This document discusses common elements found in country music videos, including typical locations, lighting, and editing techniques. It notes that locations often involve outdoor performances and both outdoor and studio settings. Natural lighting is frequently used to create a relaxed atmosphere and emphasize artists' beauty. Editing generally involves smooth transitions between shots that keep time with the song's beat. The document provides specific examples from Lucy Hale and Carrie Underwood music videos and states the author's plans to incorporate natural lighting, light flares, and cuts aligned with their own song.

1. Generic Locations, Lighting
and Editing in Country Music
videos.
Erin Dawson

2. Locations
 In country music video’s there tends to be a
few locational changes that match the beat
and lyrics of country music.
 I found that many of the settings tended to
be outdoors and feature a set up of the band
and the singer performing, either outdoors
or in a studio.

3. Examples of Locations And
Lighting
 Here in Lucy Hale’s music video ‘You Sound Good to Me’ we see multiple outdoor settings;
we see her standing in field singing alone, the main focus is on her through-out scenes like
this, it is used to show how at one with nature she is, it signifies that she is innocent and pure
which is emphasised by the soft and natural lighting used during scenes like this . It is also
used to create quite a whimsical and girly feel; something the target audience will enjoy
watching as they stereotypically like being relaxed and feminine. The use
of the soft lighting and the light flares is also used as it is very flattering to
Lucy Hale making the aspirers in the target audience want to look as
beautiful as she does, it also advertises her to males as they are
stereotypically like someone that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
 We see this use of subdued natural lighting at other points during the music video, as seen
here in this shot of Hale with her friends at the side of the road creating quite a perfect long
shot of her friends having a good time, showing what a nice life Hale has which also pleases
the aspirers in the target audience. The outdoor setting here is used as people are more likely
to relate to similar settings to what they see in everyday life, which enables the target
audience to relate to the artist as she is doing what could possibly happen to them.

4. Examples of Locations And Lighting
Continued..
 We see a combination of natural lighting in a studio setting featured in Carrie
Underwood’s song ‘See You Again’. The use of the natural lighting has again
been used to emphasise the stars natural beauty; and light flare used to
create an uplifting atmosphere. Carrie is also shown to be wearing a white
dress which connotes innocence as featured in a lot of country music videos as
it is a common convention as is the curly hair. The
studio setting has been used instead of an outdoor one
to give the effect that Underwood is pure, as the
background features white curtains and bright light.
 A lot of country songs sometimes feature 'normal’ people other than the
singer as a part of the narrative, this being used for the
aspirers in the target audience because it makes it easier
for them to relate to the video as they are seeing real
people and not just the star for real life situations.

5. Examples of Editing
 In country music it is stereotypical to have very smooth transitions between shots, they
are hardly ever disjointed or disorientating to the viewer and keep a calm atmosphere to
the music video. The cuts keep in time to the beat and lyrics of the song like many genres
of country music videos do to create a captivating, escapism to a viewer; they keep in
with the mood of the song and help to show a clear narrative. This matches Andrew
Goodwin’s theory that there should be a succinct relationship between music and visuals
to keep an audience interested, which is something all music videos want including the
country genre of music. This form of relationship between shots and the song can be
seen in Taylor Swift’s song ‘Mine’, where it begins to pan out from the two main people,
Swift and a boy, the camera then pans round creating a blur which then pans to a
medium shot of the two, this is in time with the song going from her singing with an
instrumental guitar in the background to the drums suddenly starting and the music
getting louder as does her voice, this creates a consistency between the narrative and the
song, making it easier for viewers to stay interested . This use of panning also wakes the
viewer up and
helps them
regain interest.

6. What I will do: Lighting
 The lighting I will use will be very natural looking, I
will use a lot of the natural light and will also use
some form of spotlight, especially for any indoor
scenes or highly set up scenes I have in my music
video.
 The lighting will always be bright and not dark at
any points as this is stereotypical of a country video,
it also keeps an upbeat, uplifting atmosphere to the
video.
 I will also use light flares to create this whimsical
mood to the video, either done during the filming
process of edited in.

7. What I will do: Editing
 There will be a lot of smooth transitions
between shots in my music video to help
keep the video smooth to match the sound
of the song.
 Any cuts will match the beat of the song
conforming to Andrew Goodwin’s theory.