In-concert and 'as live' footage
The song Room to Breath by You Me At Six uses in-concert footage in an interesting way. The footage appears through the artists in the band performing live and showing the crowd having a great time at the concert to try and make others want to see them live and enjoy it like the audience in the music video.
Narrative and Interpretive
Narrative videos have a story for the audience to follow and pull them in to watch all of the video to find out what happens. The music video for the song "The A Team" by Ed Sheeran is fairly literal to the lyrics of the song. As the narrative in the music video is about a woman who is living a difficult life with no money and homeless. Throughout the music video she is extremely depressed and resorts to drugs and prostitution and the lyrics of the song are about the narrative in the music video. "Light's gone, days end, struggling to pay rent. Long nights, strange man". This is about the woman living difficultly and doing prostitution to get some money. The song title "The A Team" means Class A drugs like Heroin, Ecstasy and Cocaine and the lyrics are "She's in the class A Team" and "Goes mad for a couple grams" which is about a woman who takes drugs and is shown in the narrative of the music video.
Surrealist/Absurdist
A surrealist or absurdest music video are strange and unconventional and on a literal narrative level may sometimes bear very little relationship to the lyrics. They are made to be remembered by viewers by making them shocking and different from other music videos to get people talking about it. For example "Everything You Do is a Balloon" by Boards of Canada is surreal and surprising music video as in the music video a group of people are riding bikes with monkey masks on and getting hit by cars which counts down each time someone is hit.
Impressionist
An Impressionist music videos tries to capture the emotional tone of the music rather than the narrative and literal meaning of the lyrics. These types of music videos are usually more 'artistic' than other music videos. There was actually a 19th century art movement called 'impressionism' which was all about recording how the world made the artist feel rather the world itself. This is just like impressionist music videos which have the same tone and elements such as soft lights, flowing and intermingling colours and soft colours, similar to the artistic movement. An example of an impressionist music video is "Say Something" by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera. The music video tries to get an emotional response through the use of the visuals and tone of the music by showing sad and upsetting scenes, like a child getting scared and hiding under her bed with her dog when her parents are arguing. Another scene is an old man crying and laying on a hospital bed with his wife who died.
Intertextual: Synergy, Allusion, Pastiche, Parody and Homage
Synergy
Intertextuality refers to a text shaped by other texts for example a music video can have references to films themselves or use real footage from a film and use it in a music video. This is called synergy - when two products or companies work together to promote each other. An example of a music video which used this technique is "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran which was a soundtrack for The Hobbit; The Desolation of Smaug (2013) played at the end credits of the film. The entire music video uses footage from the film to promote the new released film. As the film was very successful it helped promote Ed Sheeran and sales of the song and soundtrack for the film. It gained huge success, receiving over 100 million views on YouTube, entered the UK Singles Chart at number 13 and reached number 1 in New Zealand.
Allude
Music videos can also allude to another media text, event, person, or any other historical or cultural reference. Allude basically means to reference something and is less obvious than synergy. For example lyrics in a song or about a certain person or objects in a music video which symbolize something discreetly. Allusion is used in the song "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin, there is a section in the lyrics where Led sings "I was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair. But Gollum and the evil one crept up, and slipped away with her". This is making a reference to The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien, telling the audience Led Zeppelin is a fan of Lord of the Rings and maybe influenced him to write this song.
Pastiche/Homage
Pastiche is a light hearted imitation of a particular artist or style without mocking. Artist may choose to do this to pay homage to an artist, style or film. A homage is when an artist uses a music video to pay respect to others influences and who inspired them, as a way of saying thank you. An example of a homage is the fan version of "I Found You" music video by The Wanted, who are paying homage to The Beatles first performance at the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 as they influenced the band. They do this by wearing slick suits, playing retro guitars, screaming fans and at the start of the music video using a black and white effect and 1960s font to match the style of the era of The Beatles. Also the narrative is about screaming fans going crazy and uncontrollable for the band so the band try to escape and hide from massive crowds of screaming fans. This is very similar to what happened to The Beatles in the film "A Hard Day's Night" by Richard Lester.
Parody
A parody makes fun of original work such as an artist and their song or film. An example of a music parody is "Tik Tok Parody" by The Midnight Beast. The song is originally by Ke$ha but The Midnight Beast made their own parody of this by changing the lyrics to make it funny. They swear, make fun of other celebrities and have a funny music video which is literal to the lyrics. The Midnight Beast are a British comedy/parody band and this parody of "Tik Tok" is what they are most famous for as it was their first big break through as it received 15 million views on YouTube which gained them lots of recognition.
Animation
An animation music video uses stop motion or computer animations somewhere in the music video. An example of an animation music video is "Careless" by Jack Beats. This music video uses live action interacting with computer animations for the actors shadow. The shadows changes into various monsters and animals such as an ape and dinosaurs.
Lip-Synch - Miming and Playback
Lip syncing is when the artist or performer mimes the lyrics in a song by playing the track as the artist mines. This is called "Playback". The song and the artist miming will then have to be edited together so it's perfectly synced with the track in post production. This will make it seem like the artist is actually singing the song. Lip syncing is used more commonly in a performance/narrative based music video. Or in music videos that uses certain effects, such as slow motion or sped up. If the artists wants a slow motion effect in their music video they would need to mime the playback at a faster speed during filming.
