Conventions Of Music Videos

Music videos feature a number of different shot types for various reasons; to create certain feelings, but also to show the viewer what is actually happening. Conventional shots that usually feature in music videos are;

Extreme close-up – this shows precise features of the artists face, for example, eyes, or mouth to identify the feeling or emotion in a video . An example would be an extreme close up upon the artist’s eyes to clearly show a tear running down their face. 

Medium angled shot – this shows the artist from his/her waist up, but still giving the viewer an insight into the included location.

Close up – this shot shows the artists face or specific important objects that are needed to allow the viewer to continue into the narrative of the music video with a clear understanding.

Medium close up- this shot is halfway between a mid-shot and a close-up, showing the artist from their chest to their head. This is commonly used of performance based music videos to focus the attention upon a certain individual to force the viewer to see the artist in a desired way. 

Wide angle shot – This is where the artist is shown but the emphasis upon the location/setting is extensive.

Over the shoulder shot – this is a common shot used specifically in narrative based music videos. The shot can be used when the main protagonist is speaking to enteral character or to show something the character is looking at in order to clearly allow the viewer to follow the main actor throughout the narrative in a clear and understandable way.

I plan to use the following shots :

Medium Angled Shot 

Medium Close up

Close Up

Over the Shoulder

These shots with give my viewer a variated angles of view to keep them interested which the narrative unfolds. however I may drift away from these plans if necessary.

Camera Angles

Many different camera angles are used in the production of music videos to express different viewpoints of various subjects within the video.

 Examples of camera angles are;

Eye-Level – eye level angles are very common due to their similarity with the real world angle that we are all familiar with; it shows subjects as equally empowered in comparison to the viewer causing a sympathetic approach from the viewer toward the protagonist.

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From the music video: Heroes

High Angle – This camera angle shows the focus from above. The camera is angled down towards the subject, which causes them appear vulnerable to the viewer. This technique is commonly used in music videos which follow an individual during a piece. It can also be used as irony to reveal things to the viewer that the protagonist doesn't know.

Low Angle – This is where the subject is shown from below, giving the impression of being more powerful or dominant.

I plan to only use eye level shots as I neither want to empower or enforce vulnerability upon any characters as I want to give my viewers the power to personalise and interpret my product as they desire as I believe making a product personal is the key to success In the media industry.

Camera Movements

Pans – This movement scans across scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod, which is placed at a fixed point in the scene and dragged across the scene following the main focal point. Using the speed on a pan suggests the extent of tension of adrenaline which is present in the scene.

Tracking- This is technique consist of mounted a camera on a cart which travels along a tracks to create a smooth movement to give a harmonic feel to a video.  This is evident on the music video for Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri in which tracking is used to move backwards as she walks towards the camera to create a soft feeling in the video.

Mis en scene

The arrangement and stage properties of a music video consist of lighting, props, costume, location, and colour. These features are used to convey the desired meaning within a music video by represent characters in a certain way through construction of their image within the video. Through deconstruction of 3 Professional Products I have discovered these features are genre dependent and follow genre specific conventions.

 Lighting -Lighting in a music video is critical in order to create a desired vibe or feeling.  It allows the audience to recognize and enhance the emotion which is being represented. A bright light can be used to draw the viewers’ attention to a chosen focal point. Scene can be lit by using – natural lighting i.e. from the sun or existing light sources, or by using artificial lights, Strobe lights and coloured lights. I intend to use natural light where possible to give my video a natural clear and brittle look.

Props – Props are used to perfect the narrative by giving it a life like depth. The props in my music video are going to have a strong link with the song’s lyrics and title. I plan to use jars which upon the chorus or drop of the song will be smashed by the protagonist. This use of jars will evidently show my depth of thinking while planning my video. An example of this is involved in KSHMR’s _ Dead Man’s Hand, in which the actors are holding guns and dressed in western costume which links with the style of the song which even though it is dance you can tell a western style was intended and the music video only supports this.

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Costume - The costume of a character usually represents their personality. Costume can also be worn to represent the viewer and their interests due to my protagonist wearing a t –shirt branded by 11 degrees. This style of clothing is very common with followers of EDM and due to this I selected this clothing to allow my viewers to have similar qualities meaning my video was relatable and reaches out to capture their attention. An example of this is Martin Garrixs – Animals in which all the actors wear animal’s masks, directly linking to the songs name.

