Music video codes and conventions

Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag

Music Video prep

aspects of them (see below).
To prepare for the exam, today we look at the media language of music videos, such as their codes and conventions:

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be playing, to provide authenticity, so that followers believe in the talent and can see their star. Record labels sign stars and promote them  to ensure sales. Avril Lavigne lip sinks and pretends to play guitar to seem really talented so people would want to by the album. Also she lips sinks and makes it look like she is throwing a free concert it makes you feel like you are there and when she comes close to the camera it makes you feel like she is staring at you.

1. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience. This can make us feel like the song could be directed towards us and makes us feel a personal connection and it makes the singer seem like someone who cares for there fans.It can also feel like they are singing directly to you.
2. The visuals (what the star and other characters are seen doing) illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics (the 'story in the words'). Illustration = the visuals play out the story more or less literally; amplify = the words in the lyrics are only the starting point and the story develops in other directions; contradiction / disjuncture = the visuals do not interpret the words of the lyrics and may even show something contradictory. At the start of Sk8r Boi when Avril sings Hes just a boy and shes just a girl it cuts to what we assume to be skater boy and ballay girl. Also when the beat gets more faster at the end every one is jumping and dancing around manickly and at the start when the beat is slower it shows one or two people running around per shot. I think this is good because it makes the music video moe fun to watch because it is in time with the music
3. The narrative usually features the performer in 'real life' situations but often with experimental types of film making such as hand-held, dramatic camera angles, symbolic codes and lighting
4. The visuals are usually cut to the beat of the music; the editing is often fast-paced; there is often use of montage, ellipsis and intercutting, stylish effects
5. Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations
6. Intertextuality - references to other media, films, performances, events

Editing Cuffs

In Cuffs the editing is very good. For example when there at the crazy man’s house they keep switching the camera from Jake to the crazy man. This shows there reactions to each other and their feelings so we don’t need to assume them.

Also at the end when they are training the scene fades and after each fade someone gives up until there are only two left. This signifies time passing by. Also at the start when they are having the meeting with the captain it keeps switching from that to Ryan on duty. This shows what policemen can expect to do when they are on duty.

Mise En scene

Mise En Scene is used in Cuffs, one example is at the start the Police captain is talking to all the other police and he is placed on a podium to make him higher then all the other People in the room. This shows he is higher in status then everybody else.

Also when they find the guy with the knife in his house there are bottles all over the floor. This shows he is an alcoholic and that his life isn't that great because his house is a mess and he must be quite low to not care about it.

Also when it shows the inside of the police office it shows what peoples work are because of the clothes they wear, for example youcan tell the office workers because they where suits.