2. Types Of Music Videos
• Illustrative: This type of music video tells a story and is often
performance based. These type of music videos are typically about
love or romance.
• Amplification: Amplification is where a director interprets a music
video in their own way using creative ideas that they have. These
videos will still have a direct link to the song.
• Conceptual: This type of music video may not have anything to do
with the lyrics of the song and are known to be very abstract. An
example of one of these videos is Daft Punk – Technologic.
3. Camera
• Camera shots usually jump a lot from Long shots
to close ups and extreme close ups. The close ups
are usually on the lead singer and the band and the
extreme close ups are usually of the singer lip
synching.
• Camera Movement: Whip pans, fast dolly tracks
and fast overhead crane shots to follow the
running, walking or dancing of performers.
4. Editing
• Editing: various terms: jump cutting, montage editing.
Creating the visually de-centred experience of ‘jumping’
from location to person to instrument without any normal
narrative continuity. Instead it is often the beat or the
rhythm of the track which provides the organisng principle
for editing movement. The editing moves so fast it creates
the need for viewing ‘repeatedly’. There are exceptions
though. Some ‘continuity editing’ used such as
atmospheric ‘dissolve shots’ such as in Sinead O’Connor’s
‘Nothing Compare to You’
5. Lighting
Lighting: Expressive lighting a key feature of music
videos. Extreme artificial light tocreate the ‘bleaching’
effect on pop stars faces (making them seem
ageless). Also the useof switching from colour to
black & white or sepia to indicate a shift from chorus
toverse. Also lighting effects such as strobes or
flashing needs to be identified.
CGI is also a popular use in music videos to create
futuristic sets and brightly coloured bakgrounds which
is mainly used in mainstream music as they have the
big budgets for their videos.
6. Mise en Scene
• What to look for in a video. Is there a theme such as
thehistorical period e.g. the sixties (Madonna’s ‘Beautiful
Stranger’ with its intertextual link to the Austin Powers film) or
the seventies (The Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ video which
parodies the ‘Starsky & Hutch’ 70s TV Cop genre...also an
intertextual link). Does the video’s mise en scene follow the
need for authenticity in performance videos by using the concert
hall or rehearsal studio setting. Or is there an intentional
‘parodic’ setting to exaggerate star image as in many rap and
r&b videos with a focus on glamourous icons such as exotic
locations, beautiful cocktail bars and stunning beachside houses
with infinity pools (see MC Lantau’s video set in Discovery Bay).
