In the media industry there are certain codes and conventions that certain products should respect or challenge. This post will explain the conventions we used and the ones we challenged when creating our music video.
In pop music videos, there is usually a link between the lyrics and visuals. Pop videos are generally bright and colorful, which is aesthetically pleasing to the audience. The general codes and conventions of pop music videos written by female artists usually include a series of elements that can make them easily recognizable. Pop music videos typically include elements of love and party life. Era's song speaks about her suffering from a breakup, ultimately respecting this convention. Our initial plan for the music video was to add elements of party life, such as filming scenes from a party; however, we were unable to do so due to unfortunate events such as Covid-19 and restrictions.
Furthermore, the setting of pop music videos is critical as it will either attract the teenage audience or not interest them. The location must have some tie to a luxury lifestyle to be appealing, as this is what is trending amongst teenagers nowadays. While we could not film in a luxury setting, we were able to respect this convention with the use of cars in our video. The models portray a 'rebellious' and 'cool' role, taking an expensive vehicle and driving it in a risky manner. The use of cars in music videos is often seen in rap music and is primarily used by males. Therefore we challenged this convention and included it in an all-girl music video.
For editing the video, we decided to keep it relatively simple and not go overboard with too many transitions and edits, and this was because of two main reasons. Firstly, the video editing app we used, CapCut, provides a relatively small number of transitions, and some of them I found pretty cheesy. Secondly, we didn't want to include over-the-top edits because it wouldn't have matched the shots we filmed. However, we tried our best to sync the videos with the song's beat to give a more appealing look. There are various shots in the music video, from wide, mid, and close-up shots to make the video more interesting. The pace of the music video changes often, and the settings do swell. We tried our best to link these together for an effortless look. While we did not necessarily respect cinematography codes and conventions regarding extreme close-ups to show the emotion of the models suffering (from the breakup), we did have them portray the role of ruthless, bad girls that drive cars in a risky manner out of frustration. They run away alone, suggesting their suffering and desire to move on from their past.
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