Music videos have a variety of techniques. These techniques can either benefit the music video or make the video less appealing. These techniques are...
- Number of cuts
- Special effects
- Cutting to the beat
- Varied camera language
- Green screen
- Lip-syncing
Number of cuts; Good
An example of this technique that benefited was Coldplay's music video 'Charlie Brown'. The video consists of a fast past and is energetic, bright, dynamic and enthusiastic. At 1:28, the cut to the song and the visuals within this part match each other at the right pace, creating an effective and powerful scene, impacting the audience as they are drawn into the video as it's intriguing. The video is enjoyable for the audience as the effect of the fast paced cuts, flashing colourful lights, and the tempo makes the video impressive and striking. The music video gives off a narrative to the audience as it shows throughout the video a young woman and man as a couple who are introduced in the video at 0:13. Mid shot is used when being greeted by the young woman at 0:15 seconds, to introduce to the audience what the young woman looks like so the viewers don't get confused as to who she might be throughout the whole of the video. Having a narrative in a music video as well as the effective lights and tempo and the performance of the band, gives it that extra advantage and is engaging instead of watching a boring video of the band just performing. The transfers between the couple and the band combine well together as it has an equal amount of shots of both scenes, so it doesn't create pointless extra shots for no reason.
Number of cuts; Bad
I'm going to talk about the small number of cuts. A great example of this is Madonna's 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' music video. The video only has two shots, this is going into the video right at the start and the fading out of the video right at the end. Throughout the rest of the video, there is no cuts whatsoever. This creates a draining and tedious reaction as there is nothing fascinating happening in the music video. Throughout the video, Madonna stands and sings, with this is the camera slowly moving into Madonna till we finally see her facial expressions, this being more than half way through the music video, causing a dull impact towards the audience. The audience become weary of the video because of the camera language portraying a slow pace, and by the time the camera reaches to Madonna, the viewers are likely to have got bored and stopped watching it. Also, because the camera movement is slow, it creates tension and speculation which tells viewers that something big may happen, yet nothing happens at all, giving false hope.
The music video 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boys is an example of a bad special effect technique. There are many reasons as to why the music video didn't consist of good special effects, one being the budget for the video could have been low. The unprofessional and inferior special effects did not link in anyway to the lyrical content of the song, making it seem pointless and unworthy. The music video is set mainly in an International Airport, and features prominent special effects scene transitions between shots. Notably, a high-speed zoom effect which makes it appear that the foreground subject has not changed to a new shot while the background has, fades in and out of white, and shifting between different film speeds during shots. The band members fading in and out from the international airport and outside on to a runway, greeted by a crowd of screaming fans bearing signs and flowers, does not present a good special effect as it looks tacky and improper as you start to notice the band members throughout the transfers look see-through and transparent, making it seem as if the video hasn't been produced as well as it could have done. The contrast in today's music videos being produced containing special effects and past music videos, we realise today the music videos years ago were not effective as they were in that period of time to people. The reason why people at that time who saw the music videos including the special effects were amazed at the effects, were because the techniques were still recent in being discovered and so viewers were interested and engaged.
Cutting to the beat; Good
Olly Murs' music video 'Dance With Me Tonight' is a good example of cutting to the beat as it shows a good pace which helps the video stream nicely. Cutting to the beat is very important because it benefits the audience in allowing them to connect with the speed of the song and emotions. The contrast of this being a slow song displays a small amount of cuts because there are usually no beats, as there is typically no beats in a slow, sad song. The successful point of cutting to the beat in 'Dance With Me Tonight' related back to the song being up tempo. This was a bonus for allowing the music video to have cuts matching to the beat. An example in the video where the cuts are on the beat stream are at 0:43 - 0:47 seconds where Olly sings 'ooooh, oh baby'. The audience are likely to remember this part of the song and video as it is easy to capture and remember as it flicks fittingly. At 0:17 seconds, Olly stands in front of the camera with the camera type being a mid shot, this adds realism to the video as in reality, people who are arrested have to get their picture taken to reveal their identity. The impact this technique has on the audience is having that excitement within the video making it engaging and intriguing to watch.
