Carol Vernallis

By Jacob Mayuga

Narrative

– One key aspect of Carol Vernallis’ theory on music videos, is that videos have a certain narrative and that the visuals link very closely to the lyrics of the song.

– Although the narrative may seem very disjointed and in segments as the video only shows part of the story and may not even have a conclusion.

– A good example of this is with Taylor Swift’s music video “Everything Has Changed” as it shows the story of 2 children and how their friendship develops.

– The overall narrative is quite jumbled showing different parts of the story at a time and the ending not really coming to a conclusion.

Editing

– She theorises that with editing, music videos do not follow the traditional conventions of continuity editing where the cuts between shots are meant to be invisible.

– In fact editing is even brought to the foreground making it seem very noticeable and may even be in sync with the beat of the song.

– A good example of this is in Alan Walker’s music video “Faded” as there are constant jump cuts throughout the video of the hooded man exploring the surrounding area.

– The frequent use of jump cuts really make the audience notice them as they sync very well with the beat of the music.

Camera Movement and Framing– Carol theorises that music videos are specifically framed in various ways. Shots

like, Close Ups, Establishing Shots and Medium Shots are the three main shots that are present in a music video.

– She also stated that the movement of the camera may also be influenced by the beat of the music.

– Coldplay’s song “Hymn For The Weekend” is a good example of how close ups are used to really establish the artist singing and extreme shots are used as master shots and to establish the location.