Carol Vernallis is a music video theorist who looks at how music videos are structured, she mentions her research into this topic in her book, The Kindest Cut- Functions and meanings of Music Video Editing 2001. The key concepts of her theory are Narrative Editing, Camera Movement/Framing, and Diegesis. During this theory, she talks about the world in which music videos create and how the lyrics correlate and tie together with the video
When looking at narrative, Carol states that there is a connection between the video and the narrative and that the video is usually portraying elements of the lyrics. She also states that due to the short nature of music videos the narrative may not always be completed and either end up being disjointed, disconnected or fragmented leaving it to the audience to connect the dots when it comes to making sense of what they have just seen. She also states that not every music video has a narrative but all show a level of progression throughout the video that the audience can follow, whether that is through the editing or the lyrics. A clear example of a narrative throughout the music video is Brother by Kodaline in which a young boy tries to come to terms with his brother's death.
When it comes to editing, Vernallis states that one of the most common conventions is the lack of continuity editing, this means there will be no clear progression of shots and that some may seem to appear out of order and or just not relevant to what the audience has already been seeing and therefore linking back to the narrative element of her theory suggesting that the lack of continuity helps build this distorted and broken narrative she mentions. This lack of continuity editing may become noticeable through the use of jump cuts, cutting in time with the beat and juxtaposing frames. Music videos use the element of cutting to the beat regularly an example of one being Turn Down For What by DJ Snake.
Vernallis talks about the different types of shots when on about framing, she explains what are some of the most commonly used shot types in typical music videos with establishing and mid-close shots appearing more common than others, "establishing shots are one of the main elements in a music video" (Vernallis, 2013), with the establishing shots occurring often due to the short duration of a music video and the need to establish a setting within this short time to help effectively tell a narrative. This links in with my next point on diegesis, with establishing shots helping the director create a world open for the audience to view. An example of key uses of establishing shots is in the song Formation by Beyonce, this song uses establishing shots to open the world to the audience showing them where the music video sets place, in this case highlighting the flooding in America.
The diegesis that Vernallis mentions during her theory is the world that the music video is set in, in her theory she states how this is revealed slowly to help the narrative develop, she also mentions that repetition may occur in when it comes to certain frames or styles of a shot. Vernallis also mentions how because music video narrative is never really finished, the audience can have a gap in understanding of the diegesis. An example of a strong diegesis within music video is within Bad Blood by Taylor Swift, this music video shows elements of a strong yet distorted diegesis as the audiences are introduced to this scifi world in which these popstars are superheroes battling each other, although all this is shown not much is explained to us leaving the audience to try and fill in the blanks.
Reference List
Carol Vernallis (2013) YouTube Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, Page 10.
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