Conventions of Music Videos

Conventions of Music Videos

Brief: This is an collection of all the conventions I have identified that are commonly seen in music videos. This has allowed me to obtain a better understanding of the fundamentals of a music video which will assist me during the production of my own.

Editing Conventions

It is conventional of music videos to cut between shots and scenes in the music video in accordance with the music. For example, a sequence might be edited to cut to the next scene as soon as the bar of music ends. As well as scenes changing at the end of a section of the music (such as a chorus) the cuts within a scene are also conventionally edited to the beat of the music and match its tempo. These editing techniques are seen very commonly in music videos as it is appealing for the audience for the visual and auditory media to match and be in-synch with each other. Examples are shown below:
 

 

Another editing convention of music videos is the use of a variety of video transition effects rather than just cutting. One example of this is the One Direction - That's What Makes You Beautiful video shown above. The use of wipes in this video visualise the calm relaxed mood of the video. As such, when transition effects are conventionally used in music videos, they can illustrate the mood effectively. Other examples are shown below: