2. What are the Codes and Conventions of
a Music Video
Codes to a music video refer to the different techniques used to construct
them. There are two types of codes used in music videos with very different
meanings, these being symbolic and technical codes. Technical code refers to
the lighting or props in a video, where as symbolic code refers to the
symbolic meaning and what we can analyse from them.
Conventions differ to codes, they're the habits we see in music videos that we
expect to see as they become familiar
3. What is Considered when Making a Music
Video?
Mise en Scene
Camera Work
Editing
Performance and Narrative
Voyerism
Intertextuality
Advertising
4. Mise en Scene
There are several aspects to Mise en scene, these being costume, colour,
lighting, location and props. Mise en scene is crucial to all modern music
videos as they are the backbone to whether it is successful or not. Costumes
and makeup are used by directors to create certain characters within the
video whilst location is used to help build the narrative and give some
background. Adding to this lighting and colours are used to discretely create a
mood and play with the emotions of the audience as well as props being used
to help build on the performance/narrative of the video.
5. Camera Work
Camera work is essential when making a music video for several reasons. One
reason is that it allows the director to capture shots, influencing the audiences
perspective of the video as it can give off several different connotations. For
example, a low angle shot suggests the person in the frame is powerful. As
well as this it allows for more interesting and enjoy full videos by the director
using different and edgy shots. The majority of music videos contain close up,
mid shots, wide shots and long shots but the best use a bigger range of shots
such as tilted shots, ariel shots, high and low angle shots. One example is
Goosebumps by Travis Scott, it involves different and edgy shots such as over
the shoulder shots making it an award winning music video.
6. Editing
Editing is a vital part to a music video as it can either make it or break it.
Rarely videos are taken in one shot and are continuous so therefore do not
need editing but the majority of music videos are not continuous and need
editing to join each scene together. Typically music videos have filters added
to them after filming in the editing stage such as Wolves by Kanye West. He
adds a black and white filter over the video, adding to the suspicion and
suspense.
7. Performance and Narrative
Performance in music videos refers to when the artist performs in their video.
Elements of performance can be easily identified in most music videos today by
things like singing, dancing or playing an instrument: for the example Kanye Wests
video for ‘Good Life’. It has no story line but instead has Kanye west rapping into
the camera.
On the other hand narrative refers to the storytelling in a music video. This is
often included to give meaning to a song and create a deep meaningful story
behind it.There’s 2 types of narrative, linear and fragmented. Linear is when the
story is played out from start to finish, whereas fragmented is when the story is in
a random order.
8. Voyeurism
Voyeurism defines as the art of looking. In a music video it is when there is a
particular sequence that is considered sexual. For example the majority of
music videos today are filled with women in skimpy clothing or lingerie. Adding
to this there are repeatedly close up shots of women’s lips or bum to try and
translate a sexy image and attract men to watch the video. Men can be
sexualised as well to attract women, but it is very rarely seen. Sexual
objectification is now seen as a must have by artists as they believe it is
needed to make a popular video. Some artists feel that it creates controversy
and therefore add it in as controversy also brings more publicity whether bad
or good.
9. Intertextuality
Intertextuality refers to when a piece of work is inspired by a prior piece of
work. This is becoming more and more common in the media world in
generally, but most increasingly in the music world. Often we can see
evidence of other peoples style or ideas from older and newer music videos in
many music videos today. It has become so normal that it is almost second
nature to artists, regularly copying and taking inspiration from one or more
videos. One example of a music video that does this is Iggy Azaleas music video
‘Fancy’. It’s blatantly obvious that she takes much inspiration from ‘clueless’
but puts her own modern day twist, leading to major success.
10. Advertising
Advertising of products in music videos has become increasingly popular over
the past few years. Companies have realised the power and influence that
music videos has on it’s viewers, therefore they take full advantage of this by
product placement within their videos to make more profit. This has become
so popular over recent years that it’s now considered a convention with close
up shots of products becoming a common thing. For example, one product that
is regularly seen in music videos is the beats pill. One example of this is Miley
Cyrus’s ‘We Can’t Stop’ where we can see a close up shot of a beats pill,
followed by Miley clicking play.
