Carol Vernallis
'The Kindest Cut'
For Vernallis' theory, she analysed music videos and Hollywood films to compare the different techniques in editing and general approaches to creating the videos/films. The overall conclusion reached was music videos follow a much more unconventional way of editing and approaches to their plot/strands/narrative and etc. Whereas the Hollywood movies all followed conventional and chronological ways of editing and ordering shots in conjunction with the plot.
1. Music videos follow a number of different plot 'strands', and often leave these incomplete.
Contrasting from a films chronological way to show only one main plot, music videos tend to show a range of different strands with different settings/people/colours or showing the artist in a new costume, area, or shot. This allows the artist to be shown in a number of settings, which can, in turn, portray them in new and interesting ways, such as shown below;
In this example from Ariana Grande ft Iggy Azalea - Problem, the different range of strands (close up, extra dancer, the guest artist, and the artist singing and dancing with the extras) helps to make the video look more fun and energetic as there is a lot of movement and different strands to follow going on at a fast pace. During the first few seconds of the video, the different strands have allowed the audience to see the artist, guest artist, and the dancers - and this will help to set the mood for the video and show the audience what they should be expecting.
2. Music videos have an unconventional order of shots
In a Hollywood movie, there is always a very conventional and chronological way of ordering the shots as this allows the audience to see and understand the narrative, setting and characters. This includes shots such as establishing shots for each new setting, and the general flow of a film (beginning/introduction, middle/climax, end/resolution). In a music videos, they use a much less conventional way of creation and editing as they do not include this 'typical' order that films follow. Instead, the video cross cuts through different strands, places and times.
As shown in the example, there is no chronological order of place or time as the shots jump from fields/water/sky/long shot/close up/fire, this helps to create the mood for her video, and adds quite a mysterious build up for the rest of her song.
Non-conventional view and portrayal of time, space, character and narrative
Whilst watching a film, we would expect to be able to see and understand all aspects of the plot as this helps us to understand the main, and only narrative for the film. For music videos, there are a mixture of different narratives which jump from areas, times and characters without introduction. This makes the audience have to work it out for themselves, sometimes, such as in the example shown below, the jumps in time and character begin to hint the narrative and theme of the song to the audiences;
In a Hollywood movie, there is always a very conventional and chronological way of ordering the shots as this allows the audience to see and understand the narrative, setting and characters. This includes shots such as establishing shots for each new setting, and the general flow of a film (beginning/introduction, middle/climax, end/resolution). In a music videos, they use a much less conventional way of creation and editing as they do not include this 'typical' order that films follow. Instead, the video cross cuts through different strands, places and times.
As shown in the example, there is no chronological order of place or time as the shots jump from fields/water/sky/long shot/close up/fire, this helps to create the mood for her video, and adds quite a mysterious build up for the rest of her song.
Non-conventional view and portrayal of time, space, character and narrative
Whilst watching a film, we would expect to be able to see and understand all aspects of the plot as this helps us to understand the main, and only narrative for the film. For music videos, there are a mixture of different narratives which jump from areas, times and characters without introduction. This makes the audience have to work it out for themselves, sometimes, such as in the example shown below, the jumps in time and character begin to hint the narrative and theme of the song to the audiences;
In the example above, from Ella Henderson - Ghost, this technique is
used to show a range of different times and emotions as we see; shots of
the artist singing, who (we assume) the artist is singing about, and
the theme of the song as we then see (the same guy or the artist and the
guy) together in what appears to be the past. Similar to the first analysis, there are different strands to show different settings and times, however there is no clear definition between times and the video jumps from one to another at a relatively fast pace.
Discontinuity shots (such as montage editing)
Unlike Hollywood films which will follow the conventional continuity editing in order to keep the plot clear and simple for the audiences to understand. It is extremely popular, and conventional, for music videos to use techniques such as montage editing and cross cutting to 'jumble' up the order of the shots in order to show many of the different strands and plots the video might be showing.
Discontinuity shots (such as montage editing)
Unlike Hollywood films which will follow the conventional continuity editing in order to keep the plot clear and simple for the audiences to understand. It is extremely popular, and conventional, for music videos to use techniques such as montage editing and cross cutting to 'jumble' up the order of the shots in order to show many of the different strands and plots the video might be showing.
In the example above, the discontinuity editing has helped to create the sense of panic, lack of control and knowledge of time/place. This helps the audience to understand the song, as it emphasises how she is feeling with being drunk/high and almost makes the audience empathise this as they begin to feel as confused as she is.
Visual hooks
Visual hooks are where non continual shots are linked by a single feature
Sometimes all elements are the same, and sometimes one is more dominant/they are different
clarity-
In the example shown above, there is a main plot (which is the artist singing and the plot that revolves around her) however there are a mixture of different shots and elements with new colours, animations and video styles.