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Location - The location and scene of a music video is not only used to show the actors location. The location influences the mood of a video and is also chosen to relate to the meaning or message of my chosen song

Research Into The Industry

Research into the industry

How music videos are made?

Music videos are made when a single has just been released, then plans are put into place to create a music video for the artist. They then call in film crew, the artist, producers, directors and more important people. They then plan how long it will take and how many days they need to film for. They will work and work until every shot is perfect and ‘music video material’. The music video will usually be mimed.

Editors of music videos spend days, maybe weeks editing the video and adding special effects and setting the music correctly so that everything is perfect and ready for release.

The music videos are then premiered on music channels such as MTV or Smash Hits so that they can get their big break onto the music scene, and people can tune in to watch them if it appeals to them.

Production of Music Videos


Construct of music involves executives and an artist. Both are vital in order to get the music produced. An executive producer is the person who controls the whole creation of the professional product.

During preproduction of a music video, a series of research and planning errands need to be carried out. This research consists of aspects such as the video storyboard and questionnaires which will be required to gather feedback on ideas and collect information as to what the viewers would want/expect to see from your music video. I have also mirrored this in my preproduction planning to gain the same required information to make a professional product.

Artists are heavily dependent on outside companies when it comes to producing music videos as they are specialists when it comes to the production process. An example of an outside company used for production in the media industry is “HUM”, an award winning music Production Company, based in London.

The director will be approached and given the soundtrack to allow them create several ideas for a music video. The director is completely in charge of what will and won’t be included in the music video and the original artist no longer has control.

In the industry, a record label is networking brand which helps artists in the form of marketing and promotion of their music and name. There a several large EDM music record labels in which numerous artists have been signed up to in order to give them a greater chance to develop their skills and expand their audience. Various examples of large record labels are both “Spinnin’ Records” and “Musical Freedom”; both labels have large promotions and fuel an artist’s career in specific but successful ways.

Exhibition: When a music video is premiered to your focus group, a license is required so they can legally broadcast the product. This license is required to avoid copyright issues as the music video is owned by the record company, meaning permission is required in order to legally exhibit the video.  Technological convergence between different forms of technology allow illegal exhibition to occur much easily due to the vast amount of websites which could easily embed a music video within the webpage. This is where the problem of copyright with music can occur as it is so easy to get free access to music and illegally watch copy or download music.

Average costs of music videos:

• Producer fee: $500 – $1250/day
• Director fee: $500 – $1250/day
• Camera operator: $500-1000/day
• Camera equipment rental: $150 – $3500/day
• Key grip + assistant + lighting gear: $1000 – $1750/day
• Wardrobe: estimated $20 – $1000/day per character project
• City permits: $25 – $1000/day (depending on the city, exact location, whether roads need to be closed, etc…)
• Location fees and rentals: $250 – $2500+/day
• Actors: $200 – $1200/day (each)
• Extras: $50 – $200/day (each)

Example of successful directors in my genre: 

“DANIELS”

DANIELS is the industry name of directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, They are a pair who’ve focused upon the more surreal end of the spectrum (hardly surprising when you learn they were both interns for Eric Wareheim). Since going it alone they’ve established themselves with an incredibly unusual body of work that combines very comedy, bizarre dance routines and an immature informal but captivating charm.

Compared to other directors in the industry, DANIELS’ ability to take a enchanting idea and develop it to its extent of its possible shows off their confidence in their ability.

Their videography clearly exposes why they’ve been twice nominated for a Grammy during their careers. Their projects consist of reanimating the corpses of Foster The People, impregnating girls at a glance for “Chromeo” and focusing on the unusual topic of societies sexual drive in Lil Jon’ Turn Down For What. “DANIELS” videos spread through the internet like “clickbait” wildfire.

This Duo focus on the wacky and wonderful side of media making their pieces quite niche compared to most I want to focus on this unusual side of media by merging both narrative and performance styles of music videos which is an unusual occurrence in the EDM side of the industry. I believe by doing this it will take up the genre's followers with ease due to its abnormality and fresh style in the industry.

