- Cutting to the beat
- Green screening
- Large number of cuts
- Varied camera language
- Special Effects
- Lip-syncing
However a music video which is a bad example of cutting to the beat would be Jessie J - Who you are. Cutting to the beat is found to be difficult when it comes to a much slower song which is definitely the case with this song. Without the cuts to the beat, the video becomes lifeless and boring for a viewer to watch which isn't a good thing for artist Jessie J. There are some moments when she starts to pick up the beat such as 0:43. In moments like these we are usually expected for the shot to cut to another one however in this video is cuts and slowly pans and finally comes back to Jessie J sitting at the table facing towards the camera at 0:49. The video itself doesn't do much justice to the meaningful song the artist is trying to portray to her audience. By having more cuts which this video does not have helps the video have more camera movement, more cuts to the beat and a better understanding to the audience to gain interest from them.
A music video with a great use of green screen would be Countdown - Beyonce. Beyonce uses a lot of green screen throughout her video to make the video itself more engaging and interesting to watch. Green screen is evident as there is a moment at 2:00 where there is more than one Beyonce on screen. This couldn't be done without green screen. The usage of green screen has been used effectively according to the up beat tempo of the song itself. The song is a fun party like song so Beyonce wanted her video to match this with vibrant colours of the background. The background change is done with the green screen at 2:56 This makes shooting the video less time consuming as all beyonce needs to do is do one shot for the director Adria Petty to change the background with the power of green screen. An example of this would be between 0:36 and 0:49. Beyonce had a lot of fun filming this music video with a variety of techniques, not only did she use green screen but she also used some special effects which were specially shown between 1:57 and 2:10.
A bad example of green screen would be Fabius - Blaze Um. The video itself has been poorly done with such little effort put into using the green screen correctly. The effect that the video shows is terrible, especially at 0:32 as he looks as tall as the ceiling making the video look disorganized and rushed. The green screen image itself has no relevance to the lyrics of the song either making the video totally random and not making any sense to the audience an example of this misunderstanding would be at 1:00. You can tell that the video tried to be interesting but unfortunately backfired made the video look scruffy and not throughout. A downfall to the video would be that it can instantly lose the audiences attention as there is just a man standing in front of the moving background which not eye catching or memorable. The genre through the music video is represented well as the clothing he is wearing at 1:30 are loose with a snap back which connotes the Rap/RnB genre. The green screen used throughout the video looks rough and untidy which puts the audience off, making them not watch the video completely. However this could be changed if more effort and thought went into his video.
A video with a large number of cuts would be 'Charlie Brown - Coldplay'. The song itself has an upbeat tempo with a lively colourful video to go along with it. By having a video like this brings in and intrigues the audience into watching the full video. a specific moment where the cut of the song matches the right place at the right pace in the video would be at 1:28. The director of the video did a good job of bringing in the audience with the bright and flashy video which matches the song as well. From the audiences perspective, the more upbeat the song, the faster the video should be as if it was a slow paced video the audiences attention would be lost straight away. The video also has a constant narrative as well which keeps the audience watching, the narrative is a typical girl meeting a boy at 0:13. By having two different techniques in the video makes the video very successful which is great for the producer of the video and the artist themselves.
A music video which displays a poor use of the number of cuts used would be "Who Dat - J Cole" . The director may not have wanted the video to have many cuts, but this did not work successfully as the video comes across as long and boring which isn't beneficial to the audience or the artist themselves. The video takes the audience through the journey of J Cole's life however the style of this video backfired as it was very long winded and boring to watch the whole thing. The video was literal in the sense that although J Cole is taking the audience through a journey he is taking them on a literal journey from 0:01 to the very end. The song however has quite an upbeat tempo so its only natural for us to see the video cut to the beat of the song, but in this video the footage slows the song down so visually it does not fit. The video holds a lot of paneling throughout the whole thing which becomes very repetitive to a viewer instantly making them get bored and want to see something new and different. If the video has matched the song and cut to the beat like it should be more people would want to see it.
