Research & Planning: Conventions of Music Videos

There are four main categories that the different conventions can be split into:

•          Sound
•          Camera
•          Editing
•          Mise-en-scene

Sound

Sound in music video is always the music the video is representing, but some videos such as ‘You make me’ use added sound effects to turn the video more into a film. In the Avicii video sounds such as tire screeches and punch sound effects are used. These are sometimes added to the YouTube videos so that when the video is downloaded and listened to on a mobile device it is worse to listen to because of the random sound effects it encourages people to download the song legally.

Camera

All camera shots are used in some way in music videos. A popular camera shot is a close up, this is used to show the actors face or to show off the lip sync that is being used. Long shots are also commonly used to show of the setting being the main protagonist. Camera movements are also used such as pans, tilts and tracking shots these are used to either follow the artist or show the location of the setting.

Editing

All media involves some type of editing whether its effects or different takes of a shot, being used instead of the original. The most conventional way that music videos use editing is using lots of jump cuts and creates a transition on beat. The artist ‘Avicii’ uses this idea a lot because of his fast paced music. I am creating a music video to an ‘Avicii’ and so I will also use fast paced cuts. Music videos also use transitions as this is a good way to start or end a music video, these also tend to smooth over the video meaning the video is not to jumpy.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is everything else in the video that you can possibly think of such as the lighting, props, actors, appearance, setting and expression. Props can be used to play with the lyrics of a video. A good example of this is ‘umbrella’ the main prop of this video and was included in the song lyrics countless times.  What consume the subjects wear is dependent on the music video in hand and what it’s trying to portray, but all music videos use costumes.  The story is pretty much the same when it comes to lighting sometimes the location will provide the lighting and all the effects the creator needs other times artificial lighting is needed on set as it is too dark. The lighting dictates what feel the video gives if its dark then it represents bad and street music, whereas if it’s light it promotes happiness and warmth.