This is a video (not my own) showing the conventions of music videos including conventions of: the music and the visuals, iconography of the artist, iconography of the music genre, lyrics and visuals, close ups and voyeurism. These are all relevant to my music video because if my video does not follow these conventions, it may not become a success for my band, and the song will not become as great a hit as I would of hoped.
Meanwhile the slideshare powerpoint below outlines the key conventions of music videos in terms of Camera, Editing, Mise-en-scene and editing. It may be key for my music video to follow these conventions, as the audience may be able to understand the video better, as it is seen more common, and it will guarantee that the video will be able to compete with similar videos of the same genre.
My music video does follow the conventions of music videos as it has a relationship story, of which the entire video is based, which is common amongst other songs in the same genre such as, 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran. This is a common convention of music videos of this genre, as the lyrics are often based around relationships, which have a large influence on the music video narrative.
The location is also set to keep in with the conventions of pop music videos. We have done this by setting the house to be middle class, appealing to our target audience, and to match the continuity of the characters that are wearing smart clothes, making them middle class. Furthermore many other pop music videos are set in middle income areas, such as the start to 'Last Frday Night' by Katy Perry.
Music videos commonly either illustrate, amplify or contradict, the visuals and the lyrics. Our video amplifies the lyrics as, we are trying to portray the message of the lyrics, while not literally showing characters acting out the lyrics. Instead we used a singer that appears in shots focusing on the male character, to give an element of illustration to the video, which could be used to argue that our video does not follow the conventions of regular music videos, as it consists of both amplification and illustration.
Our video also has a large variety of shot sizes, including, long shots, close ups, and medium shots of the characters. This follows the common conventions of music videos, as they often have a large variety of shots in order to keep the audience interested and wanting to see more of the video. We therefore have done the same to keep the audience attracted to the video, and make it a success. The music video also consists of a variety of camera movements such as pans, over the shoulder shots, point of view shots, and shot reverse shots. These further enhance the videos appeal to keep the audience entertained, and creates a sense of unknown about how there next shot is going to appear, making the audience want to see more.
The editing used also follows the conventions of similar media products by having jump cuts and fades which are the predominant forms of editing used in music videos, as they are used to change scene quickly, while still showing what happens.
The colours in the video are very bright, which follows another convention of pop music videos, as they are more upbeat and happy, which is reflected in the brighter colours in the video.
The Mise-en scene used in the video does keep in line with the conventions as the use of props and costume is used to represent the moods felt by the characters throughout the video. One example of this is the clothes that the male character is wearing after he leaves the house for the first time, he is wearing a dark coloured jacket, dark jeans and dark shoes. This represents a feeling of sadness and anger amongst the character which is true for him as he has just had an argument with his girlfriend. However, the costumes for the male character have been chosen carefully and shows a white and red shirt under the jacket and when he is at home. This shows that he still is not all sad and this becomes apparent in the video when he reflects on the good time he spent with her, The same feelings are also reflected by the female characters clothing of a black top with white spots on it.
The singer in the video however does not follow the conventions of music videos as he is wearing dark clothes, which represents him as making the song down beat and sad, \however in reality the song is quite fast for a pop song and is upbeat, especially around the chorus. This means that the video subversives the representation in the video. We have done this to emphasise the depressed mood that is present for the majority of the video.
However, not all of the video follows the conventions of music videos. For example, at the beginning of the video, there is a shot reverse shot of the conversation between the couple arguing. This is not commonly featured in other music videos as there is not often a lot of dialogue. However I feel that our video features dialogue in an appropriate way, as it sets the narrative from the start, not confusing the audience about why the main male character had to leave.The conventions of the also helped me with the ancillary tasks as it portrays the bands approach and whether they are regarded as a band you either want to approach, and whether they are friendly to the public. In the ancillary tasks, the poster and digipak, portrayed the band as being serious, but approachable, which is also the same message being shown throughout the video. This was important as it would of made no sense to the audience if the band was represented in 2 very different ways.
