Research: Music Videos

The main purpose of music videos are to:
- Promote a single or album
- Promote the artist or band
- Entertain the audience
- Reinforced image of the band/artist.


Codes and conventions

Codes and conventions are ways of constructing meaning within media texts, they are a firm set of rules and way of doing things to abide too when creating media texts. It allows for audiences to clearly identify with a certain genre as they become accustomed to seeing certain things and ensures that the text fits into the genre as well as it could possibly be.

Codes and conventions of music videos

There are different styles of music videos, which can be categorised like this:

- Performance: Band/Artist playing
- Narrative: Includes a running story throughout relating to the video
- Mixture: performance and narrative mixed together
- Cameo: Band/Artist appears in the video but doesn't perform
- Animation: Computer created animation is used heavily in the video eg flash

This music video is an example of a performance style of music video where the whole video sees the band playing in a plain white room. This video is by the rock band Foo Fighters and the song is called Rope.

The below music video is an example of a CGI style of music video by Kanye West - Heatless.

Camera work

In music videos, a variety of shots are used in order to create an interesting and dynamic music video which is entertaining for the audience. Here are some examples of camera work that is commonly seen in music videos:

- Crane shots
- Pans/Tilts
- Close ups
- Tracking shots
- Establishing shots
- Low angle shots

Editing and sound

Many people think that filming the video is the longest and hardest process of the creation in making a music video, however a lot of attention and detail has to be paid to the editing of the music video. You have to ensure that lip synching is correctly timed with the music and the video runs smoothly with a clear narrative. Some examples of editing and sound include:

- Jump cutting
- Split screens
- CGI effects
- Diagetic sound
- Non-diagetic soudn
- Changes in the level of sound

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene of a music video is highly important as it helps identify the genre and characters of the music video which helps relate to the audience.

- Props
- Costume
- Location