Codes and Conventions by samleasan on emaze

Codes and Conventions of Genre (Music, Film, Documentary)

What are codes and conventions

Codes - Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Technical - How meaning is conveyed using technical equipment

Symbolic - ways of showing meanings beyond what you can see e.g gestures, facial expressions, poses.

Conventions - Is what codes are expected to be used in certain media forms e.g music videos, films or documentaries.

Form

Form is the type of media you are going to produce be it a Documentary, Film or Music Video. My chosen form is music video.

Here are the codes and conventions of a music video:

-Music Video-

Cinematography

Certain shots are used in music video's in order to establish a certain mood, feeling or to convey a message. The most common shots used in music videos are:

Close Up - Close ups usually focus up an artists head when they sing certain lyrics, however objects can also be closed upon to imply a meaning.

High Angle - Where the angle looks down on the singer.

These two shots are commonly used in slow songs to reflect the pace and sadness within the song. The camera movement will also commonly be slow and will fit with the genre (Pans, tilts, crane)

Wide Angle - This is a shot which includes the artist but the landscape is more dominant.

This shot is commonly used in more upbeat music videos that include bands so they can include them all in frame. The camera movement will be fast also in order to match the song's tempo.

Example of slow song - includes many close ups of artist.

Example of up beat shots - many wide angles are used to include all the dancers.

-Music Video-

Sound

Sound is key in a music video as the video is normally created for the song. The sound in music videos can be non-diegetic aswell as diegetic. This is because some stories show a narrative of a character instead of the singers singing in a location.

Sometimes in music videos, the song stops and a little 5 second narrative sequence plays. This happens either at the start of a music video (Smash Mouth - All Star), in the middle of the music video (Alien Ant Farm - Smooth criminal) or even at the end (Fall Out Boy - Irresistible)

Examples of diegetic and non-diegetic music videos are The Smallpools' "Dreaming" and Royal Blood's "Little Monster"

Royal Blood - Little Monster

Irresistible - Fall Out Boy

-Music Video-

Editing

Editing is used in music videos to convey specific genres or message. For example if the editing is fast paced, the song will be upbeat. If there are long takes of footage being left in, the song is usually very slowly paced.

Another convention of music videos is cross-cutting between two locations / diegesis, for example in one diegisis a narrative could be occurring whilst in another diegisis there could be the band singing.

If there is a narrative in the music video, eye-line and graphic matches as well as match on actions will be used in order to show a story progressing without using sound, this is called continuous editing.

Example of continuous editing - Royal Blood - Figure it Out

Fast Editing - BYOB - System of a Down

-Music Video-

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene focuses on lighting, props, costume, hair and makeup and location. These technical aspects all depend on the music videos genre.

For example, Rock videos tend to be set either at concerts or in a spooky, dark area. The costume is also mostly black clothing and leather.

Rap videos tend to be based in urban locations with fast cars and house parties. Girls are also stereotyped as objects.

Pop music videos tend to have bright lights and luminous clothing. The represents the light-heartedess of the genre.

Music videos also commonly include 2 diegisis' / locations in which the editing switches between. One location is usually a live performance whilst the other is a narrative.

Rock Mise-en-scene: Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

Rap Mise-en-scene: Brocoli - Big Baby D.R.A.M

Pop Mise-en-scene: Katy Perry - Dark Horse

2 diegesis: Can We Dance - The Vamps

Genre

Genre is the type/category of music video. Each genre of music video has its own codes and conventions in order to reflect the genre's ideology. My chosen genre is Indie Rock, here are the codes and conventions of Indie Rock music videos:

Different types of genre include:

- Rock

-Indie Rock

- Pop

- Hip Hop

- Rap

- Grime

- Indie

-J-pop

-Jazz

- Classical

- Country

- Folk

- Dance

- Electro

- Techno

- K-pop

- Punk

- House

Indie rock bands would normally include alot of performance footage in their music videos to show they are playing music for themselves and not for money. This follows the ideal representation of indie rock bands, as they don't earn alot of money and therefore don't think about it often when writing songs.

-Indie Rock-

Cinematography

Close Up - This is one of the most common shots used in indie rock music videos as it helps advertise the lead singer/ star. This will help them get recognized in the future. Not only that, but close ups show the artists emotion and passion for the music they are writing which fits into the indie rock band stereotype.

Crane Shot/high angle - These shots are used in live performance music video's and helps establish a concert or location that artists are in. Crane shots also allow more variety of shots when filming something quite boring like a live performance.

Wide shots- are also used to set the scene / location.

Example: Soundcheck - Catfish and the Bottlemen