Music video

Codes and Conventions

What are conventions?

Codes and conventions. Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic.

Technical codes

Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Symbolic codes

Symbolic codes are ways of showing meanings beyond what you can see for example through, facial expressions, gestures, poses and mis en scene.

• The audience can become familiar with a particular genre, as they get use to recognizing the different conventions within a genre.

• It provides a structure that the audience can understand. • To ensure the lyrics of the song fit in with the video, of how we’d expect it to be.

Reasons for codes and conventions.

Basic Structure

• In  3-4 minutes a typical music video combines  a mix of live performance, narrative, and other visual imagery including computer graphics and animation.
• It does this to advertise the band/artist and song

Music videos feature a number of shots for various reasons, to relate with the audience by expressing thoughts and feelings, but also to show the viewer what is happening. Certain shots that you would normally find in a music video include; Very Wide shot – This is were the artist is shown visible (barley) but the emphasis is still on placing the artist in the location/setting. Wide shot – This is were the artist is shown taking up most of the shot but the location/setting is still focused on. Mid shot – this shows the artist from his/her waist to head, and focuses mainly on the subject but still giving an impression of the location/setting.

Camera Shots

Styles of music video

Performance: Performance is when the music video consists mainly of the artists performing in the video. This style of music video isn’t as common, as music videos that are solely dedicated to performance are not that popular, because target audiences would not be able to engage with the song or video, however this example is used costume and lighting to display the performance in a creative way making it more interesting to watch.

Narrative

Narrative: A Narrative music video follows a story line, there are two types of narrative Linear and Fragmented A linear narrative starts a story at the beginning, goes on through the middle, and ends at the end. A fragmented narrative is one that doesnt.

Mixture

Mixture: Mixture – which is a combination of performance and narrative this is usually found in music videos as it is hard to have a pure performance or narrative, by using both performance and narrative the video can be made more interesting and enjoyable to watch