Initial Analysis of Typical Conventions
The two main videos that I have chosen to analyse to look at the typical music video conventions are Ed Sheeran- 'Sing', and Neon Trees- 'Everybody Talks'. I have chosen these because they are significantly different in their style of music and the style of their music videos. They have both used special effects, mise-en-scene, and other techniques very effectively, although in very different ways. Below I look in more depth at some of the ways they have used these techniques.
Camera Shots-
There are many more close up camera shots in 'Sing', than there are in 'Everybody Talks', although both of them use these shots fairly creatively. Below are some close up examples from 'Sing'. There are also lots of close ups of the puppet in 'Sing', as opposed to the actual artist, who is Ed Sheeran, this is perhaps to change his image slightly, and show another side to him.
In 'Everybody Talks', there are a lot of long shots and mid shots, these are often used to set the scene, and give the audience an idea of the time in which the video is set, what is happening in the video, and to show lots of the characters. Throughout the video there are lots of shots from the back of the car park in which they are watching the film, an example of this is shown below.
Neon Trees also use lots of close ups of the band throughout the video, although most of them being of the main singer, making it obvious to the audience who band members are, so in this sense they very much follow the typical conventions of a music video, whereas Ed Sheeran barely has any shots of himself in the video, perhaps suggesting that he doesn't need to promote himself. Some example shots of the artist from 'Everybody Talks' are shown below.
Camera Movement-
The camera movement in Ed Sheeran's music video is very often handheld, so you can see the camera shaking slightly, and it sometimes pans across the scene, although only slightly so the audience doesn't see the full scene. It also often tilts side to side as you see the puppet singing, which adds a sort of hazy effect, and it also has lots off times when it zooms in slowly on the artist, puppet, or other characters in the video, as well as having many very fast zooms, really telling the audience what to focus on, and making it feel very fast paced. Although throughout a lot of the video the camera simply stays still. This video has lots of very subtle camera movements such as a zoom, or panning around the artist as they sing, which make it all the more interesting for the audience to watch, as initially you don't notice them. However the camera movements in the Neon Trees music video are much more steady, and not handheld or shaky, and there are lots of panning shots, which pan over the whole of the shot to show the audience the scene, and they are more obvious than in Ed Sheeran's video. As well as this, there are several tracking shots of the waitress walking, handing people food, or as she takes different men to the 'drive through', which is seen several times throughout the video following her story of taking a man at a time and then seeing her turn into a zombie. There are lots of steadicam shots aswell showing the fronts of the cars, and showing the people in them as they dance to the music.
Editing-
Transitions- Most music videos tend to use transitions which are not obvious to the viewer, meaning it simply goes from one shot to the next with no obvious transition, although most videos use fades and dissolves very subtly so that to the viewer it doesn't seem like there is a transition. Some music videos, however, use more obvious transitions such a wipe across the screen from one shot to the next, an example of this is shown below as the shot is transitioning.
Pace- The pace of the editing tends to change with the pace of the song, as most music videos cut the clips in time with the music, so as the music becomes faster, the clips also tend to be on the screen for a shorter amount of time.
Postproduction digital effects-
There are generally lots of special effects used, such as overlapping one shot onto another one, and making shots look hazey or staggered. As well as this titles are added to certain shots, making it appear as though it is a film within a music video. Some music videos use special effects to make humans look like a different creature, such as the 'Everybody Talks' video, which makes the waitress look like a zombie. Artificial backgrounds are also used sometimes when the artist doesn't want to use a natural environment, these can be an abstract pattern, such as in Ed Sheeran's video, or they can be simple and plain, and are often created using a green screen. Some examples of these effects are shown below.
Lighting-
Most music videos use artificial lighting to create the effect that they want, the lighting tends to be used to distinguish between settings, times of day, etc. In the 'Everybody Talks' music video, the lighting distinguishes between the car park, and the 'movie' for the viewers. In clips where the 'movie' is shown on screen, the lighting is much brighter and like daytime, although it also looks slightly fake, and during scenes in the car park the lighting is darker and much more realistic, showing the audience almost that this is the 'real life'. Lighting is often used to set the scene and set a mood, and does tend to correlate with the style of the song, such as more sad songs will have dull lighting, and happy upbeat songs will have bright, perhaps artificial looking lighting.
Mise-en-scene-
This is often used to tell a story, so mise-en-scene generally is more significant during narrative based music videos. It is often used to show the audience the era of the video through clothing, and other items, it can be used as it was in 'Everybody Talks', which was to tell the story of a particular character, the waitress, or it can be used as it was in 'Sing', which was more for entertainment purposes. In 'Everybody Talks', the sunglasses on the waitress were used almost like a mask, she wore them whenever she was 'human', and revealed her eyes to signify that she would turn into a 'zombie'. Whereas in 'Sing' it included things such as the mug shot scene where the puppet was holding up his name (Ed Sheeran), this does tell a story although not a particularly complicated one.
No comments:
Post a Comment