Conventions Of Music Videos

A convention is a way in which something is usually done. There are conventional elements found in most music videos.

Camera Shots/Movements

They tend to include plenty of long shots, close-ups, and mid-shots. It creates more emphasis on either the artist or the location. Close-ups are used a lot to really emphasise the artists emotions. In terms of movement often tracking shots and tilt shots are used. It is to trace the movement of the artist or the band and also make it more exciting, rather than using an ordinary panning shot.   

Mis-En-Scene

 Mis-en-scene refers to the way everything in the shot is placed, this includes colours used, lighting, props and characters etc. It is also very important when it comes to portraying the way a character is or to put across a certain representation of a person.

 Some music videos often choose to use artificial, high key lighting to enhance everything that is going on around the artist and the artist themselves. Low-key lighting is also used a lot in songs that are more melancholy to create a really sad atmosphere.

Props are often used as enigma codes to create mystery in the plot for the audience, is will cause them to ask questions about the prop, like what it is going to be used for or why does the artist have it? It will encourage the audience to keep watching till the end, just in case their questions are answered. 

Often colour is used in costumes to put across a certain representation of the artist in the music video. A lot of the time the artist will be wearing light colours, such as white. Just so that the audience will associate the connotations of the colour with the audience. Therefore the reason light colours are usually the favourites for the artist is because the audience will associate good things with the artist, like innocence and purity. On the contrary music videos also include costumes with dark colours to, however rather than using it to give a evil representation, it is more there to make the artist look seductive or provocative. This is more common in female artist videos, the female will often be dressed in colours such as red or black.

Sound

The majority of the time the only sound in songs will be the song itself, however sometimes the producers will include an intro whereby they might include ambient sound to set the scene for the audience. Or they might include a voiceover where the artist has a moment to speak to their audience, this is commonly used to put an artists point across. For example in 'Alright' by Kendrick Lamar he introduces the song with a 2 minute poem. It contains clips of police arresting ethnic minorities, whilst there is a voice over of him reciting a poem that reads:

"I remembered you was conflicted

Misusing your influence, sometimes I did the same

Abusing my power full of resentment"

This is clearly reflecting the fact that sometimes the police in the US abuse the power they have as law enforcers and let their racial resentment get in the way. He also uses in as an outro too. Whilst the voiceover is playing, there is a clip of Kendrick Lamar standing on the top of a lamp post. You then see a policeman imitating a gun with his fingers and pretending to shoot Kendrick off the lamp post. Showing that even though he was doing something that caused no problems, police abuse their power when it comes to ethnic minorities and enforce brutal punishments on them, almost as if it is a game..

 Editing

A predominant editing technique used in music videos is jump cuts. It allows the video to progress quickly and still make sense as obviously songs are usually only about 5 minutes long. Therefore the story need to be presented quickly.