Evaluation 1

Evaluation 1

Knowing the conventions of music videos is key to answering this question therefore I have added a slide share that outlines the main conventions in terms of editing, Mise-en-scene and camera, which I will then be able to compare to my own video.

Conventions Of Music Videos

It will be important for my video to follow these conventions as it will create a recognisable format instantly telling the audience what the video is and in turn make the narrative much easier to understand. This commonness of the video will allow it compete with others of its style and genre, however if all these videos followed these conventions in exactly the same way then each video would look almost identical and audiences would soon get bored, this is why my video must also break conventions. By breaking conventions my video will gain its individuality  and have something that puts it part from all the other pop promos already out there.


My music video does follow conventions a main indicator of this is that the narrative is based around a relationship which is a very common feat in pop videos, the main decision for this was due to the lyrics as the speak of a struggle to stay hopeful in difficult situations, which is represented by the argument between the couple and the Boyfriend dealing with his own thoughts.  The lyrics of a song often influence the video created for it and you can find many relationship songs with promos show casing the relationship between two people, an example of this is Conner Maynard's 'R U Crazy'.

The location is also set to keep in with the conventions of pop music videos. We have done this by setting the house to be middle class, appealing to our target audience, and to match the continuity of the characters that are wearing smart clothes, making them middle class.

Music videos commonly either illustrate, amplify or contradict, the visuals and the lyrics. Our video amplifies the lyrics as, we are trying to portray the message of the lyrics, while not literally showing characters acting out the lyrics. In our first raft a singer was seen in the same shots that the narrative characters appear in. This physically shows the audience how the singer is narrating over the events being shown to them on screen and could be used to argue that our video does not follow conventions as it both illustrates and amplifies the lyrics.


However from feedback that we received it was soon realised that this was not popular with our audience as they found shots 'too long' And consisting of too much to grasp', therefore we decided to scrap the idea and simply interject between narrative scenes and sots of the singer performing the song.

Our video also uses a wide variety of shot types, including long shots, medium shots, close ups and match on actions. Music videos often have a large variety of shot types in order to keep the audience interested in many ways we have followed this convention as our video consists of many different angles and shots, our video also consistently flicks between narrative and performance scenes in order to keep the audience engaged. Our video also includes shot reverse shots, over there shoulder shots and tracking shots all of which add diversity to the piece and further enhances the audiences interest.

I have also included transitions such as jump cuts and fades such as cross dissolves which are dominant forms of editing in music videos.

This image shows a jump cut where the character seen on screen appears to jump towards the camera as he walks along. the original clip was far too long and boring so I edited it in a way which would reduce the overall time of the shot.

Continuing to follow conventions Mes-en-scene is used to represent the feelings of characters throughout the video. One example of this is the clothes that the male character is wearing after he leaves the house for the first time, he is wearing a dark coloured jacket, dark jeans and dark shoes. This represents a feeling of sadness and anger amongst the character which is true for him as he has just had an argument with his girlfriend. 

However not all of the video follows common conventions of pop promos at the start of the video a short dialogue made up of shot reverse shots showing the main couple in the narrative arguing. This is not something commonly featured in music videos and by adding this dialogue is breaking conventions, however I believe that the dialogue used in our video is a necessary intro to circumstances that the narrative takes place giving the audience a clear understanding of why the male character had to leave.