Good & Bad Music Video Techniques

Large number of cuts

The purpose of having a large number of cuts is to help keep the video flowing in a pace that fits the mood of the song. It keeps the viewer entertained, so that they wouldn't have to constantly look at just one image for the whole 3-4 minutes of the video. 

The amount of cuts in 'Talk Dirty' by Jason Derulo (shown left) is incredibly large. In the first 10 seconds of the video there are already at least 20 cuts, meaning two cuts each second. The cuts happen very quickly and they already draw the viewer into the video. Therefore the technique has been incredibly successful, due to the constant cuts flickering in the first ten seconds of the video.
This is shown from 0:02 - 0:08
As the viewer, it was enjoyable to view, however it was also a little straining to watch since the colours were so bright. The producers of the video should have taken this into account for those that may not be able to handle such harsh lights flickering at once, however altogether it was rather entertaining to watch. Since the song is about going around the world and picking up different girls who speak in different languages, the flickering of a various amount of flags in the beginning of the video already sets the tone and successfully matches the lyrics. Throughout the video, there are also many cuts of Jason Derulo dancing ordinarily with an orange background, then the cuts change to him and his dancers as black silhouettes, which adds to the effect really well and creates a much cooler tone to the music video than it would with just the artist dancing on his own.
However, the new artist Lorde had used the same technique and yet hers did not work as effectively as Jason Derulo's. For her music video, 'Royals', Lorde had only used 67 cuts throughout. This meant that most of the shots that she used were prolonged and unnecessary, creating the sense of boredom to the viewer. Whereas in 'Talk Dirty', 20 cuts were used in 10 seconds, in 'Royals' only 3 were used. (from 0:00 - 0:10) The lack of cuts already slowed the pace of the video down. Even though in some aspects this was a good thing since it matched the pace of the song, the music video suddenly became very boring to watch therefore many people stated that they wouldn't watch it again. 

Special effects

Special effects are used to create a deeper meaning toward the video, creating exciting and unusual images that couldn't ordinarily be created with plainly just filming the video.

Michael and Janet Jackson's music video for their song 'Scream', is one of the most famous iconic music video's that use special effects to this date, even though the video was released in 1995 and since then technology has improved. The song in itself is about the paparazzi and the media constantly telling lies and bothering them each and every day, therefore they were placed in what appeared to be a mental institution where things were smashing and breaking, obviously reflecting their frustrated mood.
The special effects added to the music video, since scenes like Michael dancing on the ceiling (shown at 1:15-1:16) and Janet climbing onto the walls (shown at 1:42) added to the supernatural and unexpected element of the music video in itself. This is helpful for the artist as special effects can help them to get a particular strong point of the music video across. Special effects in the context of the artists could symbolize that perhaps they are 'out of the ordinary' compared to any other artists, therefore giving them a much more creative image.

The song 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet boys also used special effects in their music video, however this didn't work in any way as well as 'Scream' even though it was released in 1998, three years after Michael Jackson's. The reason for this could purely be that the budget for this video was much lower. Not only do the special effects have absolutely nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song, but they look incredibly cheap. The aim of special effects are to create something out of the ordinary to make the music video to become more entertaining however the image of the band members fading in and out from an airport to outside a plane on a runway to a crowd of screaming girls does not have that effect. The effects in themselves are a little jumpy since in some points of the video, since the effects haven't been done properly, some band members start looking see-through and then another member that also looks transparent appears in their place, shown briefly at 1:01.
This may be the whole point of the video but the special effects do not fit into place particularly well. In the time and era that this was released in, special effects were still quite new and exciting therefore the audience that would have viewed this video would have been appreciated for the effort made. However comparing it to a video a little more recent allows the generation of today to see that actually, they weren't that amazing. The artist, in this video, is represented as cheesy and rather cliche, not presented anything particularly interesting or different from any other average boy band. 

Cutting to the beat

Cutting to the beat allows the music video to keep up with the pace of the song, giving a clean and polished look as an effect.

Conor Maynard's 'R U Crazy' is a perfect example of a music video cutting to the beat. The song altogether has quite a specific beat to go with it and the tone of the song is quite angry and frustrated. Therefore there are plenty of moments of the music video when the scenes are cut and flickered in between, which are cut specifically to the beat. The best example of this is at 3:54 - 3:56 where the cuts are specifically cut to the beat at a fast pace, giving a polished effect to the audience.
This keeps the video in the correct, constant pace, therefore making it a lot more realistic and enjoyable for the viewer to watch, since if the video did not cut to the beat, the pace and the tone of the video would have been lost and then would not have made as much sense. The artist is therefore represented as one who is truly believing in what he is singing about and one that is trying to let the viewer understand the pain that he is also going through.  

However, in some cases not cutting to the beat actually creates a mood to fit the actual video itself. For example, dance duo AlunaGeorge had not specifically cut to the beat in their new single 'Best Be Believing.' The video is set in a psychiatric asylum due to the people that are trapped in there, being forced against their will not to dance anymore. The mood is meant to be rather uncomfortable and stiff, therefore not cutting to the beat works surprisingly well. For example at 1:22, there is a woman being brain washed and she is dancing in a very odd manner, however this cut was not at all to the beat in fact the cut was quite random, and this then repeats itself at 1:23 and as there is no specific cut to the beat, it does in fact make the video appear to be quite uncomfortable.

