Codes and Conventions of Music Videos

Codes and conventions of music videos are generally the style, camera, sound (both diegetic and non-diegetic), mise en scene, editing and stereotyping. However, depending on the genre and style of the video, these conventions can shift slightly. The reason we have codes and conventions in music videos is to create a foundation or structure that the audience can understand, as well as allowing them to familiarise themselves with a specific genre. Conventionally a video will last the length of a song, although more narrative videos will have added scenes to tell more of a story. Moreover, is makes sure that a songs message and lyrics are represented in the video, so a heavy rock song will have relatable, stereotypical themes in the video, instead of something that would be completely un expected (although every now and then a video will completely defy codes and conventions). Music videos can either follow conventions, which most do, or attempt to challenge hegemonic norms. Voyeurism of females is a common feature in music videos, especially the pop or hip-hop genre. This can be shown through clothing choices and camera angles/shots, such as close up of lips. Most music videos will conform to stereotypes as it is such an easy thing to do and most will just naturally fall that way. The two types of techniques used to contrast meaning in the codes and conventions of music videos are technical and symbolic.Technical – How the technically equipment can portray meaning. So how camera angles, shots, sounds, editing styles and the genre can be used in a way to convey a particular meaning in the song and consequently the music video.Symbolic – This is more mise en scene, such as facial expressions, body language and gestures. These more visual and more ambiguous features also convey meaning beyond what you can see.

Narrative • A narrative video is one that tells a story. It could be either linear or

fragmented. A linear narrative will follow conventions of a story starting from beginning, to middle to end. A fragmented narrative is one that doesn’t follow this order it could either be end to beginning, or more random. Most music videos will tell a narrative even if it is a little more abstract, as telling a story through the use of the lyrics and style of the song quite common. A story-based video will potentially have many props and locations, it will reflect the style of the song, so a sad emotional song will have a sad emotional story line.

• A very obvious example of a narrative video is ‘Knights of Cydonia’ – Muse. This video is very postmodern and ironic, but the sarcastic story is so obvious and over exaggerated. The cattle punk western style mixed with futuristic si-fi tells a story where a cowboy meets a woman and then a villain captures her, causing him to have to rescue her. It has a very standard linear story line that is set out like a film with credits at the end.

Performance• A performance video will consist of mainly the

artist performing, however, many videos will have sections flaked into the video of the artist performing. Performance videos are good promotion for the artist or band and allow the audience to familiarise themselves with the artist. However, a video solely based on performance alone are not that popular as they are seen as boring from an audience point of view, so a video is more likely to mix a narrative and performance together.

• An example of is ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ – Guns N’ Roses. The video is in black and white and is simply the band performing the song in a ‘behind the scenes’ style. The video itself is has no complicated narrative, and meets all the conventions of a performance video such as close ups of people singing and playing instruments.

Mixture• This is a combination of both performance and narrative,

which is so much more common in music videos as it has the best of both. It has a story to engage the audience and gives them the chance to connect with the video, as well as promoting and familiarising the artist as a brand and with the audience. This merging of two conventions to create another convention is popular and allows room for a video to have many elements to it to keep people entertained.

• An example is ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down’ – Fall Out Boy. The video’s narrative is of an outcast boy with antlers who falls for a girl, but her father disapproves, in the end it turns out the father is part animal as well. The performance aspect is fall out boy singing and playing in a log cabin room. It follows the conventions, that the narrative is told and showed, whilst the band or artist perform in a separate or sometimes linked location. The shots cut to the beat between the band playing in time to the song and the narrative.

Cameo• A cameo is when another famous person, in a music video it is likely to be

anther artist, who features in a video, but doesn’t actual perform. It is a clever and easy way a crating hype and talk for a video or song, by doing quite little. It is enjoyable for the audience as they can spot a cameo, potentially of someone they like, and this can be quite satisfying. Typically a cameo is done in a subtle way, it directly draws attention to the cameo, and makes it very clear, but it doesn’t normally make it obvious in the video that there is a cameo (although some have done, but it is generally done in an ironic way).

• A perfect example, flooded with cameos is ‘B*tch I’m Madonna’ – Madonna Ft Nicki Minaj. The video itself is very colourful and is filled with people dancing and having a fun time. However, scattered throughout the video are small cameos from many different famous people such as Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, Rita Ora, Chris Rock, Kanye West and a couple more. The amount of cameos in this video is quite unique and will really attract an audience’s attention.

Camera• Camera movement, shots and angles are so important in a music video, the way in which a scene is shot is

crucial to a music video. Typically a music video will have many different camera angles, shots and movements to create its on style. Moreover, conventionally, the camera will always be moving in some way, it could be zooming it, or a pan, track, dolly etc. there will be still shots, most probably when the video needs to focus on something eg a face or a prop. The only exception for a completely still camera is if a video is shot entirely with green screen such as ‘Price Tag’ – Jessie J, the camera movements will be added in postproduction.

• Camera Shots:• Extreme long shot:• This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting,

establishing shot. It normally shows an exterior, eg the outside of a building, or a landscape. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

• Long Shot:• This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame

and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges. • Medium Shot:• Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of

action. This gives slightly more focus to the face and clothes and background, it is a very common shot to use. • Over the Shoulder Shot:

Positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder. Usually, the shot will be used in a conversation of characters in a video.

• Close-Up:• This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of

mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. It is a very important shot as it can convey a lot of emotion if it is a close up of someone’s face.

