I will be starting with Lip syncing in music videos. Lip syncing is when a track is being played and the artist is having to mime it, especially if there is going to be a choreography dance in the music video which means the artist would be exhausted if they were to be singing. Also, artists have to record at studios in order to achieve that professional touch by cleaning the vocals and repairing the faults. However, some editors do not always get the artist's lip sync and the track at the same exact time, by a few mono seconds or so.
I found a bad lip sync by Sumerella at 0:19 as the artist was a few seconds behind the track which isn't very noticeable as the track is running at a slow pace as it's meant to fit into the RnB genre. This is the only bad lip sync i could find as in the modern world everything is made to perfection with new introduced technology and improved computers. Also, this artist is unsigned which means the editing wouldn't have been done by a professional.
On the other hand, i found a good lip sync from the Afro genre, 'Girlie'O' by Tiwa Savage and Patoranking who are signed artists and are huge in the Afro-genre sector. This means they'd have good links for editing and alms perfect music videos, hence why the lip sync is very good throughout despite the dance choreography and moving around, especially from 1:00 to 1:09 were there was also different shots.
The next technique i will be talking about is 'Cutting to the beat' which means each shot goes with the beat of the artist track in time.
The number of cuts also matters when making a music video to make it more effective and fit the genre. For example a 'grimey' track represents energy and somewhat bravery which requires a lot of shots cut quickly to go with the speed garage style.
Special effects work well in upbeat songs fitting into dance hall, Dub and Techno and Rock however other genres try to use special effects which sometimes work. A good example of special effects is shown in Sledgehammer.
A bad example is the music video "with that" by Young thug which had shots of the casts head enlarged and body minimised at about 0:45 which is very unnecessary as especially being a rap song. At 1:12
Camera language is important as it has a huge impact on the audience and sometimes shots in music videos don't make sense or doesn't work with the concept/narrative (which some artists tend to do anyway). I found examples of bad camera language in the song "Luv" by Tory Lanez which is a RnB obvious love song; At 0:45 we can see that there is a long medium shot which was done over the shoulder of extra casts of supposed Tory Lanez but it could've just been anyone wearing his shirt. Also, at 2.41-2.42 we see the artist burying his face on the other side of the female model at a more lower angle, the next shot should've been cut to actually seeing him on the other side in order to allow empathy, for audiences to see how in love he is with this girl he talks about. At 1:25 to 1:30 there is a cut away to the car driving past which is not relevant at all as well as the fact that it is too long this could've been sped up with the X4 feature.
I have used Gyptian's dancehall/Reggae "Nah let go" that has good examples such as at 1:06 to 1:07 where the shot shows them looking back with a close up and at a medium angle which goes with the narrative as they have both just stolen money and are looking back with worry to see if they are being followed which will be clear to audiences. A good use of high angle was used in 1:21 where we see the artist, the stolen money and the model which depicts their sort of relationship to the audience. There is a good use of cuts overall which helped with the continuation of the storyline.
Lastly, Chroma keying is a post production for compositing video streams together based on colour shades by using the green screen which gives a clean key for editors to switch the background with something else. Artists are forced to use this technique as it allows them to include shots which cannot be physically done such as falling from the sky.
The candy land background for Katy Perry's 'California girl' has good chroma keying shown starting at 00:10 where she was walking and first discovering the land, the background was well lit and i think this was accompanied with props which made the location look 3D (or the set could've been set up with 3 walls with green screens) hence the camera panning rightwards. This meant the audience would actually believe that she was in candy land and would indulge in the artists adventure. On the other hand, Riahnna's 'Rude boy' music video is very obvious was done with chroma keying as the artists doesn't fit with the background in certain shots shown at 00:26 and 00:36 which may have been done intentionally to just be a fun and surreal which suits the artist as Rihanna is very creative and out of this world.
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