Varied camera language

Camera language is important in a music video since without varied camera language, the music video just becomes boring and tiresome to watch. Varied camera language is used well in Little Mix's music video for their new single 'Move'. Even though there are technically only three settings for the video, the camera language allows the video to still be entertaining.
Angles such as high angles (shown at 0:18) and low angles (shown briefly at 1:28), shots such as mid-shots (shown at 1:53) and close-ups (shown at 1:54) are used to the effect and make the video a lot more enjoyable to view, especially since the song is quite fast-paced. Therefore this technique has indeed been successful. The artists are represented as fun girls who enjoy anything different, since a range of different camera angles are used, showing their diversity.  

An example of where varied camera language wasn't used as well would be Lorde's music video for her song 'Tennis Courts', in which she is plainly standing in front of a black background dressed as a pale clown staring into the camera, mouthing the word 'yeah' a few times (0:51, 0:53, 1:03, 1:56, 1:57, 2:07, 2:13, 2:23. 2:29, 2:46, 2:56-3:22) but nothing more and nothing less. There are no cuts whatsoever and throughout the whole video, the camera doesn't ever leave her face and she hardly ever breaks eye-contact with the camera which makes the viewer feel uncomfortable (for example from 0:00 - 0:07). However, even though there isn't a range of camera angles, this still matches the mood of the song so in some ways, Lorde was still successful. Many people found this video uncomfortable to look at and therefore didn't watch it that much, yet the hype built up around it encouraged other people to watch it to see what everyone was talking about, therefore giving the video nearly 16 million views in a few months which is a generous amount for an undiscovered artist. Because of this video, Lorde has created an image of herself as a 'strange' and 'creepy' artist and even though most of the publicity she is receiving is not particularly positive, she has still gained many fans from being the way unique that she is.

Green screen

Green screens are used to create the image that the artist or the main character in the music video are in an area that they are not, or that they are doing something that obviously they cannot actually film, or at least not with much ease. A good example of a green screen being used is Beyonce's video for 'Sweet Dreams', in which she appears to be dancing on the moon or on a planet that is certainly not earth, (shown at 0:47). The green screen looks incredibly realistic and many people were not even aware that it was a green screen until they watched the making of the video. Therefore, the use of the green screen is successful. In addition to this, the content of the song is about dreaming, therefore making the impossible possible. The use of the green screen in this video allows this the viewer to use their imagination, therefore connecting the song and the video together and making it exciting to watch. Beyonce here is represented as something that perhaps is superhuman, since she appears to be dancing on a world that no one has seen before. The creativity that she has is also highlighted.

However, in some cases green screen doesn't work as well. For example in Aqua's 'Barbie Girl', the scenes that green screens were used in were blatantly fake-looking and made the whole video look like a joke, even though it wasn't technically supposed to be. Around the edges of the people in the car as they are driving in front of a green screen, they are blurred since it is likely that no shadows were used, (shown at 1:19). Therefore, those who watched the video were not impressed, even ignoring the song in itself and soon the video became a joke. Once again, since this video was released in 1997, the viewers probably would have accepted the green screen with it's faults and all since there were not many video's that it could be compared to and therefore criticized. However the artists are now represented and those who made the 'joke' video and this is mostly due to the lack of shadows in the green screen. Even though shadows wouldn't particularly make the video any better, they would definitely improve it.

Lip-syncing

Lip syncing is used plainly in music videos to give the impression that the artist is singing the song as the video was being recorded when really, they were lip-syncing over their studio-recorded track. When done well, lip syncing can be very effective. Such as Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' video, in which for 70% of the song she is staring into the camera as a close up and she lip-syncs most of her song (shown for example from 0:12 - 0:24). Also, when lip-syncing, expressions on the face are also important since even if the artist is lip-syncing well, if their expression doesn't match the emotions in which they're 'singing', their performance can quickly turn very bland and boring. (Miley does this well from 2:02 - 2:11) Because the lip-syncing is done so well and the tears are streaming down her face whilst she 'sings', the meaning of the song really connects to the viewer which is why so many people were moved by her music video. In fact, many people prefer the director's cut of 'Wrecking Ball' which is just solely of her as a close up and lip-syncing to the whole song, which once again looks realistic and adds to the effect.Therefore in this music video, Miley is presented vulnerable and extremely honest.

However, when lip-syncing is not done well, it completely ruins the whole video. An example of this is New Kids On The Block and 'Step by Step', which is a video that consists of them both dancing and then singing into microphones. However, their lip-syncing does not match the track being played, which doesn't give a good impression of the artists themselves (shown at 0:35 - 0:37). Their syncing either lasts too long (shown at 1:10 - 1:12) or they finish their line before the line actually ends, (shown from 1:20 - 1:22) which gives the video a very lazy look and if the dancing wasn't there to distract the viewer from their poor lip-syncing, the video would've been branded 'awful'. However since the dancing is there, many viewers enjoyed the music video when it was released in 1990.