Music Video - Contextual Research

Carol Vernallis - "The Kindest Cut" : Functions and meanings of music editing.

Vernallis suggested that music videos rarely follow a cohesive continual structure as you would expect to find in most mainstream movies. This may be because it is often found that there is usually an underline "base shot" that is constantly referred back to,  that is present in most music videos, primarily in performance based music videos. This base track creates a foundation for which the structure of the music video can be based around. Because of this, the camera has more freedom to move around and capture different angles of the performance, following no particular order. Jump cuts are commonly used to speed up the events in order to edit it down to a 2-4 minute gap whist still remaining cohesive.

Because the continuity is not focused on, this may allow the audience to be able to focus more on the song itself, which can be seen as much more important than the video itself, which itself can be seen as just an accompaniment to the song. This explains the reasoning behind loose narrative structures which are very common amongst music videos.
The types of shots themselves, extreme close up, tracking etc are used to enhance different sections and elements of the music. Close ups are used as a focus point of the video which is commonly seen as the front member of the band. It is common for the front man/woman to make eye contact with the camera, (breaking the fourth wall) as the artist then makes an instant connection with the audience and the artist is no longer seen as the object of the video.

There are many different functions of editing a music video. Certain cuts are made on certain beats of the song in order to amplify that aspect. This also creates a nice rhythmic/ smooth feel to the transitional editing. Other common examples include, reflecting star image and illustrating the lyrics.
It is thought that what we hear in the song determine how we see the images whist watching a music video, but on the other hand, what we see and perceive in the music video will affect the way we hear the song that is playing. Therefore a harmony is created both the elements compliment each other.


References - Vernallis 2001, The kindest Cut: functions and meanings of music video editing. Oxford Press.