Here is an example of lip-syncing in a music video with a slow motion effect used throughout the video meaning the playback track would have been sped up so the artist could mime it at the same speed as the playback. This is so when parts of the music video are slowed down the artist miming will now be synced with the track at normal speed in post production.
Editing
Music videos are often edited together in interesting ways and sometimes challenge the conventions of classic continuity editing to make the music video more unique and engaging so viewers remember it. Rap God is edited in a creative and unique way and won "best editing" at the MTV Video Music Awards 2014. The music video uses lots of jump cuts, green screen and visual effects.
Cutting to beat
An editing technique music videos use is cutting your shots to match the beat of the song in post production. This makes the video flow smoothly and match with the song and establish a rhythm to your edits. The song "Be Real by Kid Ink" uses this technique at the start of the song when the beat kicks in. The shots also cut to the tempo of the song. At 0:54 seconds the song speeds up and the camera shots cut rapidly to match the beat and tempo of the song.
Post-production effects
Post production effects such as green screens, digital animations, computer generated imagery (CGI) etc are used to enhance a music video and make it more impressive and appealing to an audience if the effects are cutting edge. Post production effects are used if it would be too dangerous, impractical, expensive or impossible to capture on film. Visual effects can be a huge part in getting your music video popular and talked about if the effects used are interesting, mesmerizing or complex. In the music video "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons post-production effects are used to make the video interesting and fit the mood/style the band were going for. The band wanted the music video to have a dark and gritty feel and look to it. They did this by changing the lighting and colour in post production to dark grey and blue washed out colours to get that dark and gritty look. The music video also used computer generated imagery to create the scrap metal, run down bridge and ship in the desert to make the location look more post apocalyptic and interesting. Creating models in post production is good if the production hasn't got a large budget as it would be expensive to build an actual bridge or building then making it in post-production. Green screen also used for the large explosion that goes off in the music video which is created in post production by removing the green screen in the video and replacing the background with an explosion.
Example of a particular effect: Split Screen
Split screen is an interesting editing technique where the screen is divided (usually in half) of multiple images of different events happening at the same time on screen.
The creative music video "Sugar Water" by Cibo Matto uses the split screen effect in an interesting way. One side was following a character going forward in time and the other side followed a character going backwards but both sides were very similar to each other and kept in sync. In the middle of the song the characters met together and then the split screens switched with the other footage going forward in time now instead of backwards and the footage that was going backwards now going forwards in time so the music video ended where it started. This was a very innovative music video directed by Michel Gondry.
Example of a particular effect: Chroma Key
Chroma key is a special effect / post production technique for compositing two videos or images together. This done by using a green or blue screen in the background of any footage being shot during production. In post production the green or blue screen can be removed (Chroma keyed) on an editing software and replaced with an image or video. Anything in front of the green screen (Actors, props, sets) will still be visible.
The music video "Roar" by Katy Perry uses green screen throughout the video to make it seem like the singer is actually in a tropical jungle. This music video creates part of the jungle set and props where the singer is standing so she can interact with the environment and adds a green screen in the background so the jungle looks more vast and realistic.
Camera Movements
Camera movements such as pans, tilts, zooms and tracking shots are used to make a music video flow and look more visually interesting, realistic and exciting for the audience if the cinematography is engaging.
The music video "The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy uses camera movements to make the audience feel on edge and uneasy. For example the video using lots of hand held camera shots with fast paced pans when one of the singers is getting tortured. Hand held shots are messy with lots of movement and shakiness which is what I think they were going for and works well to make the audience feel uneasy. The music video also uses lots of tracking shots to follow the action of the singers when they're walking.
(Handheld) (Tracking)
Camera angles and shot types
Using various and interesting angles and shot lengths can also keep an audience engaged like camera movements. A filmmaker can use camera angles to create meaning and tone within a media text. For example close ups can be used to show the actors emotion and work well with a sad/upsetting scene. Extreme long shots can be used to show loneliness, high angles to show weakness and low angles to show strength. Shot distances and angles and also be used to show different elements of the mise-en-scene.
In the music video "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake various camera angles and shot lengths are used to create meaning and some kind of emotion. Long shots are used to show the mise-en-scene and establish where the characters are. Close ups of the actors face are used to show their emotions. For example when one of the actresses was crying a close up was used to show hey make up running down her face and also used when she is kissing her boyfriend/husband. Close ups are also used to show the importance of the wedding ring in the music video as the video goes back in time to show the old couple getting married and putting on the ring.
Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene is everything within the scene what makes a music video what it is from the lighting, objects, costumes, setting and so on. All of these things are important and taken into consideration when trying to create a certain emotion and tone such as desire, glamour, passion, anger, etc.
I think mise-en-scene is extremely important in the music video "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson as it's a fun funky song influenced by the Minnepolis sound of the early 80s and the music video is set in the 80s. So to get this 80s look and vibe in their music video, props, costumes and setting were very important to get this across. Bright coloured and funky suits with big gold chains were used for the singers costume as well as old cars and the setting made the music video feel and look very early 80s.
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