2. The Purpose
- A music video promotes a reaction to help promote
the song to its intended audience
- It’s a way of enabling the performer to display other
talents such as acting or dancing, in order to boost
their personal profile
- It aids understanding the song if, for example, a
narrative style video is used
- Aids in the marketing of the artist as it gives them a
clearer identity to the audience
- It becomes another opportunity for a product to go
viral as a video can be funny or controversial or have
a particular message that causes the videos
popularity to errupt
3. Type of Videos
Performance
• Consist mainly of the artist on a
stage/venue lip syncing to their
song, perhaps with an audience
or backing dancers
• Examples include – Beyoncé –
Love on Top, Mumford and Sons
– I Will Wait, Shawn Mendes -
Mercy
Narrative
• Follows a storyline that fits with
the lyrics and themes of the
song, often the artist/lead artist
will star in the narrative
• Linear (beginning, middle and
end like Bruno Mars - Granade)
or fragmented (may work
backwards, start in the middle
ect. like Maroon 5 - Maps)
Videos can be a mixture of both, for example The Vamps –
Can We Dance
4. Mise-en-scene
- The mise-en-scene will always be reflective of the genre of music
(specifically in costume, setting, or props like instruments)
- For example, within 10 seconds of the Foo Fighters song,
The Pretender, you can tell the genre of the music is rock
because of the iconography and use of colours. Black,
white and red tend to be colours associated with rock
music, and the use of large amps and the set up of the
instrument like a live act with drums back, bass left and
guitar right and central with a microphone it becomes
clear that this is a live performance rock video.
- Stimulated by American rapper Tyga is also a good
example of genre related iconography within the mise-en-
scene. The flashy green sports car his reality TV star
arrives in is an example of the wealth of the genre, his gold
chains and watch, black outfit and snapback are clothing
items associated with the genre, as is smoking weed. The
video was controversial because of the inclusion of his
then underage girlfriend and the explicit lyrics, this made
the video almost go viral which benefits the artist and the
distributors.
5. Editing
- Rhythmic Editing (Cutting the footage to the
beat of the music)
- Jump cutting
- Split screens and use of CGI or special
effects are used often in certain genres
- Parallel diegesis are edited together in
sequence (live and narrative)
6. Cinematography
- Camera constantly moving
- Close ups of lead performer (often extreme close ups of
guitar strings or lips mouthing the words) e.g. Miley Cyrus –
Wrecking Ball
- Establishing shots or extreme long shots (as music
videos only tend to be between 2 and 4 minutes it’s
important to establish a diegesis quickly) e.g. Foo Fighters –
The Pretender
- Pans and tilts to direct focus without too many cuts –
often a more stylistic choice than a necessity
- Tracking shots during live sequences to move between
performers, but also in narrative sequences when
appropriate. e.g. Niall Horan – This Town (1 mic, 1 take)
7. Sound
- The sound in a video depends on the style of a
video (narrative, performance based, concept or
montage) as to whether diegetic and non-diegetic
(or both) is appropriate
- For example in a video with a live and narrative
diegesis, the live performance diegesis will be
diegetic, unlike the narrative performance where
the music will be non-diegetic as the ‘video
world’ won’t be able to hear it
8. Other
- Eye contact between the lead artist and the
camera establishes a connection and makes
- Lip Syncing
- Ideas that represent the ideas of the artist
and the genre, and perhaps the ideas of the
artists label
