Conventions Of A Music Video

The conventions of music video's vary from genre to genre however there are several conventions that are present in the majority of music videos.

Camera Shots/Movement:
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 to reflect the emotion and emphasise words of the song. Which links in to another major convention of music videos: lip syncing, which is present in the vast majority of music videos.
Unless there is a narrative story line to accompany the music video - in which case more complex movement and shots are often used - the movement of the camera is used to simply follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

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. However, as mentioned before, if there is a story line to the video a much wider range of editing techniques are used.

Mise-en-scene & and Lighting:
Most of the mise-en-scene, lighting, props and costumes etc. are very genre specific. For example pop videos tend to focus on the artist, with them being in very appealing outfits and with bright lighting. On the other hand indie videos could either be in black and white or colour, with a possible narrative; meaning that more props would be used and less focus would be on the artist and more so on the narrative. However there are often performance props in music videos such as guitars, drums and microphones.

Finally, the final convention of music video's is the live video. Many popular Rock and Punk bands have recorded themselves playing live and overdubbed the song to create a live performance.
An example of a live video: Good Charlotte - The Festival Song


Underneath is a link to a pop-punk video by a band called Four Year Strong, to the song 'Tonight I Feel Alive (On A Saturday)'. This video includes a narrative which makes the entire video very intense. There are several different types of camera angles used and hundreds of different props and costumes. To create and film this video took the band several weeks but it payed off. The story line comes across clearly and accompanies the lyrics very well. This is personally my favourite music video of all time, it definitely keeps the audience interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MH1UaPIEgA

Apposing this here is a link to a music video of Patrick Stump's 'Spotlight'. This video is of a much more pop/dance genre. The video itself very much reinforces the lyrics of the song, telling the listener that they should make the best of their uniqueness and their talents. The lighting is very bright to represent the mood and the video is more focused on the vocalist. Apart from the actual performers the music video isn't extremely drastic however works well with the song. In this genre it is often the case that subtlety pays off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5nC1yoTh3M