Cutting to the beat; Bad
A bad example of cutting to the beat is Jessie J's music video 'Who You Are' as it rarely cuts to the beat. Typically, slow songs usually don't cut to the beat as they dont have up tempo beats. The audience then becomes weary of the video as its tedious because nothing intriguing is happening for the audience to become attached to the video. As the pace starts to pick up, we would normally see camera cuts cutting to the beat, but instead Jessie J continues to sit down, singing directly at the camera using her arm movements to portray her feelings within the moment of the song at 0:43 seconds, making the video seem dull and boring. A particular part where you would think the cuts would take place on the beat is at 1:37 seconds where the clap happens on beats two and four. Having more up tempo beats with a narrative would allow reasons to have camera movements and cuts to the beat to give more interest and make it more captivating.
Varied camera language; Good
A music video that has many camera shots including high angle, low angle, mid shots, close ups etc. is Beyonce's 'Love On Top' video. Having a variety of camera shots makes the music video more interesting and engaging, instead of watching one camera shot throughout the whole video which becomes tedious and pointless. From 0:00 - 0:37 seconds, Beyonce has a variety of different camera techniques such as, mid, long, close-up shots and low and high angles, the effect this gives using different camera shots and angles displays more dynamics for the video, and because she does a dance routine, this makes the dance scenes flow more. The emphasis the shots imply for the dance routine make it seem more effective as they are only doing simple moves, and with the help of the camera shots this makes the dance routine seem more difficult to apprehend. Also, even the smallest shots taken make it seem more intriguing with the help of variety of camera shots. The success of this technique makes an impact on the audience as it's more captivating and interesting to watch.
Varied camera language; Bad
A bad example of varied camera language is Lorde's 'Tennis Court' music video. The music video displays Lorde in front of a plain black background with a single shot which is a mid shot. She is dressed in a black, net top with a face full of make-up to resemble a pale looking clown, staring directly into the camera, occasionally mouthing the words whenever 'yeah' is played. The video has no cuts and no other varied camera shot/angle types, making it seem tedious. The camera doesn't leave her face once and she tends to not break eye-contact she has with the camera lens, which could make the audience feel weary and uncomfortable. The mood of the song implies a dark and down mood which links to the music video, making it seem successful in some ares as it matches the theme of the song, but still doesn't benefit the viewers feeling towards the video. After watching the video 'Tennis Court', viewers now have their own perspective of that artist and their music release as she's an up coming artist, that perspective being a strange and unusual artist in which Lorde has created for herself.
Green screen; Good
The whole point of Green Screen is to make the impossible look possible. It's used to create the image that the artist in the music video are in an area that they are not at, as they are not able to be somewhere that they can't film. A good example of this technique is Beyonce's 'Sweet Dreams' music video. She is made to be displayed on a planet which is definitely not suppose to be Earth. The green screen looks very realistic, making it seem professional and visually impressive, which makes it a very successful piece of work. The green screen backdrop helped match it to the theme of the song as it's about dreaming, which is impossible to be in an actual dream in reality. Therefore, the use of the green screen allowed the imagery to flow, connecting the song and music video well together making an impact for the audience as it's exciting and exhilarating to watch. Beyonce uses many camera shots such as mid, long, and close-ups to make it effective as she uses a dance routine, with all the camera shots the dance is able to flow better. At 1:07 seconds, there is a close-up of Beyonce as she sings directly to the camera, almost as if she's trying to address to the audience to give off an intimate feel to the viewers. A planet which has been made up consists of Beyonce and two girls dancing casually as if it's something normal to do which in fact it isn't, implying the girls and Beyonce are super-humans.
Green screen; Bad
A bad example of this technique is the music video 'Twist & Shout'. This video presents an awful use of green screen as the person has not been cut around properly, making the body look out of proportion and non-realistic. Green screen is made to make the video look visually impressive, yet it looks like a mock-up as it's been poorly produced. The artist fades out on occasions which is not meant to happen, but because the green screen has been made so poorly, he looks as if he's been copied and pasted onto a background. This may be because he's wearing a white top and the background transfers to white occasionally, making the artist blend in within the white background, this makes the audience think it's a fault. The impact this music video has on the audience is that it brings an amusing atmosphere as they might think the artist has produced a low quality looking video on purpose because it's been done so inappropriately and badly. The intended reason the artist may have produced a lively video like that was to make fun out of it and for people to have opinions on it.
