In my previous project, we already researched into the codes and conventions of a music video. However I believe I should’ve done a bit more research myself as I wasn’t the one who looked into it. the research I do now will give me a better understanding of these.
I thought it would be helpful to research this for my project because music is poetry and can be interpreted in many ways. Pretty much all videos and films follow the codes and conventions, so in my eyes this research is necessary for me to complete.
Codes and conventions
Codes and conventions are used to structure videos. It helps plan a video easier, as well as figuring out what types of characters/people you need and where the best places to film the video would be. Mise en scene plays a big part in the codes and conventions of any type of film. There are 2 different types of codes and conventions: Technical and Symbolic.
Technical
This is how the equipment is used to evoke meaning into the video. For example, this can be done by the use of Editing, genre of music, camera angles and lighting. depending on what type of song is being used, the overall emotion of the song can be amplified through the technical aspect.
This song is about someone who misses their ex partner. The overall emotion of the song is sadness and pain. The lighting throughout the video is quite dark and eerie provoking a lonely feeling – much like the songs lyrics intend. The editing side has made sure that the video has a cold feeling to it by adding a green/blue hue to the footage.
Symbolic
This is a way of showing meaning rather them directly telling it. This can be done through gestures, facial expressions, poses and the overall mise en scene. There’s a music video for reference.
This music video by Ariana Grande is filled with symbolism about empowering woman. These days women are starting to realise their worth and they’re becoming more powerful as the years progress, and this video embraces this change.
Why they’re used
Codes and conventions are used to help structure videos. It allows the audience to understand what happens during a video. If a video was made an nothing had been pre-planned, the viewer would be confused and wouldn’t understand the concept of the video.
Performance videos
Performance videos mainly focus on the artist themselves performing the song alone of in front of an audience. Most of the time they don’t include any sort of storyline so its just purely focused on the artist performing the song.
This is a video I found that just includes the band and nobody else. There isn’t much to say about it apart from it uses a variety of artistic lighting and camera shots. For a performance video I think the aesthetic is good, although I personally think the performance videos are a little boring to watch.
Narrative videos
Narrative heavily focus on a storyline throughout the video. It evokes emotion in the viewer and sometimes are able to reach them on a personal level. Not all narrative videos follow the lyrical concept but I reckon the majority do.
The video follow two lovers who frequently commit crimes around their town. In the end one of the girls die, so the other takes revenge and kills the people who shot down her girlfriend. I found this video interesting to watch because I don’t normally see videos that have an unorthodox storyline and I feel as though this video falls into that category. I think the twist at the end was planned out cleverly and making a video inspired by this twist would probably show that I am a careful planner.
Animated
Animated videos can be shown through stop-motion or cartoons. I personally prefer the stop-motion animations, I’m not entirely sure why but I just find them more interesting to watch. Since I showed a stop-motion in my last post, I’ll show an animated video in this post.
I’ve seen this video a few times before and it’s a reoccurring video preference for the band. Rather than showing their real faces, they have characters that ‘perform the songs for them’. Sometimes they use rotoscoping in their videos like this one. Gorillaz re-invent their video styles every few songs/albums and its why I find them really intriguing to watch.
Surreal
Surreal videos are videos that display impossible physics/biology. I’m drawn to thee types of videos because it sets them apart from regular music videos. Depending on if special effects and makeup is executed well, the video can turn out amazing.
I like this music video because of how artistic and really out there it is. Surreal music video stand to grab my attention more often than regular music videos and this one really makes that mark. The mixture of bright and dark colours, along with the costume and makeup design real brings this video to life and sets it apart from others. Lady Gaga is very artistic in her fashion choices and music videos and I feel as through this is the pinnacle of her surreal art.
Mixture videos
Mixture videos tend to feature more than one style of video in them. Rotoscoping is an example as it features live video and animation. It must be hard to mix two styles of videos together and make it successful.
I remember watching this video as a kid and actually believing that the animated cat was dancing with Paula Abdul. The animators added a shadow onto the cat animation to make it look as if it’s actually there on set, rather than added in afterwards. This is a mixture of animation and a performance video and the dancing choreography is what draws me to the video. It’d been carefully planned beforehand and makes the video look more professional and fun.
Parody
Parody videos aren’t meant to be taken seriously. The majority of the time they are taking a comedic approach to an already existing song or pop culture. Personally I’m not really a fan of Parody videos, however Weird Al Yankovic is infamous for his comedic spin on popular songs and I find them enjoyable to watch.
Eminem used to make a lot of comedic music videos that basically criticised pop culture and music itself. This song is mainly about how celebrities are just regular people and the fact that people admire them so much is confusing. I like this video because it’s somewhat funny to watch and isn’t as cringeworthy as other parody videos I’ve seen before.
Cameo
Music videos that feature a cameo tend to have a famous friend of the artist appear in the video with them. I’m not entirely sure why this is done but it may just be a way to promote the musician/cameo itself.
This video features Rupert Grint, they chose this actor to be in the video because an inside joke in Ed Sheeran’s fanbase is that Rupert and Ed look very alike. Towards the end of the video, a crowd mistakes Rupert for Ed which is somewhat funny to watch, but the video itself is sad in a way. I chose to include this video because whoever casted Rupert did a great job for the video concept.
Editing techniques
Editing techniques are included in every music video. They can be done my using multiple camera angles, special effects and how the video is cut and placed together. I found a video the other day that I thought had a very complex editing technique.
I enjoyed watching this video because the way the editing department managed to cut and place all these different shots together and transition them into one really shows off their editing skills. I appreciate the time and effort that was put into this type of editing and it is one of my favourite videos.
Researching the codes and conventions really helped me understand the different types of music videos that are out there. Previously I wouldn’t have thought to include Parody music videos or videos with cameos.
This activity helped me a bit and I have a better idea of how I want to edit my video and put it together. I might try and experiment with special effects makeup and different camera angles and shots. The poem I have decided to use has a dark theme, so like my previous work I can use colour and lighting to capture the emotion in the text.
FINAL MAJOR PROJECT 2019 