Props are vital in most music videos to aid the artist and create a further significance on particular objects or people.

We will be using many props in our music video to further establish the difference between the two characters. For example, Doug, the successful business man, will have a briefcase to show that he has a career and lives a professional lifestyle. Whereas Dougie will be shown as the opposite, with an addiction to drugs and alcohol problems so we will therefore be showing this in the music video with the use of props.