Forms and conventions of music videos

Media forms and conventions can be put into two different categories and these are technical and symbolic.

Technical are ways in which camera and technology are put together. This can be in camera angles, types of shots used, editing techniques, sound(diegetic and non diegetic) and genre.

Symbolic what is portrayed through the mise en scene and meanings created that are not very obvious to see e.g. posture and facial expressions.

Forms and conventions are a set of rules, ways in which things are normally done. We are used to these forms and conventions because we have adapted to them. Forms and conventions are always challenged but not to a great level.

Reasons for having forms and conventions are they allow audience to become familiar with a genre of music. Audience are used to seeing a certain things in that type of genre.

My course course work is based on a music video. Forms and conventions play an important role in forms and conventions. Music videos can also be categorised in terms of style.

Narrative: This is when there is story linked with music

Performance: This is when there is a band or an artist performing live

Mixture: You also tend to get a mixture between performance and narrative

Cameo: This is when there is a band but the artist only appears on the narrative part of the video and not on the performance. This has been used a lot by Foo Fighters.

Animation: This is normally done digitally mostly using flash or stop frames.

Camera

As I have said camera is very important in portraying forms and conventions in the technical part. Depending on the style of music there are different types of shots used depending on the style of music. In performance music videos you get extreme close ups of lips, hands on piano keys and many more. You also get a lot of crane shots moving and hovering across the stage. Many low angles, there are also many pans and tilt shots showing different performers and tracking shots.

Editing and sound

There is a wide range of techniques used in editing music videos. In many music videos, the video is normally edited to match the music. Music videos often use jump cutting technique. Split screens are mostly used in mix videos with performance and narrative. Computer generated imagery is mostly used in music videos to add a certain fill or imagery that the director wants to be portrayed. Many music videos are shot on green screens so background can always be altered with CGI if necessary. Directors also sometimes include diegetic sound in music videos, this is all done to portray a certain effect to the audience. The same is done with change in level of sound.

Mise-en-scene

Mise en scenes tend to vary between music videos, they depend on the genre of a music and they style of the music video. Props - e.g. in a rock music video you would expect to see guitars and other rock music associated instruments. Costume - this is important in presenting a certain style to the audience e.g. in hip hop music video you would expect to see bagy clothes. Location is another important factor when looking at the mise en scene. Depending on location one can tell either its a sad or happy music video, a location such as a grave yard presents sadness while on the other hand a location such as a circus presents happy funny mood.

This is why forms and conventions are a key topic in videos especially music videos.