Before I start my production, I need to research the theory behind music videos, and what key points impacts the visuals.
I have found general rules to follow and then looked at specific types of theorists to understand ore about video theory.
For a good music video, the music and video needs to work together to create an overall atmosphere.
Lyrics and melodies establish a general feeling/mood/sense of subject rather than a meaning.
Meaning is often presented more through visuals, and the tempo of music drives the editing.
Genre might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.
The use of camera impacts the meaning. Movement, angle and shot distance all play a huge part in the representation of the artist/band.
Editing is done in fast cuts, using thought transitions, so each beat is a new shot.
Digital effects often enhance editing, which manipulates the the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience.
Inter-textuality is often present. Inter-textuality is the shaping of a texts’ meanings by other texts. Not all audiences will spot a reference to another text, which would not significantly detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but greater pleasure might be derived by those who recognize the reference and gain a sense of fulfillment by this. It also increases the audience’s engagement with, and attentiveness to the product.
CAROL VERNALLIS MUSIC THEORY
Carol Vernallis is a music video theorist that says there are four stages that make up the creation of music videos and that they can all be broken down into these stages.
The four are: Narrative, Editing, Camerwork and Diegesis.
The Narrative of a video is essentially the story that takes place throughout the course of the video. There are several other elements that also factor into the narrative.
The Structure of the narrative may not always be clear, it might be out of chronological order or cut away to the performance. This is done often by bands that want to put an emphasis on the performance of the song over the story.
The music video must fit in with the genre of the song and the overall style. It should be presented in a manner that fits with the established "look" of the band/artist.
The story is not always what moves the video forward, this can be done by the performance as well as the music itself.
The story might have an open ending that lacks a clear resolution to pose questions to the viewer.
The video should be a visual response to the song.
The narrative of the video may be presented through a montage, rather than a more continuous compilation of shots to make the story.
The editing is what pulls the video together and can have an impact on the overall style of the video.
The editing can help give the video it's own style. This can be through use of colours imposed on the footage as well as a unique way of cutting.
Some edits can be much more "in your face" and draws the attention of the viewer to make it more obvious than standard continuity editing.
A convention of music video editing is to break the rules of continuity editing.
Music videos can be edited to mach the beat of the music, i.e. cutting on the beat.
Camerawork in a music video is also something done in different ways to more traditional styles of films.
The overuse and under use of particular shots don't line up with how other types of videos prioritise shots and the framing too is also different.
The particular style of how the shots in a video are framed may be used specifically for one video to give it a certain distinct look,
The camera may move around in time with the melody, beat or lyrics of the song.
Extreme shots are used very frequently in music videos, both extreme close ups and wide shots.
The Diegesis of a video is what is shown on screen to the viewer.
What is on screen, be it the performers, characters or items may move around to be in time with the music, especially true of performers or dancers.
Sometimes the diegesis might be revealed to the viewer slowly so that the viewer doesn't always have a clear understanding of what is being shown in the video.
The viewer may also not understand what is on screen due to gaps in the performance or the narrative.
Goodwin's Theory
I watched several videos to get an understanding of what Andrew Godwin's theory is and I learnt about his rules about what music videos should include.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju861wsE98Mic This is a video that shows the various conventions that they follow.
- There will be a relationship between the lyrics of the song and the visuals on screen. This can either compliment or contrast the lyrics to emphasize points. This can be seen in the majority of music videos.
- Thought beats are the relationship between the music itself and the visuals on the screen to illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.
- You can look at the music and interpret it by looking at the verses and chorus. The voice within the song can be unique and easily recognisable. The song should also be telling a story and the video should help to illustrate what that story is.
- Genre related style or Iconography present in the video
- The video will include multiple close ups to create the start image that will promote the artist's brand image. I have noticed this in rapper Amine's most popular video, 'Caroline', where he features bannanas and lots of yellow, which he has claimed as his signature colour, and has centred a lot of his merchandise, promotion and tour design around.
- Voyeurism often plays a part especially in the relation to females (female gaze). For example, in videos such as 'MOMMAE' by Korean hip hop artist Jay Park, where there is a prominent sexualised view of women, conforming with the theme of voyeurism.
- Intertextextual references to other media texts may be present, especially in humorous videos. We can see this in Kyle's music video accompanying his song about being addicted to social media, "Just a Picture", featuring interesting use of graphics to bring in other media platforms.
