Conventions Of A Music Video

Camera Work
Typical camera shots seen in music promos will be primarily close up and mid shots combined with lots of panning and tracking shots. The close up shots will be used to focus on the playing of instruments which could represent talent and also help rise tension showing characteristics, enthusiasm, emotions, and musicianship. In most music videos panning and tracking shots will be used to show the movement through different settings and to possibly assist the narrative in telling a short story through various places or journey; they may even use crane shots to help them get such variations of scale for things such as showing audience mass at a live gig. It is also very common to see first person point of view shots of the band playing live at a gig, this will show the viewers what the atmosphere is like at one of that bands gigs hoping to sell the idea of going to a gig to the viewers.

Editing
One of the typical approaches to the editing in a conventional music video is that the video will be cut to the beat of the song helping the two merge together; the common concept would be that the tempo would conclude the speed of the cuts and how many where featured within the song in order to keep the correct pace for the video. However genre of the song would also have input on this due to the common stereotypes of certain videos for certain genres. In more up to date videos there is much more technology involved in the creation of the video that will be inserted within the editing stage of the promos creation, this is such things as using green screen to apply a fake background to camera shots or possibly even to insert objets into the video that are not genuinely there which can be very useful if certain objects cant be obtained possibly due to availability or budget. The most common shot type in a music promo is a jump cut; this is to assist the movement of the video and to keep it interesting and unique in order to help it be memorable to the viewer. Motion is usually a common factor used at some point with in videos to possibly help the lips sinc to the song better or even to add an interesting effect to a certain part of the song possibly in relation to the narrative as promos do not have to make sense or be realistic.

Mise En Scene
Lighting is essential within a music video and will be used to create such things as tension, mystery, or to set mood. Various types of lighting may be used within a video, some natural and commonly un-natural to help add effect to the video.

Props in a music video are essential due to there being no speech within the small narrative apart from the song lyrics as they assist to help explain the narrative. With props they may follow continuity rules or go against them due to the genre and idea behind the video. Music instruments are commonly very important props within a music promo and help create a sense of reality as well as enabling the audience to relate the video to the band or artist.

Location of the music promo will usually link with the lyrics of the song and play another big part in telling the story of the narrative with the lyrics of the song. Location commonly differs with genre of music such as metal music using abandoned run down places in contrast to dance music using modern busy places such as nightclubs.

The costumes in a music video can vary a huge amount and have a correlation also to the genre of song. Depending on what the music video narrative is about will  influence costume choice however it is common in dance and pop videos that little clothing is worn and fashion is explicit, unique, and memorable. Bands tend to gain their own style in the fashion that they wear and this is very often reflected within a music video.

Narrative Performance
It is very common that most music videos have some sort of relation to the artist or band performing live at a gig; this is something that the viewers can relate to and may influence them to go and see the artist or band live. Some of the best music videos contain a fragmented narrative meaning that it is complicated and the audience will be able to spot different things when watched again, this sometimes works well when gaining views for a music video.