A music video with good special effects would be Rihanna - Rude boy. The video consists a lot of graphics which makes the video a whole lot more interesting with the vibrant colours to go along with it. The colours and graphics used suit well with the artist, especially how Rihanna is from the Caribbean the colours and lively effects fit well with her culture at 0:16 where rihanna is black and white but the background is loud and vibrant. This particular technique really brought Rihanna's video alive and engaging to the audience which is an advantage for the viewing rate for the artist on many music video outlets, such as YouTube. The lyrics of her song 'Rude Boy' are also written throughout the video in a graffiti at 1:54 when she says "boom boom boom" The impact of the special effects works successfully towards the audience as it goes along with the party song making which makes the audience want to re watch and re listen to the song again.
A music video would bad special effects would be 'I Want It That Way - Backstreet Boys'. A reason to why the special effects were so poor would be because they had quite a low budget for the video making the effects used not the best they could be. The special effects used did not have any relevance to the song itself, they were completely random making the video completely random and lost. The video itself is located in an international airport and shows the scene transitions between the shots. They use a lot of dissolves from 0:15- 0:17 which makes the video look tacky. It also looks like the editor was lazy and could not think of anything else to show the transition. A high speed zoom effect which makes it appear that the foreground subject has not changed to a different shot even thought the background has changed. The artists are fading in and out from the international airport and outside on to a runway at 0:58. From this shot they are confronted with a group of fans with signs etc. This special effect is done poorly as it looks messy. The band members also begin to look transparent at 1:05 making it seem as if the video has not been produced correctly. As time has changed technology has evolved with bigger and better effects which is why the video looks so terrible. However at the time the video was something that looked amazing as they hadn't of seen anything better. With the poor use of effects the audience is uninterested and don't wish to continue watching the video which isn't ideal for the artist or the band.
A music video with good camera language, ranging in various different camera shots such as low angle, high angle and mid shots etc is Beyonce - Love on top. By having this variety the music video is much more entertaining and better to watch from an audiences point of view. In the music video Beyonce is performing to the camera as if the camera is the audience at 0:34. The great thing about a music video with performance would be that the there is a range of angles for the viewer to see which isn't possible if you were to watch her in the concert for example there is a high establishing shot at 1:56 and a low angle shot at 2:01. The effect of this technique brings different dynamics and changes to the video making it more exciting to watch and see. Even though Beyonce is the main focus of the music video, the dancers behind are also put into the shot at 0:38 which shows the dance moves to interest the viewers too. This is a great way to show that the song is actually a dance song too making the audience want to get up and dance.
A music video with a poor use of camera angles would be Tennis Court by Lorde's. Throughout the music video Lorde is in front of a plan background with a single mid shot just on her from 0:03 - 3:20. Her costume if all black with pale looking make up to resemble a clown. Throughout the entire video she is just staring into the camera as if she is looking at her audience, occasionally lip syncing some words. The whole video has no cuts or any other camera language for that matter, making the music video very simplistic and boring for a viewer. The awkwardness of Lorde just staring into the camera could make the audience feel uncomfortable. The mood of the song reflects the video well as it is depressing and dark. Even though its good how the video meshes well with the song, it still makes the audience not want to see her videos again. By having one bad video could potentially ruin the expectations of any other future releases of other videos from the artist.
To make a music video as good as it should be, the most vital thing to make it the best it can be should be the lip syncing. Without lip syncing the video is a total fail which leaves the audience thinking the video is not serious. A music video with good lip syncing would be JLS - Take A Change On Me'. The lip syncing throughout the video is very consistent and makes it seem as if the band is actually singing live. The facial expressions throughout the video are done really well, which makes the song much more believable. An example of this would be at 3:26 with Ortise having a strong facial expression of his face really connoting his emotion. By having movement in the body and the face make the video flow nicely. By having this technique in the video makes the video look much more natural. This also enables the band to work on dance moves more as they have already covered the lip syncing aspect of the song.
A music video with bad lip syncing throughout would be, Summertime - David Days. The lip syncing in this video is terrible, he is either too late, too early or completely misses out words when the lyrics come in the song. At 0:35, it is clear that he is out of time to the music, you can tell that he is repeating the same shots over and over again. This makes the video look very amateur as if the video is a home video. The man in the video rarely makes any movement in the video which could show that he himself is uncomfortable. With the poor lip syncing at 0:08 and 0:48 the video is not taken seriously by the viewers which limit how much its been viewed as it is so painful to watch him stand in front of the camera and not lip sync correctly.
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