Genre Research: Notes

Genre Research:

Codes and Conventions of Music Videos:

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.

Technical Techniques:

How meaning is conveyed using technical equipment

  • The way camera angles are used
  • Different types of shots and movements
  • Diegetic vs Non-diegetic sound
  • The pace and style of editing
  • The genre

Symbolic Techniques:

Ways of showing meanings beyond what you can see
  • Facial expressions
  • Gestures
  • Poses
  • Mise-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 expectations of the music

The Codes and Conventions:

The codes and conventions of a music video vary depending on genre of music. However, the general conventions include:
  • Style
  • Camera
  • Editing techniques
  • Sound (Diegetic and Non-diegetic)
  • Mise-en-scene - props, lighting, costume, hair and makeup, location/setting, and colours
  • Notions of looking - Stereotyping

The Style of Music Videos:
  • Performance
  • Narrative
  • Mixture
  • Animated
  • Surreal
  • Pastiche/Parody
  • Cameo

Music Videos:

Performance:

Performance videos mainly focus 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 artist videos and are often seen in pop style music videos. 


Beyonce's 'Love on Top' is a good example of a performance music video


Billie Eilish's 'Ocean Eyes' music video is also a performance video


Narrative:

A narrative music video follows a story line. There are two types of narrative: Linear and fragmented. A linear video follows the standard storyline structure: beginning, middle and end. A fragmented narrative is one that doesn't but depicts lyrics from the song.



Katy Perry's 'Thinking of You' is an example of a linear narrative


Taylor Swift's 'You Belong With Me' narrative music video

Mixture:

A mixture shows a combination of performance and narrative. The artists are featured in this style of music video with the narrative of the story acting as the "B-roll".



Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone' Music Video is a mixture of both performance and narrative



One Direction's 'Story of My Life' is a mixture because it shows the narrative through the photographs while also having the artists perform


Techniques Used in Music Videos:

Different ideas that directors come up with will be used to produce a music video that is interesting and invites a bigger audience.

Cutting to the Beat:

Cutting to the beat is a way of editing a video so that each clip changes at the same time as the beat of the track. Most clips use a 'cut' transition, so you generally 'cut to the beat' of the music. This is a good effect for dance related music videos such as Little Mix's: 'Wings' music video which is mainly comprised of dance sequences.


Effects:

Visual effects are a way of adding more of a narrative and can normally create more excitement into a music video. Sometimes an audience will be so interested in the technology behind the effects but sometimes they like the idea of adding more of a story and colour to the video that keeps them entertained. 'We Made You' by Eminem uses many visual effects that are created with a green screen. This is a good techniques because it keeps the audience entertained and encourages the audience to watch the whole thing without them realising as they subconsciously search for more effects that may have been used.



Miming and Lip-Syncing:

Miming and lip-syncing is a way of linking the video with the song so it gives the allusion that the artist is singing. This technique is used on majority of music videos. 'Rockstar' by Nickelback features random people around the country miming and lip-syncing along to the recorded version by Nickelback, making it look more fun and entertaining because we know that a lot of people will relate to the scenario of the song. 


Multi-mage:

Multi-mage is a technique where multiple videos are on one screen. This generally shows more than one thing goin on and the editing is crucial with this technique. Pentatonix, a five-member acapella group produced a medley of songs by Daft Punk and used this editing technique in their music video for it. They also incorporated cutting to the beat as each cut refers to a video changing position.


Camera Movements:

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 used a variety of camera shots, angles and movements to create different moods, reflect different genres and to emphasize certain elements in the video itself. The finished product reflects the style of each director and/or cinematographer.

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. Examples include:
Pans: This is where the camera scans a scene horizontally. Usually, the camera turns to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.
Dolly/tracking: This is where the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very smooth movement. This is used to emphasize movement.

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. Wherever a camera is placed can show the power of the artist/characters or an exact location from which the audience should be seeing it.

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 or dominant.
Bird's Eye: This angle shows the subject/scene from directly above. It's completely different and can be from an unnatural point of view which can be used to add a dramatic effect or showing a different spatial perspective. It can also show the positions and motions of different characters and objects, enabling the viewer to see things the character might not see.
Slanted/Dutch Angle: This is when the camera is purposefully tilted to one side so the horizon is on an angle. This is creative in making interesting dramatic effects.

Camera angles play a huge part in emphasizing the artist or to show emotions and expressions. The camera angles that are the most common in music videos are close-ups, lip-syncing, and extreme close-ups where the lyrics can be linked to visuals. The camera never stays on one shot for longer than 3-5 seconds.

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 a story is being told. The editing consists of the following:
  • Jump cutting: Including extra shots to transition from one scene to the next or to emphasise an action or lyric in the song.
  • CGI Effects: Chroma keying out of shots to include specific background scenes, adding computer generated images (CGI) to create specific moods or effects.
  • 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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CCR Evaluative Essay

CCR Draft Notes