MARK LOONEN

Born in the Netherlands, Mark Loonen is known for his energetic, imaginative and skilled products. He has been working in the industry for nearly a decade.

Mark set out to start his own production company. It has now been successfully functioning in the industry for the past 5 years. Marks signature style, dynamic camerawork and hands-on approach paved his way to the top.

Overtime, Mark´s wide range of video productions amazed millions of views on the web. His credits include star-struck collaborations with the hottest internationally acclaimed DJs, record labels and events, including Martin Garrix, Spinnin Records, Don't Let Daddy Know and much more.

One of Mark´s highlights in 2013 has been the official musicvideo for Martin Garrix "Animals", counting over 300.000.000 views on youtube!

Animal by Martin Garrix features props which link up with the songs title, this creates a weird and wacky music video but with a deeper message about how animals are within society however we don't see them. I intend to use this technique of using objects to give a symbolic or hidden message as it is accessible under my restraints therefore I will adapt this feature for my production piece to have a similar success enhancing effect. 

Intertextuality with in Music videos

Intertextuality with in Music videos

The formal definition of intertextuality is  “The way in which one media format is referenced with in another text. “

An example of this is within Dimitri Vegas and Like Mikes latest song, “The Hum” it Involves a chant from an iconic scene from the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street”. 

Due to the film’s success of being nominated for 148 awards and winning 33 of them this song became a craze in the EDM scene. The chant is a memorable iconic aspect of the film and this hooked the EDM fans at one of the largest stages of them all,”Tomorrowland”.

These two formats of media text leached off of each other’s success and brought fans of both music and film together which increased the impact of the professional product in both texts.

Proof of this success in the music industry in that in this years DJ Mag top 100 DJ’s, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike were placed at #1. They have been trying to climb to the top spot for several years and this year they only released 4 songs, one of which was “The Hum” which hit the number 1 spot on the Belgian music charts.

The reason intertexuality is popular in the music industry is due to its successful qualities.

Advantages of intertextuality: The use of intertextuality in a music video could make the video more appealing to a wider range of people so could gain the artist fans and could increase the success of a song. This would therefore make the artist make more money and increase the overall success of the proffessional project

Disadvantages of intertextuality: The issue with intertextuality is if the people who like the person or thing you refrence dont like the way the artist represents them this could cause the audience to not like the video and then not like the artist so they will lose fans and lose money.conclusion: In my video i would use intertextuality if it fits however if it does not and it is there for no reason i would not use intertextuality in my video because it would not make sence. 

Andrew Goodwin and Laura Mulvey’s Theories

Andrew Goodwin outlines how music visuals interlink such as lyrics being related to the images to amplify the impact of the music video.

He says the visuals are amplifying, illustrative or conceptual; if they are amplifying a more detailed representations of the lyrics is being created. If they are illustrative they mirror the same idea as the lyrics and if they are conceptual they are demonstrating a different concept of the lyrics. He also suggests the same theories between the music and the visuals.

Genre Characteristics:

Goodwin suggests certain traits of a music video relate to the actual music. For example a rock music video would most probably be performance based, however dance music would focus upon upbeat high energy visuals.  

Lyrics and Visuals:

Goodwin also suggests that a music video will mirror the tone and emotion of the lyrics. An example of this is one of my deconstructed videos, “Coldplay – Paradise” which links nature and freedom with the word “Paradise”.

Music and Visuals:

There are 3 ways music and visuals can be interlinked for different effects: illustrative, amplifying and contradicting.

An example of an illustrative connection is “Coldplays – A sky full of skies” in which the video illustrates the lyrics of the songs by focusing the video around space.

An example of an amplified music video is when a music video gives a more in depth insight into the wider meaning of the music.

An example of a contradicting music video is one in which it purposely ignores the music and is there to give the music a new mood or meaning.

Intertextual Reference:

Intertextuality is when various media texts reference and interlink with each other. 


I plan to go against the use intertextuality in my product as I believe there is no opportunity to bring in and use it. I feel as though if I force my product to include intertextuality the effectiveness of it will be reduced,  drawing away the success of my piece. Therefore I will Ignore this process during the construction of my music video.

