Codes and conventions of a music video

Codes and ConventionsOf a Music Video

Carla Harris

TECHNICAL

Technical codes are how meaning is conveyed using technical equipment such as the way camera angles are used, the different types of shots, pace and style of editing, diegetic and non-diegetic sound and the genre.

SYMBOLICSymbolic techniques are ways of displaying meanings beyond what you can see, such as facial expressions, gestures and mise-en-scene.

REASONS FOR CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN MUSIC VIDEOS

The audience are able to familiarise the media product with genres allowing them to become accustomed to seeing certain things.

It provides a structure the audience can comprehend.

To help assist suitable visualisations for the lyrics of the songs (most of the time due to niche videos)

Codes and conventions are a firm set of rules.

STYLES OF A MUSIC VIDEOPerformance - Where the band/artist themselves perform/feature in their music videos.

Narrative – Involves a story that may or may not relate to the lyrics of the song.

Mixture – Can consist more than one style e.g. Performance and Narrative

Cameo – The artist features in the narrative but doesn’t perform.

Animation – Digital / Stop frame

Abstract/Niche – The music video doesn’t relate in any way to the song.

CAMERA SHOTSThe type of shot can depend on the style/genre of the music video.

• Close ups predominantly used (especially in performance music videos) Perhaps Extreme Close Ups of lips, guitar strings.

• Crane Shots (Hovering over the stage) • Low-Angles/High Angles• Long Shots & Extreme Long Shots, perhaps to gain an observers

perspective (from afar)• Pans/Tilts , transitions from different performers. • Tracking

EDITING AND SOUND• Jump-cutting• Footage can be edited to sync with the music.• Split-Screens / CGI to create a bigger impact that original

footage could not create.• Diegetic sound is sometimes used such as dialogue from a

character, gunshots.• Change in the levels of sound.

MISE-EN-SCENE• Props – Performance equipment, band merchandise.• Costume – To create a character or representation of the

band, Tyler from Twenty One Pilot often wears black and red costumes. Audiences can therefore associate those colours with Tyler.

• Locations – Concert Halls, venues, streets, parks• Facial Expressions

TYPES OF EDITING USED IN MUSIC VIDEOSCutaways – This is a brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuous action by inserting another related action, object or character, followed by a cutback to the original shot.

Eyeline Match – This edit cuts from a character to an object or person they were looking at.

Flashback – A scene or moment (often introduced through fade to black/white effect) that exposes a moment that occurs earlier in the narrative.

Cross-Cutting – The editing technique of alternating or interweaving one narrative action with another. Usually in different locations, essentially combining the two. This edit is often used to dramatically build tension and/or suspense in chase scenes or to compare the differing scenes.

Graphic Match – An edit in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved from one into the other.

Parallel Editing – This is an edit where events in two locations are cut together in order to imply a connection between the two events.

MUSIC VIDEO EXAMPLES

Seafret-Oceans

This music video follows the narrative style as it features a young girl comes home in the beginning shot (1), through the use of diegetic sound, she calls for her Mum. The song starts immediately and the camera follows the girl (pan effect) to the kitchen where she find a note left by her Mum. She goes into her room and as she takes off her coat, from a over the shoulder shot, “LOSER” is written across the top of her shirt, showing this character potentially isn't favoured. She finds a superhero outfit in her closet and puts it on and heads outside and the music progresses from a calm tone to a more upbeat atmosphere. She seems to full of emotions as she displays facial expressions of being indecisive, contemplative behaviour, she seems unsure of herself.

1

2

3

In shot 3, the audience are introduced to the possible culprits behind the “loser” written on her shirt as they display bullying behaviour towards her and she uses her ‘powers’ to get them to leave her alone which is possibly a symbolic message that suggests she’s moving on from them and not letting them get to her anymore