Generic Conventions

Generic Convections

Costume and Make-up

Making sure the costume and make-up is right for the type of genre of music video you want to portray is so important sends a message to your audience immediately. You get your general stereotypes like for example a rapper will be wearing a big fluffy coat with lots of expensive jewellery to make him seem rich and then you get your hardcore rockstars that will dress in really skinny jeans with long scruffy hair making them look like the haven't washed in days. Make-up is generally seen on women to make them appear prettier and more attractive to their male viewers however you do find male rock artists with face paint to make them appear more individual.


Lighting

The lighting in a music video really set the tone and mood of the music video that you want you audience to feel. An example of this might be shown in a dark underground basement room which would stereotypically be the setting of a deep house music video like for example 'Say something' by Karen Harding. However if you wanted to portray your typical happy pop song you would use much brighter lighting as this fits in with the mood of the song and your audience will prefer this.



Editing Techniques

When editing a music video or even watching a music video you will notice that the tempo of the song and the number of cuts have a strong correlation. By this I mean a faster song will generally have more cuts that are shorter and sometimes in time with the beat of the song. However if you were looking at a slower pop song for example the cuts will be longer to create emphasis on each lyric and so that the audience can maybe understand the story that is going on in the music video.


In this gif of the song 'I know' by Shift K3y, the cuts are much quicker as they are in time with the beat of the music to create effect on how fast the song is.

However in the gif below of 'The Hills' by the Weeknd the cuts are much slower because it is a slower song and so is fitted.


Editing can also be used in other ways other than slower and faster cuts. During the editing process, colours can be added like thermal vision effects in 'My Love' by Route 94. Also clips can be revered and sped up to create effect like for example in the song 'The girl is mine' by 99 souls where everything is in reverse apart form the main character who is walking forward.


Camera

Like Tv and Film, camera angles are used for very similar things in music videos. However not to create emphasis as much but more often for showing the band or the crowd. For example a long shot might be used to pan across a crowd at a concert in an artists music video. However a mid-shot would be used to show the artist with their band and maybe their backup dancers behind them. A close-up would be used on a close-up shot of the artist sing into the microphone so that we can see her lips and the lyrics she is saying.


Eye Contact



Eye contact in a music video is so vital particularly when it is the artist in the video because it creates a connection between the audience and the artist. You will find in most pop videos that there is a lot of connection. However depending on the genre this will change. For example in this video 'Stay high' by Tove Lo there is little eye contact between her and the camera. Bu the reason for this is because of the name of the song being 'Stay high'. In order to keep with the genre of music that this song portrays and the lyrics, it is appropriate that she isn't looking at the camera because she is meant to be disoriented.