Carol Vernallis and Music Video Theory

Carol Vernallis is a music video theorist who produced ‘The Kindest Cuts’ which looks at the difference in editing between film and music video. She mentions the role of editing when it comes to narrative, meaning, star image, the way the sound and images are synchronised, and possible close ups of the artist and how the editing imitates the music.

Vernallis theory is based around four key concepts that all relate to the way a music video is produced:

• Narrative
• Editing
• Framing and camera movement
• Diegesis

Narrative:

When describing her theory, particularly the narrative aspect, Vernallis suggests that the video is a visual response to the narrative of the song. Thus what is happening onscreen reflects the lyrics. She then says how the narrative might not be complete and makes the video seem disjointed and appear in fragments.

Editing:

A convention of editing in music videos is the option to disrupt/break the rules of continuity editing. Also in music videos the editing can be used as the focal interest of the video rather than a narrative. Music videos have a distinctive style of editing with easily noticeable conventions:

• Jump cuts
• Breaking the 30 degree rule
• Cutting to lyrics or to the beat of the music
• Juxtaposed frames

Framing and Camera Movement:

Vernallis suggests that establishing shots are a key element to music videos as well close ups of the main subject of the video whether it’s the artist or an actor, etc. Also the camera moving in time with the beat of the song or the lyrics is also a convention often found in music videos. The framing however is dependent on the genre of the music video.

Diegesis:

In media terms the diegesis is the setting of the music video. Vernallis says in her studies that actions in the video may not always be completed and can sometimes be distrupted; which can lead to repetition of shots and certain frames will come across as more important than others.