CONVENTIONS
BY ALEX NEWELL
Performance (What you know - Two Door Cinema Club)
Performance based music videos generally revolve around the musicians playing within the video itself, following them throughout.
Typically a performance based video will heavily revolve around the performing artists, with close-ups of the artists and the instruments they are playing.
The performance can take place over one or more settings, although it is unlikely a performance will have more than five locations, as it will then need to provide a reason for the location changes, possibly leading it into more of a narrative role.
Editing can be used to drive or be driven by the music itself, with pace affecting the speed of cuts and the movement of the camera.
The camera angles and movements affect and can be used to affect how the band are presented in the video.
Narrative (Breezeblocks- Alt J)
Narrative music videos follow the idea of enhancing the lyrics through visual cues and personifying them through the use of a story.
Typically a narrative will follow a set story, with the concept of the story being open to the director, the lyrics of the song will be represented within the video regardless. So in a way it can be said that the themes of the video will determine what kind of story the video will follow overall.
The song itself in terms of pace, tune and underlying theme are important when considering the story told by the narrative. If the song is upbeat you might have a video that matches this, or alternatively with a slow progressive beat you could have a slowly developing story which matches the pace.
Narrative music videos heavily rely on the the editing which will in itself rely on the pace of the music. The editing could be composed of a series of short cuts, or multiple continuous shots it all depends on how the editor wants to tell the story.
Conceptual (Sweatpants - Childish Gambino)
Conceptual music videos are generally based around a single idea, which is typically unusual or surreal and may only be explained by the end of the video, or not at all.
The primary attraction of a conceptual video is the unusual content that if successful will keep the audience entertained and fixed on what is happening.
A great example of a conceptual music video is 'Sweatpants' by Childish Gambino which takes place in a single location and develops as the song progresses. You slowly see all the background characters turn into Gambino which is the primary surreal element of the video.
Whilst not immediately clear, there is an underlying theme for the video which is typically only known to the artist. During an interview Gambino stated that the video is an exploration or symbolism of self-understanding and a realization of who you are as a person and how this may not always be a good thing when looking at yourself from a different perspective.