1. Task 1
What is a music video?

2. What are the conventions of a
music video?
The conventions of a music video are that they include
the artist or band. The shots for a music video tend to be
close ups, long shots and mid shots to either the location
of the music video to set the scene, to show the emotion
of the artist to show the emotion of the song and to
show the actions that the artist is doing for example
playing an instrument, dancing or miming the words.

3. The mise en scene of a music
video
The mise en scene of a music video can vary depending on the artist or band and
what genre of music they are in. For example rock bands tend to have a clip of them
performing live to their fans dressed up in their outfits such as metalcore music has a
stereotype of being dressed in all black to match the music they play. Whereas a rnb
music video you’d expect to see dancing, women and the clothing worn would be
more whites colours and the artist or band would have a crisp look to them. An
example of a RNB music video is Timbaland ft Justin Timberlake where there is a lot of
women, dancing and the outfits worn are crisp looking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRdHsuuXxfk
An example of a metalcore music video is Architects - Follow The Water where the
video is all performance based on one of their shows to a crowd of fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8sYmTcM4w&feature=relmfu

4. For the editing in music videos jump cuts are used to change
from one scene to another quickly. To edit a music video a
popular edit is a dissolve or fade into black to show the
audience that the music video has ended. Also music videos
sometimes have parallel narrative so that the music video is
able to show to sides of a story, perhaps a live performance
and a narrative. The lighting is important in a music video
because it sets the tone for the music video such as dark
lighting could be depressing to match the tone of the song
whereas bright lighting could mean the song tone is happy.

5. What is the purpose of a music
video
The main purpose of a music video is to sell the
song. By selling the song you advertise the band
which increase the CD sales if they like the single.
Another purpose for a music video is to help the
audience understand the meaning of the song but
the main purpose is the promotion of the band/cd.

6. Three types of music videos
The three types of music videos are concept based,
narrative based and performance based. Concept based
means a style of music video that is usually based around
a certain concept or idea. Performance based is where
the music video shows the artist performing throughout
the music video. Narrative based music video means that
the music video is showing/telling a story.

7. Concept music video
An example of a concept music video is

8. Performance based music video
A performance based music video example is Foo Fighters –
The Pretender because throughout the music video the band
are seen performing with their instruments. There is a
narrative but it isn’t a strong narrative whereas most of the
music video is performance based because the performance
leads up to the ending of the narrative.

9. Narrative based music video
An example of a narrative based music video is Green Day –
Jesus of Suburbia because there are two versions of this
music video, one is 9 minutes long or there is the 11 minutes
long version which tells us a bit more about the song and the
music video helping us understand. The music video for Jesus
of Suburbia follows the story of a boy called Jimmy and we
see everything that he has to go through which then leads to
him leaving his family and hometown behind.