• Extreme Close-Up:• An extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would

experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail . This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect as well as being quite intimate and can be used to sexualise a person.

• Group Shot:• This will be a wide or long shot, but it will show a large group, possibly for a dance routine or

for a band. • Point of View:• The camera acts as though it is the eyes of the artist or character, it shows the view from the

subject’s perspective. • Cut in:• A shot will cut to some other part of the subject, eg their hands, feet etc. This could be used

for voyeurism of females to focus on parts of their body to seem sexual. It is also generally used for many reasons, however.

• Cut away:• This will cut away to something other than the subject to show what is going on around them,

it could be a eye-line match or just a break from the main action.

Camera Angles• Eye-Level:• This is a very neutral, standard view, as it acts as the real world angle that the audience is

used to, it shows the subject how we would expect to see them in real life. As it is such as normal angle it is the most common angle in videos.

• High Angle:• A high angle shows the subject from above, so the camera is angled down towards the

subject. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive.

• Low Angle:• This shows is the opposite to high angle and it shows the subject from a below pov, giving

the impression they are more superior or dominant. • Bird's Eye:• The camera is angled directly above the subject or scene. It as a somewhat unnatural pov,

and it is generally used to give a dramatic effective or a different perspective, as well as enabling the viewer to see things the audience can’t. It is used in music video; however, it is less common than the other camera angles.

• Slanted/Dutch Tilt:• This is where the camera is purposely tilted to one side so the horizon is on an angle,

creating an interesting and dramatic effect. The angle provides a different texture to the shots and is very popular in MTV-style video production, where unusual angles and lots of camera movement play a big part.

Camera Movements• The camera is directed to move to follow the action or the artist to show

different things that are going on. In music videos the camera is nearly always moving and rarely stationary, so camera movements like pan and tracks can be used for all different types of shots. The camera could dolly zoom into someone’s face to show expression, or pan to show a shot or scenery or a room. Some videos will be solely dolly camera movement and follow people walking down the street. A good example of this is ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ – The Verve, the video is of the lead singer walking down a street and the camera just follows his movements, changing angle/potion every now and then.

• Pan:• The camera remains stationary but the • camera is turned to follow something or ‘scan’ a shot. A panning shot is very

common and will be used in most videos. • Dolly/Track:• The camera is mounted onto a cart or wheels, which

then travels along in a smooth notion.

Editing• Editing is done in postproduction, so once things are filmed a video will be

edited together. In the editing stage, the colours can be made brighter or darker, affecting the tone, mood which could be influenced by the genre. Many effects can be added, but unless a video is trying to parody something or be dramatic, all that will be done in editing is colour correction, cutting it together, speeding up or slowing things down etc. The cuts can range from fades, to jump cuts, to cross cutting, parallel editing and so many more, any cut that helps tell the story or make the performance look interesting. A simple straight cut is probably the most common, all videos will use it. If a video uses a green screen, then this is also done in the editing stage, conventionally a green screen will either be a block colour or have some sort or scenery or design. Both of these examples of green screen editing can be seen in ‘Price Tag’ – Jessie J and ‘Kiss You’ – One Direction. The cutting together of a video can also change the tone, all straight, blunt cuts is a bit more abstract and odd and may be used in a more indie video, whereas a pop upbeat video will probably have more cut always and lengthy shots.

Sound• This is defiantly the most important and influential

stage, as the song will determine what the video looks like. This then starts to explain why rock music has a dark horror or performance iconography, where as a pop anthem will have a fun, dance routine filled music video. Sounds can be added into the video, such as in ‘Knights of Cydonia’ – Muse, added horse neighs are in the video to emphasise the intertextual western cliché. A convention within sound is to relate the visuals to the lyrics, which follows Andrew Goodwin’s theory. This is done just by having relatable image or by having the lyrics written on paper.

Mise En Scene• This can range from the props, costumes, lighting, hair and makeup, location, basically anything that can be seen

on the screen that isn’t camera, editing or sound. Mise en scene really defines that the music video is in terms of style and genre.

• Lighting:• This can change the whole tone of a video, if it is bright it is seen as more upbeat, if it is dark it is seen as more

sad or scary. Lighting also comes into play to represent time such as night or day. Strobe or coloured lights can be used to emphasise a party, so this is more common in hip-hop or pop videos. Light can also make a really cool effect to flare lighting, such as traffic or lights in the background to create or cool or soft effect depending on the videos overall look.

• Props:• The props add to a video, they can make things seem more thematic or to illustrate the narrative or just to be

used in a fun and interesting way. A good example of good use of props to create a thematic, fantasy, dream world is ‘Neopolitan Dreams’ – Lisa Mitchell. The clever use of props in the video tells a story and is very unique and interesting for the audience.

• Costumes/Hair and Make-up:• Costume can be a very noticeable factor in a video, a more indie video will probably go down the t-shirt and jeans

route. However a more pop, or abstract song will be very adventurous in the clothing and makeup choices. Typically conventions of outfit can dement on the genre, style and brand, someone like Lady Gaga is known for quirky, out-there outfits so her brand would call for strange clothing choices. Clothing and make-up can represent what the artist is trying to portray in their video, or to illustrate narrative.

• Colour:• Every video will noticeably play with colour, it could be that the video is in black and white, or have bright colours

or not really alter the colours. A black and white video will conventionally be sad, dramatic or thought provoking. A brightly coloured video will typically be fun and excited. Colour can also be used to represent different points in time, such as flashbacks.