Lip-Syncing; Good
A music video consisting of good lip-syncing is JLS's 'Take A Chance On Me' video. The lip-syncing is very believable and consistent as it looks as if they are actually singing in the moment of the video being produced. They portray their emotional feelings with their facial expressions and arm movements which is what you normally would do when singing a song like that live, making it flow nicely. Having this technique in the video makes it look natural and is a bonus for the band members so they can work on their dance routines and normal body movements they would do when expressing themselves in a song more. There are many camera techniques such as panning, at 1:10 seconds, JLS point to the camera (being a mid/long shot) moving with the panning of the camera making it effective to the audience as it looks as if JLS are addressing to the female audience, as if they were singing to them.The impact of this technique helps the band members as they don't have to worry about singing good live for the music video.
Lip-Syncing; Bad
The music video 'Summertime' by Dave Days is an example of bad lip-syncing. It's been done so poorly that when he tries to be in time to the music, he's either too early, too late or misses out the words. At 0:35 seconds, it's obvious and clear that the mans lips are out of time to the music and from the viewers point of view, it seems as if he's repeating the same shots over and over again frequently. This makes it unprofessional and tells the audience that the man is not taking it seriously. The man rarely makes any movements in the video which doesn't help his lip-syncing, because making movements distracts the viewers into thinking that they're not bad at lip-syncing. Also, in the video, the man should have had the song playing while he was being recorded because there might of been a chance that it could have come out good and to look as if he is actually singing, to make the video seem more successful.
An example of this technique that benefited was Coldplay's music video 'Charlie Brown'. The video consists of a fast past and is energetic, bright, dynamic and enthusiastic. At 1:28, the cut to the song and the visuals within this part match each other at the right pace, creating an effective and powerful scene, impacting the audience as they are drawn into the video as it's intriguing. The video is enjoyable for the audience as the effect of the fast paced cuts, flashing colourful lights, and the tempo makes the video impressive and striking. The music video gives off a narrative to the audience as it shows throughout the video a young woman and man as a couple who are introduced in the video at 0:13. Mid shot is used when being greeted by the young woman at 0:15 seconds, to introduce to the audience what the young woman looks like so the viewers don't get confused as to who she might be throughout the whole of the video. Having a narrative in a music video as well as the effective lights and tempo and the performance of the band, gives it that extra advantage and is engaging instead of watching a boring video of the band just performing. The transfers between the couple and the band combine well together as it has an equal amount of shots of both scenes, so it doesn't create pointless extra shots for no reason.
Number of cuts; Bad
I'm going to talk about the small number of cuts. A great example of this is Madonna's 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' music video. The video only has two shots, this is going into the video right at the start and the fading out of the video right at the end. Throughout the rest of the video, there is no cuts whatsoever. This creates a draining and tedious reaction as there is nothing fascinating happening in the music video. Throughout the video, Madonna stands and sings, with this is the camera slowly moving into Madonna till we finally see her facial expressions, this being more than half way through the music video, causing a dull impact towards the audience. The audience become weary of the video because of the camera language portraying a slow pace, and by the time the camera reaches to Madonna, the viewers are likely to have got bored and stopped watching it. Also, because the camera movement is slow, it creates tension and speculation which tells viewers that something big may happen, yet nothing happens at all, giving false hope.
Special Effects; Good
An example of this technique is Rihanna's music video, 'Rude Boy', as it consists of a lot of graphics to make it more interesting to watch. To enhance Rihanna's Caribbean culture, she used the effect of the graphics to make it look effective and to educate her viewers, this is seen throughout the whole music video, but an example of Rihanna's Caribbean culture is it 0:25 seconds. Some of her clothing, the graphics, colours, accessories, and her dancing are the things that link to her Caribbean culture that she used. This particular technique helped Rihanna as it made the video engaging and enjoyable to watch, with the use of bright, bold and colourful colours to make it funky. At 0:37 seconds, there is a close-up shot of Rihanna to expose her Caribbean style make-up and to attract the audience (typically males) to then want to carry on watching the video, which makes it an effective way and an impact for the audience. She includes lyrics to her song in a graffiti-like font at 1:57 seconds to link to her song title 'Rude boy' as it's typically associated with bad boys to graffiti as a activity. The denotation of using the graphics was to reflect on Rihanna’s ethnic background and tradition. The impact the special effects has on the viewers is that it makes you want to dance, and it draws them in to see what more special effects could appear.
Special Effects; Bad
The music video 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boys is an example of a bad special effect technique. There are many reasons as to why the music video didn't consist of good special effects, one being the budget for the video could have been low. The unprofessional and inferior special effects did not link in anyway to the lyrical content of the song, making it seem pointless and unworthy. The music video is set mainly in an International Airport, and features prominent special effects scene transitions between shots. Notably, a high-speed zoom effect which makes it appear that the foreground subject has not changed to a new shot while the background has, fades in and out of white, and shifting between different film speeds during shots. The band members fading in and out from the international airport and outside on to a runway, greeted by a crowd of screaming fans bearing signs and flowers, does not present a good special effect as it looks tacky and improper as you start to notice the band members throughout the transfers look see-through and transparent, making it seem as if the video hasn't been produced as well as it could have done. The contrast in today's music videos being produced containing special effects and past music videos, we realise today the music videos years ago were not effective as they were in that period of time to people. The reason why people at that time who saw the music videos including the special effects were amazed at the effects, were because the techniques were still recent in being discovered and so viewers were interested and engaged.
Cutting to the beat; Good
Olly Murs' music video 'Dance With Me Tonight' is a good example of cutting to the beat as it shows a good pace which helps the video stream nicely. Cutting to the beat is very important because it benefits the audience in allowing them to connect with the speed of the song and emotions. The contrast of this being a slow song displays a small amount of cuts because there are usually no beats, as there is typically no beats in a slow, sad song. The successful point of cutting to the beat in 'Dance With Me Tonight' related back to the song being up tempo. This was a bonus for allowing the music video to have cuts matching to the beat. An example in the video where the cuts are on the beat stream are at 0:43 - 0:47 seconds where Olly sings 'ooooh, oh baby'. The audience are likely to remember this part of the song and video as it is easy to capture and remember as it flicks fittingly. At 0:17 seconds, Olly stands in front of the camera with the camera type being a mid shot, this adds realism to the video as in reality, people who are arrested have to get their picture taken to reveal their identity. The impact this technique has on the audience is having that excitement within the video making it engaging and intriguing to watch.
Cutting to the beat; Bad
A bad example of cutting to the beat is Jessie J's music video 'Who You Are' as it rarely cuts to the beat. Typically, slow songs usually don't cut to the beat as they dont have up tempo beats. The audience then becomes weary of the video as its tedious because nothing intriguing is happening for the audience to become attached to the video. As the pace starts to pick up, we would normally see camera cuts cutting to the beat, but instead Jessie J continues to sit down, singing directly at the camera using her arm movements to portray her feelings within the moment of the song at 0:43 seconds, making the video seem dull and boring. A particular part where you would think the cuts would take place on the beat is at 1:37 seconds where the clap happens on beats two and four. Having more up tempo beats with a narrative would allow reasons to have camera movements and cuts to the beat to give more interest and make it more captivating.
Varied camera language; Good
A music video that has many camera shots including high angle, low angle, mid shots, close ups etc. is Beyonce's 'Love On Top' video. Having a variety of camera shots makes the music video more interesting and engaging, instead of watching one camera shot throughout the whole video which becomes tedious and pointless. From 0:00 - 0:37 seconds, Beyonce has a variety of different camera techniques such as, mid, long, close-up shots and low and high angles, the effect this gives using different camera shots and angles displays more dynamics for the video, and because she does a dance routine, this makes the dance scenes flow more. The emphasis the shots imply for the dance routine make it seem more effective as they are only doing simple moves, and with the help of the camera shots this makes the dance routine seem more difficult to apprehend. Also, even the smallest shots taken make it seem more intriguing with the help of variety of camera shots. The success of this technique makes an impact on the audience as it's more captivating and interesting to watch.
Varied camera language; Bad
A bad example of varied camera language is Lorde's 'Tennis Court' music video. The music video displays Lorde in front of a plain black background with a single shot which is a mid shot. She is dressed in a black, net top with a face full of make-up to resemble a pale looking clown, staring directly into the camera, occasionally mouthing the words whenever 'yeah' is played. The video has no cuts and no other varied camera shot/angle types, making it seem tedious. The camera doesn't leave her face once and she tends to not break eye-contact she has with the camera lens, which could make the audience feel weary and uncomfortable. The mood of the song implies a dark and down mood which links to the music video, making it seem successful in some ares as it matches the theme of the song, but still doesn't benefit the viewers feeling towards the video. After watching the video 'Tennis Court', viewers now have their own perspective of that artist and their music release as she's an up coming artist, that perspective being a strange and unusual artist in which Lorde has created for herself.
Green screen; Good
The whole point of Green Screen is to make the impossible look possible. It's used to create the image that the artist in the music video are in an area that they are not at, as they are not able to be somewhere that they can't film. A good example of this technique is Beyonce's 'Sweet Dreams' music video. She is made to be displayed on a planet which is definitely not suppose to be Earth. The green screen looks very realistic, making it seem professional and visually impressive, which makes it a very successful piece of work. The green screen backdrop helped match it to the theme of the song as it's about dreaming, which is impossible to be in an actual dream in reality. Therefore, the use of the green screen allowed the imagery to flow, connecting the song and music video well together making an impact for the audience as it's exciting and exhilarating to watch. Beyonce uses many camera shots such as mid, long, and close-ups to make it effective as she uses a dance routine, with all the camera shots the dance is able to flow better. At 1:07 seconds, there is a close-up of Beyonce as she sings directly to the camera, almost as if she's trying to address to the audience to give off an intimate feel to the viewers. A planet which has been made up consists of Beyonce and two girls dancing casually as if it's something normal to do which in fact it isn't, implying the girls and Beyonce are super-humans.
Green screen; Bad
A bad example of this technique is the music video 'Twist & Shout'. This video presents an awful use of green screen as the person has not been cut around properly, making the body look out of proportion and non-realistic. Green screen is made to make the video look visually impressive, yet it looks like a mock-up as it's been poorly produced. The artist fades out on occasions which is not meant to happen, but because the green screen has been made so poorly, he looks as if he's been copied and pasted onto a background. This may be because he's wearing a white top and the background transfers to white occasionally, making the artist blend in within the white background, this makes the audience think it's a fault. The impact this music video has on the audience is that it brings an amusing atmosphere as they might think the artist has produced a low quality looking video on purpose because it's been done so inappropriately and badly. The intended reason the artist may have produced a lively video like that was to make fun out of it and for people to have opinions on it.
Lip-Syncing; Good
A music video consisting of good lip-syncing is JLS's 'Take A Chance On Me' video. The lip-syncing is very believable and consistent as it looks as if they are actually singing in the moment of the video being produced. They portray their emotional feelings with their facial expressions and arm movements which is what you normally would do when singing a song like that live, making it flow nicely. Having this technique in the video makes it look natural and is a bonus for the band members so they can work on their dance routines and normal body movements they would do when expressing themselves in a song more. There are many camera techniques such as panning, at 1:10 seconds, JLS point to the camera (being a mid/long shot) moving with the panning of the camera making it effective to the audience as it looks as if JLS are addressing to the female audience, as if they were singing to them.The impact of this technique helps the band members as they don't have to worry about singing good live for the music video.
Lip-Syncing; Bad
The music video 'Summertime' by Dave Days is an example of bad lip-syncing. It's been done so poorly that when he tries to be in time to the music, he's either too early, too late or misses out the words. At 0:35 seconds, it's obvious and clear that the mans lips are out of time to the music and from the viewers point of view, it seems as if he's repeating the same shots over and over again frequently. This makes it unprofessional and tells the audience that the man is not taking it seriously. The man rarely makes any movements in the video which doesn't help his lip-syncing, because making movements distracts the viewers into thinking that they're not bad at lip-syncing. Also, in the video, the man should have had the song playing while he was being recorded because there might of been a chance that it could have come out good and to look as if he is actually singing, to make the video seem more successful.
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