The technical aspects of music video

The most important and main technical aspects of music video are;

· Speed – speed is visualized by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and post production digital effects. All, if done properly and to the right music can help the visuals run smoothly and in parallel with the song.

- Camera movement is often motivated by running, walking or dancing performers. As in most genres the camera will keep the performer in centre frame, however, with genres such as rock, the camera often switches between the band ‘performing’ and the narrative or loose narrative that accompanies the song. Whereas in genres such as dance, pop or electro there is often a choreographed routine that is just as much of a focus as the performer themselves.

- Fast – cutting and montage editing create a visually decentred experience required in creating a successful music video. Sometimes images move so fast that they cannot be understood when viewed for the first time, therefore demanding a second viewing, increasing videos repeatability greatly. This applies to certain genres more than others, for example drum and bass or fast, up-tempo dance music, as the visual images are edited quickly so as to add intensity and possibly a sense of urgency to a song.

- Post production digital effects are a key feature of any music video as again; they greatly increase its repeatability, a crucial aspect determining how successful a music video is. It involves complex editing techniques to produce effects such as split screen images, colorizing and so on. This is often not applied to genres such as indie or rock, as it is to dance music or drum and bass, as these genres of music are seen to be more ‘trippy’ or in some cases ‘psychedelic’ and using post production effect is often a good way to reinforce these notions.

- However do not think that all camera shots and edits must be fast and will only fast cuts will give a desired effect, as some music videos use slow editing and ‘dissolve’ cuts to give a different desired effect. For example ‘Nothing compares 2 U’ by Sinead O’Conner; where slow edits and dissolve cuts are used to set the song and its video away from the generic hustle and bustle of pop music.

· The meat – the meat of most music video is the close-up shot of the singers face as the singer or the voice of the song, is seen as the most important aspect musically, so it is accentuated visually as well. So close ups of the singer help the audience put a face to the voice therefore meaning the audience can associate this face with a bands star image, or vice versa and associate the band with the singer ‘star image’.

· Beats – often a video will be used to emphasize and represent the music in visual terms, this is achieved by cutting the images to the beat or key rhythm. It can also be realized by cutting the images when the structure of the song changes i.e. when the song goes from chorus to verse etc.

· Lighting and colour – can be used effectively to emphasise key points within a song or piece of music, as the image could be turned black and white at a dramatic part in the song or even just different or extra lighting could be employed to create certain effects; hopefully provoking certain emotions. Or simply informing the audience of a change in timescale, for example going from black and white implies moving forwards in time, as demonsrated by the PEN story, shown to the left.

· Mise-en-scene – as with any piece of media production the setting is crucial in creating the feel of a video and the visual qualities it holds, but more often than not it is used purely to guarantee the authenticity or verisimilitude or a piece. This leads to many artists using settings such as a concert hall or a rehearsal room in their video to portray the realness, grit and effort that goes into the ‘star image’ they possess. However increasingly of late, genres such as dance and drum and bass are using CGI which does not focus as closely on the believability of a piece as rock or raps artists do.