Favourite Music Video from Former Student
A music video from a former student I really liked was ‘Bloodstain’; I thought this video was really effective both in telling a narrative clearly and also in illustrating the song’s themes well.
The narrative the student chose was well done because it had the clear theme of an ending relationship without too much acting and storytelling being needed, which can sometimes become confusing and ruin the impact of the video.
Another concept of the video I liked were the editing techniques they used. For example, the quick cutting between the close up of water being poured over the boy and him jumping into the water was a really good idea and went with the tempo of the music in the chorus well. The video also looks really clean and aesthetically pleasing because the camera shots are composed well, showing they were organised when shooting.
Detailed Music Video Analysis
To get a deeper understanding into what music videos are used to represent, after making notes on four videos we did a detailed analysis of a further two. These in-depth analyses show how the typical conventions of music videos are used to convey the meaning of the song.
Focusing forward, unpacking the production of these videos has shown me how meaning and themes are effectively shown through visuals which connect to the song which is what I aim to do when producing my music video. I’ve also learn that the rhythm of the video and camera cuts must correspond with the tempo of the song in order to create a cohesive and effective video, this is important for this project in the future because it will make sure my filming interprets the song well.
Music Video Form & Conventions
To further understand a typical music video’s forms and conventions I analysed four, comparing the ratio of narrative to performance, mise-en-scene and impact.
From watching and analysing these four videos I noticed some typical conventions throughout each of them; they are usually mainly performance with integrations of some narrative throughout which typically involves the artist as the central character. They usually also contain some illustration or amplification of the song’s lyrics to connect the song to the narrative/themes of the video.