RESEARCH-Summary of Vernalis's Theory

Summary of Vernalis's Theory

Carol Vernallis Experiencing Music Videos Aesthetics and Cultural context:

Vernalis theory centers around 4 key concepts in they way music videos are constructed:

1. Narrative 

2. Editing

3. Camera Movement and framing

4. Diegesis

Carol Vernalis had many thoughts on the narrative some are listed below: 

• Videos are usually a visual response to the music
• There is not  necessarily a balance between the narrative and performance. 
• The narrative is not always complete
• There may not be a clear resolution at the end of the video
• Something drives the video forward but often its not the narrative, it could be the music the performance or a mixture of other elements.

Thoughts on editing:

• Editing in music videos come more frequantly than in films.
• The usual rules of 'continuity' editing (editing usually found in classic broadcast fiction) are broken in order to draw attention to which is on the screen.
• Edits may be really obvious to draw attention to themselves, such as wipes and special effects added.
• Jump cuts are often used
• A master shot (base track is frequently used to give the video a structure.
• The camera may not move in time with the music itself.

Below i have illustrated some of the main points Carol puts forward shown in 
music videos in our industry today:

Wretch 32 ft Example 'Unorthodox' 

Example Wretch 32 ft Example Unorthodox: In this music video, different shots are seen frequently and the editing is shown to be very fast paced e.g. from the start to around 50 seconds till the middle there are around 20+ different shots seen over this time. This is effective in ways as we see the audience are able to see the different parts in which the music video has been set, making it appeal and interest the audience in many ways.Looking at Carols main points this relates to the first point i made above. I have print screened shots that are illustrated in the video.

Kanye West 'Good Life'

As shown there is an illustration of the edits being used in the video which are very entertaining to watch.

Most of the shots used in this video tend to be creative allowing the audience to be able to experiance what is being said. Words such as 'shine' are used to reinforce the meaning of something bright which has been represented with lines around the word.

Example: Kanye West 'Good Life'. This video links with Carols 5th point where the edits have been used to draw great deal of attention to the viewers. In this video we see the edits and effects used are clear and interesting making the audience engage with this and wanting to continue to watch this video.

Below i have illustrated a mood board of all the interesting edits that have been represented in this music video, most of the edits that have been used interests me in many ways as i think the main person uses them in the way to entertain the viewers.

As shown above and below scenes such as chi cargo have been used in a way to illustrate the location of what the character is singing about. Most of the images used to illustrate the lyrics are unrealistic making it more interesting and fun for the viewers to watch

Rihanna 'Rude Boy' is also another video in which represents a wide range of 

edits to create excitement. Below i have shown some shots used in her video.

More shots below of interesting edits used in video.

Carol Vernallis looked very closely at the editing and camerawork that are used in music videos. In her observation she found out that edits in music videos are more frequent than in film and stand out as disjuncture and that the editing seems to have a connection to the song.

The main points of her observation are indicated below:

Continuity editing: this includes match cuts - where parts are broken down to draw attention to what is on the screen and to also give it a nice flow

Obvious effects and edits: These are used to draw attention to themselves such as wipes and special effects.

A base track: These are frequently used to give the video a structure- usually a verse, chorus, verse chorus structure.