The Three Categories Of Music Videos

Performance Based videos

        Performance based music videos are general focused on the actual artist, this is common in various genres, one example is Imagine Dragons, who usually feature in there videos playing to the crowd. Another example is in pop, this is due to pop stars being huge idols in the industry for a wide audience, therefore other industries can take advantage of a performance based project to advertise their brand. 

         

     Also, due to the focus being on performance, they usually are cheaper to construct as they are generally basic and simple, adding to the impact of a performance alone video.

Advantages and disadvantages of performance based music videos:

A – They are generally cheaper and are very simple meaning they can be done by any level of performer. A performance based video also allows self-promotion

D- They are usually however very boring due to them being generic and cliché.

Narrative Based Videos

Within the narrative genre of music there are three different types of narrative:

Illustration - this is where the narrative in the music video very closely reflects the lyrical content of the song.

Amplification – the narrative may be slightly influenced by the lyrical content however it uses different themes to compliment the songs feeling

Disjuncture – this is where the narrative holds very little relationship to the song and it s quite random

Advantages and disadvantages of Narrative videos:

A – They can cause a feeling of empathy for the artists intentions and it allows a story to be created for the audience rather than just a visual element to show it is their song.

D – They can possibly be expensive and if the narrative isn’t clear it can cause confusion for the viewer.

Concept Based:

There are two types of concept videos which include:

Thematic – which are based around a theme or idea which is strongly dependent upon the style of music. Example if the genre is rap/hip hop, the video may contain shots of an urban setting.

Symbolic – there is often lots of symbols involved in the video to create a meaning . This involved lighting to create a mood and pace to represent emotion. These videos may either support or contradict the initial meaning of the song.

Advantages and disadvantages of concept based videos:

A – They can be unusual and creative meaning they are memorable to the viewer making it more successful.

D – It doesn’t usually allow the artist to promote themselves and they can confuse the viewer meaning they aren’t always successful.

In conclusion I plan to merge both narrative and performance based products to create a niche product new into the media industry.

The reasoning for this choice is as followed:

Due to my limited budget I needed to cut costs where possible therefore as stated earlier performance pieces are  generally cheaper and are very simple to construct meaning they can be done by any level of performer in effect making this genre very easy for my self due to my limited experience creating music videos. However I wanted a deeper meaning for my piece so drifted towards a narrative product for its properties such as creating a personalised story for my viewers rather than just a visual element.

Audience Questionnaire and Results

The questions featured above were chosen for the following reasons:

Question 1 and 2 - These questions were solely asked to identify who was completing the questionnaire swiftly before they answered the questions later on in the questionnaire. This was done so I could therefore separate my results to focus on the audience who were inside my target audience.

Question 3 - This next question was done so I could be sure my product applied to my target audience. I wanted to identify what interests them the most about a music video so I could successfully create a suitable product this question revealed that my audience were most interested in the actual music rather than a certain feature in the music video. A breakdown on the results is situated below.

Due to the response to my question of "What features attract you to a certain music video?" I have identified that the main reason people watch music videos is due to one main feature which is solely the music itself and due to this I plan to target my product at people who are interested in EDM as a musical genre. This finding nails down my initial thoughts of my product being suitable for the younger audience, due to the majority of EDM listeners being from the younger generation.

Question 4 - This was a question to subsequently reveal to me what my audience feel gives a product successful qualities. By asking them about a product which has won an award It allowed me to give my audience the chance to criticize a professional product without feeling judged and with the freedom to say anything they pleased and therefore I could act upon there responses and feed them back into creating my own product.

Question 5 - This question was included in order to give me a heads up on if my audience perceive my product to seem of a high enough standard to compete and be one which is similar to an industry standard EDM production piece. This also gave me the correct feedback I needed to gradually move on to developing the idea further with confidence.

 (Question 6 gave an optional answer to give me construction criticism.)

Question 7 - My focus group were interviewed and I used this primary research to decide which locations were most suitable for my product. My audience selected indoor areas as the most favored location however I plan to include woodland, urban and indoor areas to give a wide variety of scenes creating differing moods. Additionally the different scenes show changes in time. This gives my video more of a narrative and a more life like, relatable impact upon the audience.

Question 8 - This question merely gave the person completing the form to add any necessary information related to the previous topics I had given them. Additionally It gave me some alternative ideas for what I could include in my music video if for any reason I needed to change my product during the project.