Conventions of music videos

The main conventions of a music video are:
Camera shots:
Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not to only show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.
Camera movement:
The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movement include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.
Miss-en-scene:
This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example of this is 'mad' by Neyo. The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connects the angry and depressed mood. This is just one example of the mise-en-scene used to give an idea of how mise-en-scene.
Editing:
Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.
Some other conventions are:
Lighting:
Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particicular mood and some videos have an artificial lighting effect which is added in the editing stage which put the artist in an enhanced look.
Sound:
Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases as michael jackson-thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.
Props:
These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.