Research for Music Video: Carol Vernallis research

Carol Vernallis observed music videos, she discovered that music videos follow certain conventions in editing and camera work. She outlined the idea that music videos make use of edits much more than films, she found that many stand out as disjuncture and also she established a connection between the rhythm of the song and the editing. 

Main Points

Carol Vernallis made a observation that music videos usually break rule of 'continuity' in order to draw attention to the events on the screen, use obvious edits in order to make the video look more interesting like fades and special effects such as filters. Jump cuts are also used to break up the story so it is less stationary and so will be more interesting. She also established the use of a master shot or base track which is used to add structure to video and also is useful when using repeated shots. Also, in terms of camera work, the camera will usually move in time with the beat.

An example of a music video that uses all of these is "Lost Generation" by Rizzle Kicks. 

Rizzle Kicks uses an obvious edit in order to introduce the name of the song, this is used in order to make it eye catching and memorable to the viewer.

This is evidence of slow motion used in this video, this is done in order to make catch the viewers' attention. This is because they break the rules of continuity.

The video uses repeated shots of the artists throughout the video. An example of this is the shot of them in a dark room with a chair which is repeated in the gif above. This also shows evidence of a base track as this shot is repeated at other parts of the video.