Understanding Music Video Codes: Camera Angles, Shots, Editing, and Genre, Summaries of Music

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CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF

MUSIC VIDEOS

What are codes and

conventions?

 The codes and conventions of music videos

are the different techniques used to construct

meaning in them.

 These techniques can be divided into two

types; technical and symbolic.

Symbolic Techniques

 Symbolic techniques are ways of showing

meanings beyond what you can see

 facial expressions

 gestures

 poses

 mis en scene.

Reasons for codes and

conventions.

• The audience can become familiar with a

particular genre, as they get used to recognizing

the different conventions within a genre.

• It provides a structure that the audience can

understand.

• To ensure the lyrics of the song fit in with our

expections of the music.

The Style of music videos

Performance

 Performance videos mainly focuses on the artist or band just plainly

performing either on their own or in front of a crowd. There is no storyline,

just a collection of camera angles and movements of the band members. This

is popular amongst rock artists videos and are often seen in pop style music

videos. A good example of this is ‘Beyonce – Love on Top’ where the video

shows the artist continuously performing the song from a variety of camera

shots and angles.

Mixture

 Mixture – is a combination of performance and narrative. The artists is featured in this style of music video with the narrative of the story acting as the “B-roll”. This is portrayed in ‘Kelly Clarkson’s’ video – ‘Since you been gone’.

Animated

Surreal

 These videos include weird and unexpected images in them making

them memorable and sometimes fun. They are beyond believable.

Foo Fighters: Everlong

Pastiche or parody

 A Parody is a work that mimics in an absurd or ridiculous way the

conventions and style of another work - in order to derive ridicule, ironic

comment or affectionate fun.

 Weird Al Yankovich is very famous for all of his parody music videos.

White and Nerdy

 A Pastiche is a video with a mixture and blurring of generic conventions and

boundaries. It’s a collection of genres and themes from various other music

videos

Geri Halliwell: It’s Raining Men

These videos use fast movement showing a series of pictures and

frames. They can be done digitally or manually using props.

Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer

The Camera

 The way the camera is used is crucial in

producing a music video. It can create different

effects by the different Angles, and Movements.

In general every music video uses a variety of

camera Shots, Angles and Movements to create

different moods, reflect different genres and to

emphasize certain elements in the video itself.

Each director and/or cinematographer develops

his own style and it is reflected in the finished

product.

Camera Shots

 Music videos feature a number of shots for various reasons; to relate with the audience by expressing thoughts and feelings, but also to show the viewer what is happening. Camera shots that would be found in a music video are: Long Shot– The emphasis on this type of shot is the location. The artist is shown but cannot be clearly seen. Wide shot – This is where the artist is shown taking up most of the shot but the location/setting is still focused on. Mid shot – this shows the artist from his/her waist to head, and focuses mainly on the subject but still giving an impression of the location/setting.

Over the shoulder shot – this is a good shot used , specifically in narrative based music videos, when the artist is acting and speaking to another person. This shot is also used to show something the character is looking at. Cut in – this shot can be used in music videos to show something that the lyrics might be referring to. For example I will shoot you with my gun ‘ and a gun comes in’ It shows the object in detail, similar to an extreme close up, but used very quickly. A cut in is also used to show a transition of time. These shots are the basic shots you expect to see in most music videos. However, there can be some additional creative ways of displaying a scene through different camera angles…

Camera Angles

The way the camera is positioned determines the angle of the shot. There are many different camera angles used in the production of music videos to convey different images. Examples of camera angles are: Eye-Level – this is a very common view as this is how we view the world. It shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. High Angle – This is where the camera shows the subject from above - the camera is angled down towards the subject - which has the effect of making them appear less powerful, less significant and or even submissive. Low Angle – This is where the subject is shown from below, giving the impression of being more powerful o r dominant.

Camera Movements

The camera moves to follow the artist or to show the

performance of the artist. These movements include

panning and tracking. A director may choose to move

action along by telling the story as a series of cuts,

going from one shot to another, or they may decide

to move the camera with the action. Some examples

of camera movements are :

 Pans – This is were the camera scans a scene

horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod,

which operates as a stationary axis point as the

camera is turned, often to follow a moving object

which is kept in the middle of the frame.

 Dolly/ Tracking- This is were the camera is

mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a

very smooth movement. Also known as tracking.

This is used to emphasize movement.

Editing

Techniques

 Editing is the process that concludes the making of the music video. When you edit, you cut scenes down, add special effects, stylize or colourize the video and put it in order so that some type of story is being told. The editing consists of the following things: -  Jump Cutting: including extra shots (often close ups) to transition from one scene to the next OR to emphasize and action or lyric in the song  CGI effects: chroma keying out shots to include specific background scenes, adding CGI - adding Computer Generated Images to create specific moods or effects Labrinth: Earthquake  Parallel editing: method of cutting between a couple of scenes or stories that are happening at the same time  Sound editing: timing the video with the music and adding non-diegetic sound  Colourize / Stylize: create a specific mood or genre by altering the overall colour of the video.

Editing

Techniques