Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis

1.       Summarise the main points of Vernallis’s ideas on editing and camera work in music video.

First of all one of the many main ideas Vernallis has on editing in music videos are the fact that editing may match the musical phrases or the beat. For example when the artist sings the song the voice or beat matches his/her lips to make it sound as if the artist is singing live.

She also mentions the video may disrupt the whole idea of continuity data editing, which she says is a clear convention of music video editing.

Her other idea is that the editing in music videos may become ‘foregrounded’ meaning the edits will be more obvious and sticking out, rather than drawing our attention to the artists themselves as opposed to the continuity editing.

There are many examples reinforcing her ideas such as:

Cutting within the lyrics

Fancy edits or cuts

Extreme jumps in time and space

Extreme changes in pace                                                 

Breaks of the 30 degree rule

Breaks of the 180 degree rule

And more

While you may not see

Matches on action

even pace throughout or smooth transitions

Her ideas of camerawork in music videos such as camera movement or Framing she mentions that when it comes to shot types the most common out of all is the extreme shot. In addition she also says the style of framing may run through the video and that it is distinctive to that video. Furthermore she also says that the camera may move in time with the music video, and camera may move on the lyric. She then says master shots or other established shots is mainly used as close ups.

2.     Find some examples of music videos that illustrate at least three of her main ideas.

First example: 1) Wretch 32 ft Example 'Unorthodox' this includes fancy edits and also shows extreme jumps on time and space. this also cuts within the lyrics.
2) Second example is by the same artist Wretch 32 however this time featuring with Josh Kumra. Although this song seems slower then the first example it also has the same ideas that Carol Vernallis mentions. First of all it also has some fancy editing for example when the writing appears randomly on the walls. also it shows time and space moving as their are different parts of the song being showed with different people. While also showing the lyrics matching the artists lips to show as if they are singing live.
3)Third example would be the song by Scorcher 'Its my time' as here it shows extreme changes in pace in editing as the cuts are not equal. Also this video jumps in time and space as it shows different scenes/parts of the video. Lastly it shows fancy edits as slow motion as soon as the girl does a kick and the man punches the punching bag, as well as the light shining towards the artist.

Here are the videos to the examples.