Alice Legge

Music Video Genre Research…

What are the basic conventions of a typical Heavy Rock music video? (Consider the Camera code, Editing code and particularly the Mise-en-scene.)

In a heavy rock music video they would have conventions like dark clothing, men would be wearing makeup as well as the women e.g. eyeliner, dark lighting, anger, instruments such as guitars, drums etc, and some videos may consist of vandalism. All of these give us genre characteristics for a rock video. They would promote this genre because if you compare rock videos to other genre videos they wouldn’t all be the same, for example if you compared a rock video with an R&B artist video the men most probably wouldn’t be wearing eye liner, and there wouldn’t be drums, guitars etc in the mise-en-scene. These two images meet the conventions of a rock music video with the dark lighting, the instruments like guitars and drums, and the dark clothing. Mise-en-scene: The setting of a rock video would more than likely consist of just one room, or walking down a dark street. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWNRUVMboq4 – This video shows a rock band and the mise-en-scene of their video, they are walking down an empty street that looks like it has been vandalised. Then they have scenes when its just the band and their instruments in a room with lights but nothing else. This therefore helps the mood of the song because when we get shown the instruments its follows on from them walking down a quiet, dusk road.

Screen Shots of punk rock videos…

Eyeliner

VandalismInstruments

GREEN DAY!

HISTORY OF PUNK ROCK… Punk rock is a type of rock music genre that was developed between

1974 and 1976 in the UK, US and Australia. The created hard edged fast music, typically short songs, stripped down instrumentation and often political anti established lyrics.

Many Punk Rock bands self-produced their own recordings and distributing them through informal channels such as

In late 1976 bands such as Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London were recognised as the new musical movement. In 1977 punk rock begun to be known worldwide especially in the United Kingdom. In New York City, The Ramones were also recognised as the new musical movement. They achieved only limited commercial success, they were a major influence on punk rock.

Punk rock was rejected to associate with the mainstream, therefore it took part in local scenes. This then led to a punk subculture to emerge creating characterized individuals because of the distinctive clothing that they wore and expressing youthful rebellion.

PUNK ROCK – Camera Code… During punk rock videos the camera has a variation of different camera shots

and angles that they use. They may decide to do a long shot so you can see the whole body of the individuals in the band, which will show you their costume, instruments, and a little bit of the background behind them. It is important to include long shots within a punk rock video because it will be able to show the targeted audience the scene they are in, and it will fit in well with the mood of the song and make it more understandable.

Extreme close ups may be used through out a punk rock video but not too much. These shots are used to see the emotion on the artists face, which will then give the audience the idea of what type of song they are playing. This will also show the audience the makeup they may be wearing, normally for a punk rock band it would be eyeliner.

Medium close ups would be able to give you a half and half of long shots and extreme close ups. They are designed to be able to show the targeted audience the background of the video, what they are wearing and their facial expressions would be shown in a medium close up shot.

Camera angles and shots are very important whilst shooting a punk rock video because its normally the setting or what they are wearing that will set the scene and mood of the song. It gives a positive effect towards the people watching and it is a very important aspect to any song being released that the video is right and fits well with the lyrics and idea of the song they have chosen to release.

A reveal shot might be often used through out punk rock videos, again so we can see the costume of the group/artists and get a slight view of the background for their video which will then give the targeted audience a rough idea of what type of song it is and the message they are trying to get across.

PUNK ROCK – Editing Code… A lot of effects are used throughout creating a punk rock video,

which means a huge amount of editing is involved before it can be released to its targeted audience.

The lighting is very important whilst creating a punk rock video because if the mood of the song is sad, or emotional then you will need dim lights, or near enough a dark room to create the mood for the song and so it is easily shown to the public.

The amount of shots in a music video is also important to consider whilst editing it. The aim of a music video is to keep the audience’s attention throughout the whole running of it, so you don’t want each shot to be too long if not they will get bored and stop watching it. Therefore by adding different effects for each shot, or cutting them down to just the right amount will help keep the audience’s attention and make more viewers watch the video because it is interested all throughout.

PUNK ROCK – Mise.en.scene… In punk rock videos the Mise-en-scene is one of the most important aspects

to focus on because it has to fit well to the song, and help give the effect of the lyrics to the audience.As you can see from this video, there isn’t a lot goingon in the background because the song is just asimple acoustic piece, so the mise-en-scene has to fit that if not it most probably wouldn’t be a successfulvideo.

Whilst people are watching videos they don’t tend tolisten to what the lyrics say, they focus more on the mise en scene of the video, because that’s what is beingshown to them as a targeted audience.

However the mise en scene takes a very long time to getright and has to have a lot of thought and preparation go into it, if not it won’t make a successful video for the audience. It may also cost a lot of money depending on what the artists want their mise en scene to consist of, and it is very time consuming when rehearsing the video.

Close Ups…

All of these close ups have occurred in just one Green Day punk rock music video ‘21 Guns’. They have a lot of close up shots through out this video because it is an emotional song its based on a couple, talking about love which is why there are close up shots of the woman and man. A huge amount of vandalism goes on through out this video which is what a normal punk rock video would consist of. Eye liner is used on all members of the band, which the close ups help show us. We also know as a targeted audience that this song is emotional because we can see the facial expressions on not only on the people acting in the video but on the members of the band too.

