Music Video Codes & Conventions

Codes and Conventions are a firm set of rules that help us determine what genre certain texts fit in to and they also help the audience become familiar with a certain genre. Music videos need to be filled with a variety of shots and this all depends on the style of the music video. If the music in the video is slow it would be expected to have calm long shots, whereas if the video has quite a beat to it you would expect more shots and jump cuts that go in time with the music. Typical shots you would see in a music video would be crane shots with the camera hovering above the artist, low angle shots of the artists to indicate power, tracking shots and pans and tilts to move from performer to another. Mis en scene for a music video all depends on the genre, for example you would not see a performance video for a heavy metal band filmed in a bright coloured place filled with flowers, it would be a dark gloomy place. Props are essential for example you would not be able to do a band performance video without instruments and the facial expressions are a good way to set the genre straight for example heavy metal is quite anger filled so you would expect a lot of anger in facial expressions and people being aggressive.