Conventions

Conventions of a Music Video

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene in a music video focuses on the lighting, the props, the artists and other peoples costumes, hair and make-up as well as the location that the video is set in. These different factors help to create the feel of a certain genre depending on the song and artist. The mise-en-scene is also used to show the importance of certain people in the video.

In most music videos there will be props that are used to communicate a message to the audience without having to say anything. The props will likely be linked to the lyrics and songs that use props well are:

George Ezra’s ‘Budapest’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHrLPs3_1Fs

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ‘Thrift Shop’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

An artist who uses costumes to show of her music is Lady Gaga who wears bizarre outfits which links with the persona that she has created for herself as a pop artist. This can be seen in these music videos:

Poker Face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo

Bad Romance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I

Kendrick Lamar ‘Humble’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI

The location of a music video can help to decide on a genre, for a pop song the location will often be areas that the audience would visit, for example a school or beach.

Britney Spears ‘Baby One More Time’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4

One Direction ‘What Makes You Beautiful’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJO3ROT-A4E

In rap music the location will often be in areas that are poorer, such as abandoned buildings, or in areas that show their loneliness. Some examples are:

Eminem ‘Not Afraid’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s

Logic ‘Nasty’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVbTkFsCc24

The lighting of a music video can be used to show the audience the genre of the music video based on the style of the video. A brightly coloured music video can help to draw the audience’s attention, and the lighting can be from a natural source as well.

Miley Cyrus ‘Malibu’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j9zMok6two

Another example of lighting that represents the video is:

Labyrinth ft. Tinie Tempah ‘Earthquake’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fk6syQ7iY

The lights in the video are flashing in sync with the beat of the music video. The lights are mainly computed generated, but due to their colours they stand out. Apart from the lights the rest of the music videos setting is darker clouds, which is used to showcase the genre of hip hop/rap.

The camerawork is usually important in the production of a music video. The camera can create different effects through the use of camera angles and camera movement. Most music videos will use a variety of different camera angles, shots and movements in order to make the music video as unique and memorable as possible.

Camera Shots:

Establishing Shot – This shows where the artist is based on the location.

(Logic - Super Mario World)

Mid Shot – This shows the artist from his/her waist to head, the purpose of this shot is to focus on the subject but still including the location.

(Childish Gambino - 3005)

Close Up – This shot shows the artists face and can also be used to showcase an object that the artist is holding. The camera will focus on the subject.

(Adele - Hello)

Extreme Close Up – This shows the artists face extremely close, the eyes or mouth for example and this can have the affect of showing the artists feelings and emotions through the close up. The extreme close up can also be used to show the artist lip syncing with the music.

(Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe)

Over the Shoulder Shot – This is a shot that is used mainly in a narrative based music video. It is used when the artist is acting in the music video and is talking to another character. The over the shoulder shots used not only in music videos, but also in the film and TV industries in order to show conversation between characters.

(Bastille - Oblivion)

These are the shots that are expected in most music videos.

Camera Angles:

High Angle – This is where the camera shows the main object of the shot from above, with the camera angled down. This makes the object of the shot appear powerless and submissive.

Low Angle – The is where the camera looks up towards the object of the shot making them seem more powerful or dominant.

(Logic - All I Do)

Birds Eye – This is an angle from directly above and is often used to have a dramatic effect or to show a different perspective over the scene. It can enable the audience to see things that the other characters in the video cannot.

Eye-Level – This is an angle that makes the scene look the most realistic as it shows the scene as the audience would if they were present.

      (Ariana Grande - Break Free)

Camera angles have a huge part to play in the music video as they can be used to show the emotion and expressions of the artist involved. When an artist is singing along to the music there will often be close ups and the camera will never stay on one type of shot or angle for longer than 3-5 seconds.

Camera Movement:

The camera will often follow the artist during the video to see their performance. Many music videos will have a director and the director will often decide on the camera movements, angles and shots. If the music video is story based then a more experienced director would take control and use angles, movement and shots that are common on TV shows and films.

Pans – The camera scans the scene horizontally.

Dolly Shots – The camera is mounted on a track.

Editing:
This happens at the end of the creation of a music video. Many music videos will add CGI and if the video is filmed on a green screen then the background would be added in post production. They can also change the filter that the video is filmed on, for example black and white

 (Hozier - Take Me To Church)

(Eminem - Rap God)

Sound:

 There are two main forms of sound:

Diegetic	Non-Diegetic
Sound that is present during the filming process	Sound that is edited in during the post-production.