R&B MUSIC

What are the main conventions of a typical R&B music video? (Consider the Camera code, editing code and mise-en-scene.

In a R&B music video they would have conventions like girls wearing minimal clothing, male artists usually wear low raised jeans, with a top and a jacket. If it is just a male R&B artist they normally have a woman or women dancing around them in a sexual manner who they are singing too. This can be similar to way the female R&B artists are in their music video because with female artists they also have a man in the video that generally are topless in the videos. This is because R&B song are generally about relationships therefore they convey this by the actions between a male and female. Another convention an R&B music video is the location. You will fine through out a lot of music videos of this genre they are located on a beach, in a club or a bar or in one of their houses. Its not very often that you will find a video of this genre that doesn’t have a background like this, unless they are using special effects and just have a use of different colors going on in the background, for example the Black Eyed Pees song, ‘Boom Boom Pow’. Also the performance of the videos is generally the artist being stationary lip singing or often they use tracking shots to follow them walking, this enforces the idea that the audience is actually there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2up_Eq6r6Ko – This is a perfect type of male R&B music video, the conventions of girls being around him in their underwear, turning up in an expensive car and wearing sunglasses.

Screen shots of R&B music videos…

These 6 different screen shots show the different types of R&B music videos in the industry today. They all have a use of different colours, and all have their own individual meaning. As you can see, some of the videos are more colourful and in your face than others. This works well to attract the targeted audience to watch the video and stay interested throughout. However the video on the top far right is based around a breakup so the chosen colours and costuming for this video works extremely well to convey this structure across.

History of R&B music… R&B in its original form grew out of jazz music. In the 1940s and early 50s, R&B

represented a more aggressive, beat-driven outgrowth of jazz. The emphasis was less on improvisation than on delivery, and incorporated the song structures of blues music.

Rhythm and blues, which is most commonly referred to as R & B, is comprised of a variety of different but related styles. This title often encompasses such styles as jump blues, club blues, black rock and roll, doo wop, soul, Motown, funk, disco, and rap. The term rhythm and blues was originally coined in 1949 by Jerry Wexler.

During the l950s rhythm and blues began catering to a teenage audience, rather than an adult one. In addition, black rock and roll developed and forever changed American culture.

Some R&B artists : Jackie Wilson, LaVern Baker, Chuck Willis, Llyod Price.

R&B CAMERA CODE… During an R&B music video there has to be a variety of different camera shots and angles to

ensure that the music video looks effect for the targeted audience. This is important so they keep their attention throughout the video and attract other viewers to watch it.

Extreme close ups would be used throughout the majority of the video, due to the way it gives the targeted audience a better understanding of the mood that is trying to be conveyed throughout the music video. For example extreme close ups allow the audience to see the different types of facial expressions the artist may have and will give good effect towards this audience. This would also show the audience the design of makeup the female artists or male artists may have on, which will give more positive effect to the audience and music video.

Medium close ups would be able to give a shot half way between extreme close ups and long shots. They are designed to be able to show the audience the background of the video, what they are wearing but still allowing them to see their facial expressions and body language.

A reveal shot may be regularly used in an R&B genre video, depending on the mood of the song and the image they want to get across to the audience. These allow the audience to see the full costume of the artist, and the background/location they have in the video. These shots work extremely well but only when used at the right time for the right type of song.

R&B EDITING CODE…A lot of effects are used throughout creating an R&B music video. Special

lighting is a main one for this type of music. If the mise-en-scene of a R&B music video is based in a club/bar then there will be a lot of different lots going on to give this effect to the audience and so it is clear where they are located.

The amount of shots in a music video is also important to consider whilst editing it. The aim of a music video is to keep the audience’s attention throughout the whole running of it, so you don’t want each shot to be too long if not they will get bored and stop watching it. Therefore by adding different effects for each shot, or cutting them down to just the right amount will help keep the audience’s attention and make more viewers watch the video because it is interested all throughout.

R&B MISE-EN-SCENE… In R&B music videos they tend to have the same type of mise-en-scene.

For example the most common ones to use are the beach, club/bar, or a house. These give the effect of R&B artist being upbeat and not boring to watch, which is what you should aim for throughout an R&B music video.

By having a suitable mise.en.scene will also help the lyrics to make sense and it will be more easily understood by the targeted audience watching it, which is also another important factor when creating a video like this one.

However the mise-en-scene of a video takes a very long time to get right to make sure the lyrics and the setting work well with each other and if it is going to give a positive effect to the targeted audience. It will also cost a lot of money depending on what the artist want their mise-en-scene to consist of, and it can be very time consuming to get the video giving the right effect that you aim for it to have.

CLOSE UPS…

These close ups show 5 different R&B songs. It shows that R&B songs do use close up shots to show the facial expression and emotion on their face to help convey the meaning of the song to the targeted audience.