Music video conventions

Camera Shots

One of the most common conventions used in music videos are the regular uses of close up camera shots. This is because close up shots help bring the audience closer to the actual band and their music to help them feel like they are with their favourite bands hearing their music. Close up shots show all the important details that need to be shown. For example if the only instrument that was being played was a guitar during a guitar solo then the close up camera shots would only be concentrating on the important things. In this case it would be the singer with the guitar and the guitar itself. Below is an example shot of a close up with a guitar being played. The close up camera shot is a shot that we will be including a lot in our music video as it is a commonly used shot especially in a Glam Rock video.

 

Sound

 

The typical conventions in the sound of music videos is the vocals of the actual singers. This is the case for most music videos but can sometimes be different. For example Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" uses the sound and other features to make the music video almost like a short film. This is because it has lots of sound that is not vocals. For example one is where Vincent Price talks half way through the 13 minute video and talks about the undead relating to the video. In this video there are also non diegetic sound of the zombies and the werewolf making noises. So in all most of the sound is vocals but you can often get the odd non diegetic sound or even diegetic sometimes. There will be no diegetic sound in our music video as we want all the singing and instrument sounds to be non diegetic.

 

Genre



 

The genre of music videos can vary extensively. This is because there are many different music video genres. For example just some genres can include rock, metal, RnB, pop, indie, country and many more. All these different genres suite different people so this is why there are so many. Bands and artists usually only use 1 or 2 genres because they want to be represented in that certain way. Genres can be very important in establishing the band/artist. The genre for our song Rock Pride is Glam Rock.

 

Representation

 

The representation of music videos is important in representing and publicising the band/artist. This is because if you were an artist then you would want to make sure that you are the one in most of the footage so that you get well known. The same applies for bands as they also need to get publicity and popularity. You as a band/artist do not want a bad representation of yourself. 

 

Mise-en-scene



 

The mise-en-scene of music videos is the importance of everything shown within the shot used/music video. An example would be Cold plays song called "back to the start". This is because the whole video is based on a person walking forward throughout the video. You find out at the end though that the entire video was filmed backwards so it is actually showing the persons journey back to when he crashes his car. This uses mise-en-scene because all you see is the certain person and the differ rent background around him. The mise-en-scene is very important during this video because the background is the most important thing because the person does not really change but the background does so you want tot know what is going on. As we our using two days of filming to film our music video it is vital that we take into consideration the arrangement of the mise-en-scene props. For example we need to put the props and equipment all in the same place in the first and the second time of filming to ensure that the props and equipment are all in the same place.

 

Camera Movement

 

The next typical convention would be the use of the camera movement. This is because the camera generally moves with the band itself and stays in the same sort of tune as the specific song. This helps to make the scenes realistic and appropriate. When recording the video you can use the camera movement to film both narrative and performance in order to involve the audience into the scene more. This is why when a music video is being filmed there tends to be a lot of tracking shots, close ups, tilts and pans. We might use a few pans in our music video but they will only be short ones due to the consistency of the fast shots.

 

Editing



                                                                                

Editing is the next convention. This is because it is vitally important that the editing pace and elements are in the correct rhythm to the actual song itself. This helps the sync of the music video. For example if the song in a music video was in the genre of “rock” then the editing pace would need to be fast and the camera shots would need to be fast. If the song was in the genre of “romantic” then the editing would be at a slower pace. The editing in our music video will be fast and quick.

 

Lighting

The lighting and colour within a music video seems to always suite the specific song. For example if there was a happy song then the lighting would be very light and clear. If the song was sad though the lighting would be very dark and some camera shots may be disorientated. An example of this can be shown below as you can see Olie Murs song called “don’t let me go” which is very light below and then below that one  is Snow patrols song called “chasing cars” which is very dark. These both show a good example of binary opposites. The lighting for our music video will be very dark and the only light will be on the band themselves to really emphasis the fact that the band are the main focus in the shot. this might also apply for the rules of thirds to make sure that the lighting on the band is in the middle of the shot.

 

Narrative/Performance

 

The last typical convention in a music video would be the mixture of narrative and performance. Each band or artist is very different so they will all have different amounts each to suite the particular song. For example if a band was doing a song that was made for a recent film that is coming out then the music video would include a lot of narrative compared to performance. If a band wanted to show themselves of though they might want to do performance in the majority of the video. This is a mix which bands and artists will want to make sure they get right. An example of a mostly narrative video would be Foo fighters “breakout” and an example of a mostly performance based video would be the "The Pretender" by the same band the Foo Fighters. In our video the narrative will be on the band themselves preparing for the filming of the music video. Then the performance will obviously be the band at the concert filming the music video.