Conventions of Music Videos and example.

Camera shots:

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera Movement:

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace artist or and. Camera movements include tilts, pans tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene:

This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example is, ‘All of the lights’ by Kanye West featuring Rihanna and Kid Cudi. The mise-en scene involves a young girl walking around outside alone and it is in black and white which is a contrast to the main artists as their scenes are in colour. This reflects the isolation the main artist Kanye West feels from his daughter. The young girl also looks cold and her scenes are set outside where the mise en scene is a place full of snow. This may portray that Kanye West feels cold without his daughter. The props in the video are the bright & dark clothes the other artists in the music video this represents that this is a vigorous and angry song. Similarly, the natural lighting is dark but which represents the annoyed and angry mood but then bright lights are added which illustrates that this is an energetic song.

Kanye West- All of the lights

Editing:

Jump cuts are the predominant editing technique used in music video. This is because this allows sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts. In the Kanye West ‘All of the Lights’ text was edited into the music video. A reason this was done was to show different types of lights as that is what the name of the song is and to also present the range of emotions the main artist is going through. As 'All Of The Lights' is the heading of the song the theme in this music video is lights and we see bright flashing lights recurring throughout the video clip.