Research: Conventions of Music Videos (felicity)

 Seminal Video - Britney Spears : Baby One More Time

Released: 23rd September 1998
Genre: Teen Pop/ Dance Pop
Nominations: Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance


Mise En Scene:


 The whole music video is based at a high school, and what they are doing at the end of the day. The costumes are supposed to resemble school uniform except they have definitely been altered e.g the skirts and shorter and the shirts are ripped etc. When watching this, you can definitely tell it conforms to the pop genre. Britney claims that the song is just about a high school girl who has a crush and doesn't necessarily carry any sexual connotations, however this does not conform to the music video as she is seen cutting class to flirt with boys and is wearing slightly provocative clothing.



Sound:


The sound doesn't start until around half a minute in. At the start there is some acting where Britney is tapping her feet and her pencil to show she is getting impatient when waiting for school to end. As soon as the school bell rings the music starts and the song plays.



Editing:


 At the beginning of the video, it jump cuts from the clock back to Britney, getting closer each time to show she was waiting for the bell to ring. At the beginning of the second verse there is also another jump cut where the location changes from inside the corridors to outside the school. Throughout the whole video, there are simple cuts from each scene which has a new but similar setting.



Camera Work:


A lot of the time there would be a shot of Britney dancing, and then a close up shot of her, which promotes her as an artist. Towards the last chorus there is an establishing shot to show to whole setting and new location, as well as all the dancers.

Skrillex& Diplo ft Justin Bieber: Where are you now

Released: 27th February 2015, hit mainstream radios 21st April 2015

Genre: EDM

Nominations: Four nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the Best Visual Effects category.

Mise en Scene:


 The main artist seen throughout the whole video is just wearing his own casual clothes. The focus of this video is not the costumes and makeup, or even setting, but the animations and effects instead. There is a lot of animation involved which is the main subject of the video. It is very visual and keeps the audiences attention strongly throughout as there is always something happening.



Editing:


The shots cut to and from the artist dancing and singing to the public where they have drawn animations on still images of him for the video, which also shows how the video itself was produced. Then there is the main setting with a plain background, which the animations overlapping the artist continuously.



Sound:


The song fades in at the very beginning of the music video and plays throughout.



Camerawork:


 There are jump cuts in the middle of the video which show the public coming into a room and drawing the animations. Then the animations are played all throughout the music video. There are also close up and extreme close up shots, to promote the artist. There is also a high angle shot in the middle, showing the public coming into the room to create drawings for the music video.

Sum 41- In Too Deep

Released: September 2001 in the USA and December 2001 in the UK.

Genre: Pop punk/ Alternative Rock

The highest it ranked in the charts for 2001-2002 was in Canada at number 2.

Mise En Scene:


The music video is based at a swimming pool and the band are apart of a diving contest, matching the lyrics 'In too deep'.  Also, the band perform the song throughout the whole video in an empty swimming pool with their ' audience' sitting around it. They are wearing their normal clothes, and when they are diving they're wearing long shorts, whereas the opposing team are wearing small red trunks, which are more revealing.
The whole video is laid back and could even be seen as 'unprofessional', however this conforms to the pop punk genre, of rebellious young men in a rock band, who could be seen as having the 'class clown' character.



Editing:
The main cuts are from the empty swimming pool where the band are performing, to the diving scene where they are competing against another diving team.

Sound:
The soundtrack starts around 10 seconds into the music video, as the band are walking into the diving center and plays throughout the whole video.

Camera Work:
There are plenty of high and low angle shots throughout the diving scenes, to show the actual diving take place and then the audiences reaction. There is also an establishing shot to show the crowd and how excited they are for the contest.