Adam Birkett - 30208130 Media Site
Creative Media Production & Technology - Level 3 Extended Diploma
Codes & Conventions
​There are multiple styles of music video some of which reflect the style of music, artists image or content of the track. The different genres of music video offer something for everyone. Some music videos are about 'Start Status' and heavily feature the artists. and promote their "Talents" and other music videos are used to promote meaning or controversy.
Genre/Codes/Conventions
GENRE-Style
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Live - recording of live performance
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Animation - graphical, stop motion, digital composition
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Interpretative - the viewer decides on the meaning
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Narrative - a story to follow
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Surrealist - alternative, provocative, extreme
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Pastiche - considered as a work of art, FX-based
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Parody - comedy or ‘mash up’
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Homage - tribute, emulate, fan-based
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Lyric - song lyrics and written message
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Referencing - promotion of movies, or products.
CODES - Meaning
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Costume
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Location
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Props
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Attitude/behaviour
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Lifestyles
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Sexual exploitation
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Money/ Jewellery
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Story/Meaning
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Cars/Planes/Material representations of success
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Adoration (fans)
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Performance (instruments/dance)
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Story/Narrative
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Acting
CONVENTIONS - Techniques
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Lighting
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Camera Angles
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Types of shots
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Smoke/mist
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Camera movement
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Special effects
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Wipes/Transitions
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Pace of edit / Tempo
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Continuity
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Montage
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Jump cuts
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Slow Motion
Analysis Of Music Videos
Payphone – Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa
Genre – Style
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Narrative
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Surrealist
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Pastiche
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Codes – Meaning
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Costume
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Location
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Props
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Attitude/behaviour
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Money/ Jewellery
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Story/Meaning
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Performance
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Story/Narrative
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Acting
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Conventions – Techniques
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Camera Angles
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Types of shots
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Smoke/mist
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Camera movement
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Special effects
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Pace of edit / Tempo
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Jump cuts
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Slow Motion
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Released: 11th May 2012
On YouTube it has 704,593,911 views
On Spotify it has 871,520,026 views
This song is a narrative and is a story about a banker who escapes a bank robbery with his partner and then escapes the police as they think that he was a robber. The video processes in a car chase and then he ends up crashing with his car on fire at a payphone which leads to the title of the song. They are some extreme techniques used in the video with the car and gun firing in the bank. There is the performance of the singer at the start and throughout the song where he is singing inside a payphone where he is calling and singing the lyrics of the song. The camera movements and types of shots they use vary where they are for example there is quick movement in the car chase and when they are running around but when they are stealing the car, they slow down into simper shots and then in dramatic scenes there will be slow-motion shots like when they are being shot at the bullets can be seen in the wall flying past them. As a whole video, it has a good narrative behind it and makes the music have more emotion behind it and also a better meaning to the song. Having all the effects that have been mentioned can make this one of the best music videos of hitting the world. This music video is a creative piece as it has shots that you would see in a movie and shows how much effort they have put into creating the image of the character running away.
Still today people recognise this song as it was not only a popular release but had one of the most updated music videos using film techniques for that time. This song is nearly ten years old and still is looked at as a good stepping stone in music videos from the story to the song both are equally as good but the video was created and made the best out of a narrative they could with the car chase being one of the best parts.
Sunflower – Post Malone/Swae lee (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Genre – Style
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Pastiche
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Lyrics
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Referencing
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Animation
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Codes – Meaning ​
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Attitude/behaviour
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Lifestyles
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Story/Meaning
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Story/Narrative
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Conventions – Techniques
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Camera Angles
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Types of shots
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Camera movement
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Special effects
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Pace of edit / Tempo
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Jump cuts
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Wipes/Transitions
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Lighting
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Montage
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Released: 18th October 2018
On YouTube it has 1,617,184,117 views
On Spotify it has 2,084,026,283 views
This music video is an animation which is based on the film “Spider-man into the Spidey verse,” this is used as an advertisement for the movie as it is using a celebrity singer with their music that tides into the film, this synergy is promoting the movie with the song in the movie. The video has images from the film as well as the lyrics coming up on screen which blend into the video. As well as the lyrics, it also has visual easter eggs for people that are fans of marvel and will notice. The music video has scenes from the movie that relate to the lyrics. You can see the words in graved or put on screen with different fonts to blend in. This animation is a piece of art, there are effects to make it look like it has a comic type visual as well as a blurred picture. There are different speeds of the edit which change throughout, when there are parts in the song you can see miles, the main character in the movie, running along the road and jumping over the are showing there is a leap into a new section of the song. Different moods and styles of colour are used as the different life he is in, Miles has a light colour at the start when he was in his room and when he was on the way to school. These colours changed when he was at this new school and when he got bitten by the spider, he was scared so the colours changed but when he learnt to use his powers, the colours went back to normal.
As this is from a movie there will be better camera techniques, even though this is an animation they have animated a camera turn and different angles from when he is on the sides of buildings, jumping off buildings or walking around. There are several types of shots from where he is running around town, you can see him in big, long wide shots, close-ups, and fast-moving shots. These make the edit more interesting and includes some of the key moments in the movie and tide to the song as well as the lyrics match what is happening in the movie.
This is America - Childish Gambino
Genre – Style
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Interpretative
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Surrealist
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Codes – Meaning
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Costume
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Location
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Props
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Attitude/behaviour
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Acting
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Lifestyles
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Story/Meaning
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Performance
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Conventions – Techniques
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Camera Angles
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Types of shots
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Smoke/mist
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Camera movement
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Special effects
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Pace of edit / Tempo
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Jump cuts
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Slow Motion
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Released: 5th May 2018
On YouTube it has 804,261,450 views
(Unable to see number of views on Spotify.)
This music video is dark and has disturbing footage but also has a lot of hidden meaning, and the view must see them through looking at every corner of the video. It starts with a man sitting down to play the guitar and then moves on to Childish Gambino where he starts singing. He then walks over and shoots the man, then the gun he shot the man with is put into a red cloth showing that the guns in America are cared for more than humans are as the body was just dragged away. This shows a meaning which the audience will have to decide on, but the common view is that Childish Gambino plays America and then commits horrible acts and covers it up with entertainment or dancing as he does throughout the video. There are relations to the words where he is talking about it is all for the money when he is dancing and then continues throughout the song dancing to not think about what is happening. The extreme violence in this video shows that it relates to the world as Gambino relates to America the people around him represent the people that are the rich and the poor and common people are the people who suffer and where riots happen and violence.
There was a certain costume design that Childish Gambino wore which were his trousers from a confederate army uniform and then no top. It is in two locations one a church and the main one which is a warehouse that looks like a prison. The different behaviour between all the people from background acts to singers to extras in the background they all represent a different behaviour of modern America. A long shot was used for the majority of the video as there is a low number of 5 shots as a whole. The camera is always on Gambino as he is America and takes most of the spotlight whereas the crime and bad things happening in the background are out of focus and not looked at.
This was an important step for when filming as they want to show how little they cared about crime murder riots and terror where they want to show this country as a place of happy people. The transition in the music video is mainly where the camera moves to the side, and they have the cut hidden in the turn. This is when they cut to the shot of the church and when they leave the shot of the church, showing how it did not matter because they will move on quickly from a shooting or any event that happens.