The main sound that the audience will hear during a music video will be the actual song, which is non-diegetic as they artist is lip-syncing during the filming. An example of diegetic sound is any dialogue during the video, if the music video has a story element to it.

Conventions of Rap Music

Conventions of rap videos:

In most rap videos the artist will be featured rapping the song. They will often do similar gestures with their hands, as seen in many of Logic’s music videos. It will not only be the artist that will be included in the music video as they will often have other people dancing along, or in some cases having other artists to have verses within the song. In ‘Black Spiderman’ by Logic there are around 30 other people in the video excluded the main artist, the amount of people in the video is usually very high in Logic videos with his song ‘Super Mario World’ there are over 20 people featuring in the video. This is because these videos had a higher budget then his previous songs. For example his song ‘Nasty’ has only him in the entire video which makes him the main item in the video. This means that the audience will be able to see the artist throughout the video. Eminem often had Dr Dre feature in his videos due to their partnership. Rap music is based around the artist so they will always have the most screen time.

 (Logic - Black Spiderman)

 (Eminem - Without Me)

Many other rap artists have similar traits in their videos as well. For example Childish Gambino has an entire video where it is just him and a teddy bear on a Ferris wheel and this lets the audience see the artist as a normal person.

 (Childish Gambino - 3005)

The costumes that the artists wear vary in design and colours however they will often be wearing comfortable clothes that appear to be cheap in price, which goes with the stereotype that artists are from poorer backgrounds.

However Eminem often used over the top visuals and costumes in his videos in order for him to stand out.

 (Eminem - We Made You)

The editing process in Rap videos is very simplistic and this is to make them seem  more personal to the audience and make them seem like normal, everyday people. For example there are no extreme cuts or transitions in his videos.

Rap music will often not have a story line so the only sound coming from the video will be the actual music, however 'Stan' by Eminem had a storyline about a crazy fan who kills himself and his girlfriend, so there was dialogue between the characters.

 (Eminem - Stan)

History of Music Videos

Functions of Music Videos

Functions of a music video

What job does a music video do?

The main purpose of a music video is promotion that the video will bring to the artist. The music videos will help to give a newer artist a fan base or help an existing artist to increase the connection that the artist has with the fans that they have. A music video can help to create or change the persona that an artist has for example when an artist will change their identity to fit a different genre. The music video can also help to confirm the genre of a song or artist because certain genres will have certain styles of video. Music videos can also help to increase the sales that an artist has for albums and concerts. Many music artists will release a song with a video that is featured on an album before the album is released therefore advertising the product to people that did not realise that the album is coming out and therefore making them want to purchase it to support the artist. A music video can also help an artist to reinvent themselves such as Miley Cyrus who went from a child star in Hannah Montana, to a sexualised pop artist and then back into a pop singer without the sexualisation. This would be her trying to get back some of her fans who had left after her original transformation and genre change from child star to pop star. In her newest song she tries to recreate her image as a more innocent artist again, this can be seen for the art work for the song as she is lying innocently in the grass.

Since YouTube was created in 2005 more and more music videos have been made by people who would have previously not had the money to afford the equipment, however by this time digital technologies were becoming cheaper and more assessable to the general public and more comedic videos would be created. With more and more music videos being created it became likely that some would eventually go viral and send the artist into the public eye. For example in 2012 PSY’s Gangnam Style was released it quickly went viral and has gathered over 2.8 billion views, this viral video has helped to give PSY a career in western music and has got over 6 billion views overall.

Changes over time

Music videos have changed throughout history from being story based in the 50s and 60s with The Beatles and Elvis Presley having the funds and fan base to create music videos to everyday people creating music videos at home. However since the introduction of the digital age, and with technology improving and becoming cheaper it allows people with no funding from agencies to create their own music videos to go alongside with their music. This has allowed more and more artists to get internet celebrity status and can then enter the music industry with an already established fan base.

MTV was launched in the United States in 1981 and it quickly became an artists largest promotional tool and soon many artists were making music videos to go alongside their music however MTV did have some problems as smaller artists were struggling to be promoted due to only major artists having the budgets to create the music videos. Another problem for MTV is that the success that the videos had in money would have to constantly be reinvested back into the artist and their careers therefore meaning that the artist would not necessarily make any money from the video. A problem for the audiences would be that if they missed a song they would have to wait for it to be replayed therefore meaning that some artists would not get the same show time as other songs from more popular artists.

Michael Jacksons ‘Thriller’ song was the first music video to be produced with a budget over one million dollars and this created a new wave of music videos with increasingly large budgets. The most expensive music video of all time is the song ‘Scream’ by Michael and Janet Jackson, with a budget of $7 million.