Conventions of a Music Video

Conventions of Music Videos

Camera Shots:

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera Movement:

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene:
This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something.

Editing:

Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Lighting:

Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look. In some other videos, the lighting is very bright to create emphasis and make the artist and whole experience much better. Lighting is also effective as it can highlight certain parts of an artist and make them look a lot bolder





Props:
These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Costume:
This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models

Colour:

Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark colours are used more in rock songs such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos.