Conventions of a music video.

Conventions of a music video

In a music video there is a variety of different conventions which need to be put together to have a final music video which is successful and popular among their target audience. Common conventions which are seen in almost every music video will be listed below and explaining why they're used.

Firstly, camera work. Within camera work we notice that there are a lot of close ups and long shots, in music videos. Close ups are mainly shown on the lead singers face and lips, this is so that we can tell that they are the main focus of the music video, the lip close ups are to show us once again that it's their song and they're singing it. Lip syncing is a very important convention of a music video, this is because if it isn't in synch with the lead singers lip movement, the music video won't be good and again meaning that it people won't be interested in watching a music video where it doesn't make sense or that it doesn't line up in time with the with the lead singers lip movements. There for it is highly important that lip syncing is carried out through the whole sequence. As lip syncing is in every music video which has been professionally made. Some examples which I have gathered from various music videos will be shown below.

Above you can see a clip from Sam Smith - Stay with me. You can see use of lip syncing and close up on his face 

Another example of a close up of the lead singer, showing us that he is the main
singer and focus of the music video.  

Another example of where the camera is at a close up of his face.

Further more another convention of a music video would be the mis-en-scene. When youre making a music video it is important that the mis-en-scene is appropriate, this is because it is supposed to set the setting for a music video. Under mis-en-scene you have: Lighting, Make up, Costume and Location. It varies for different genres for example in pop music videos you would expect to see bright lighting and the costumes of the people on set would be bright coloured, maybe set in a studio or on a street. However with a genre such as rock you would stereo typically have the music video set in somewhere such as basement, on stage or anywhere abanadondend. Costumes what they were would likely to be colours such a black or brown with low key lighting which would bring a eerie feel to the music video. Mis-en-scene should be to a high standard and suitable for the genre. This is a very important convention. 

Pop music video examples (Katy Perry - This is how we do) : 

Above you can see screen shots from the Katy perry song. As you can see in every shot there is bright colours again with make up and costumes you can see that they are bright and stand out Especially with the UV lighting, it makes the white stand out. This makes pop videos have an overall happy feel to them.

Rock example - Sleeping with sirens if you cant hang

With rock music videos you can see how important mis-en-scene conventions are because you cant have bright colours as it doesnt match the feel of the song. Showing that small parts of a music video add up to make it better and more realistic.   

Finally a convention which is used in every single music video is eye contact from the lead singer. Eye contact is the only chance the artist has to connect with the audience, eye contact is done by looking and singing directly into the camera. This is a very important convention of music videos. 

 Above you can see screen shots from a variety of different music videos, however they all have use of eye contact. Showing how important it is.