Styles, Conventions and Techniques

In this piece I will be writing about the different types of music videos and giving examples for each of the types.

In-concert or "as live":
These music videos are where the artist takes clips from concerts and uses them for their music video. This is used to give an effect of what it would be like to see what they are like live and get somewhat of an experience. This can also be done with VR (Virtual Reality) where people can experience what the concert is like and feel like they are there. 

                                                                  

This meets the live style of video as there is a crowd and the music is being played live
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Narrative and Interpretive:
These sort of music are usually used to allow the artist to show the the meaning behind a song and what the lyrics mean. These sort of music videos can be quite literal translations of the lyrics, but can also have a more interpretative approach. 

The music video is more of a literal meaning type of song, It shows how the black community work around the struggle of guns and drugs and police brutality in America and how people are still being treated as slaves. The video shows a small snip of what black people have to go through.

Surrealist/Absurdist:
These sort of music videos are usually far from what the lyrics actually mean and have little relationship to the lyrics. They can often come across unconventional to the type of music video, for example rap music, you'd expect chains, alcohol, cars, women and anything expensive. 



This music video fits the surrealist category as a lot of the stuff is unconventional and also, like in one part he is riding a cat. The lyrics express little to no meaning to what is happening in the video so fits the surrealist video to the tea. 

Impressionist:
These types of videos are there to create an emotional impact with the lyrics of the song. This can also be done to break the boundaries for how music videos are made for certain areas. Most of the artists that create "Impressionist" music videos usually have an artistic view on the world, and take longer creating their videos. 21 Savage's "Nothin' New" music video that is already on this blog could be put into this category because of the emotional impact that the video creates.



Intertextual:
These types of videos can reference other materials. These can usually be other songs, or artists or movies. These types of videos are also used for the movies. The artist uses clips from the film, and creates a video out of them. The film Black Panther that was recently released had a soundtrack for the film produced by Kendrick Lamar. With one of the songs being named "Black Panther". Artists can also use music videos, in a way of paying respect to an influence. 



The song "Pray For Me" features in the film as they enter the Korean casino. It shows reference to the film as the songs were specifically made for the film, but also some of the lyrics to the song are "I'm always ready to start a war again". This is linking to what happens throughout the film and what is happening later on in the scene.

Animation: 
This style isn't always used in music videos, however is starting to become more used in hip-hop music. An artist called Lil Uzi Vert uses animation for most, or all of his music videos, especially the japanese style anime. 



This song uses animation through parts of the song, and uses the animation to transition to the next scene in the video. Lil Uzi is known for using animation for his videos. Another popular one being "XO Tour Life".

Lip-Sync:
This is most common with narrative based music videos. Because the video is more based on a narrative, the artist has to lip-sync the lyrics as the min focus is the video itself. This can also depend on the speed of the song and the scene that is being filmed, for example, a high speed chase with normal paced audio. 




This song is mostly based on the video, and the areas where 21 is in the scene, he is having to lip sync. The scene where all the hostages are in the room, the movements are in slow mo, so he has to lip-sync the lyrics for the video to match the song as the audio is at a normal speed.


Editing:
Editing in music videos can make any music video seem a certain way, depending on how shots are placed and when cuts are made. 




The one that I chose off of the list was "Wyclef Jean" by Young Thug. The thing that interested me about this video before I'd clicked on it was the fact that it was a hip-hop song so it's the genre of music I listen to. The video itself is really good. The fact that the artist didn't show up and the video went so well means a lot. The editing made the video comical and the writing describing stuff kinda made the song, somewhat irrelevant in my opinion and was more about the video. My favourite part is one of the first scenes where Young Thug is saying what he wants fr the music video and how the cars are all in the same spot but switch between each car, and then when more cars start to appear as they talk about what they want. 

Cutting to the beat:
A music video where the song or shots cut to the beat and more rhythm to your shots.



The song cuts to the beat where it glitches between shots and when the beat switches to move on the next scene. The video cuts between three places and uses the beat to switch between them all.

Post-production effects:
Artists use visual effects to attract the attention of an audience, or use them to do things that you can't do in real life, such as turning someone from a skeleton to a human, which is what Travis Scott does in Goosebumps.




Travis Scott uses visual effects in most of his videos. Another example would be "Butterfly Effect", as this uses a lot of visual affects, however, doesn't uses as many as Goosebumps. Goosebumps uses a lot of colour grading and animating throughout the video to make it seem quite euphoric. 

Split screen:
This type of music video is where multiple or more than one image is on the screen with both the images being in different places. These types of videos aren't very common and are mostly made by people who want to create an artistic view to the song, or want to give it some sort of meaning. 



This music video fits the split screen category as it shows different images throughout the video at the same time. The video uses two images side by side and makes them look like the fit together in an odd way, even though the images are completely different, wether it be the colours or the locations or the actual images themselves. 


Chroma key:
These types of videos are where the person or people are in front of a green screen and the unwanted colour is blocked out so that the secondary image, which is layered behind is visible, this is Chroma key. 



Although I have already used this song as an example for a different part, it fits in with the chroma key, as you can see by the video thumbnail. Their heads are bigger and on top of their bodies and the beach background is on a green screen behind them, this being chroma keyed. 

Camera movements:
This is where the music video uses a lot of camera movements, such as a crab, pan and a crane. This can be used to create a flow to the video and make it interesting for the audience. 




God's Plan uses a lot of different camera movements to show and create emphasis in certain parts of the song. It uses the crane when he's on the building and could link in with the title God's Plan as they God is considered higher up. They also uses a lot of crab and pan shots to show different parts of the city and the area that they are filming in. 


Camera angles and shot types:
The creator of the music video can make the video seem more impactful and give things more meaning through the types of shots and angles used. An example would be a close up to show the expression on somebody's face.



Beibs in the trap uses a lot of different camera angles and shot types throughout the video. I don't believe that it adds more meaning to the shots for this song in particular, however, I do believe that it highlights specific things more by the angles and shots used as there is more focus towards these things through the shots and angles used.
Mise-en-scene:
The mise-en-scene is to do with the lighting, objects, setting, etc, to help carry on the mood of the song into the video. Some examples I think that use this well are :
Ed Sheeran - Perfect
I believe that this works really well with the song because of the types of lighting used. The types of lighting used are the types that you would see in a romantic film so I believe that this works well.
Ed Sheehan - Thinking out loud
I believe that this one works really well as the setting fits the song really well and again goes along with the romantic film setting again very well and uses mise-en-scene very well, this being the lighting, costumes, objects used and the setting.