Music Video Technique

A technique is a skillful and/or efficient way of doing or achieving something. Example music video techniques include lip syncing, cutting to the beat, multi-screen, animation, and chroma key.

Cutting to the beat:

This technique involves having images in the music video cut/transition to the significant beats of the music. This results in grabbing the attention of the audience and emphasising certain lyrics.

An example of this is Believer by Imagine Dragons, in which this technique occurs frequently, especially in the pre-chorus, which can emphasise the build up to the chorus and conflict of the music video.

Multiscreen:

This is when multiple videos are shown on screen all at once, this can be common in bands when showing all members, or to show what's going on when more than one thing needs to be viewed by the audience. An example music video is Talking to Myself by Linkin Park, in which this technique is used to show all aspects of their tour.

Animation:

This technique is a method which can be used to tell stories that you may not be able to in real life. An example of this is Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys.

Chroma Key:

This technique involves using a green screen and adding a new backdrop through editing. This enables the artist to achieve visuals that would be otherwise expensive or unrealistic. This is a technique used a lot in the music industry, and is said to have started from the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and his song Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (1979).

Lip Sync:

This involves the artist(s) miming to the song to give the allusion that they are in fact singing it. This can be seen a lot in music videos. One of many examples of lip syncing is Little Girl by Faith Marie.

Playback and Lip Sync:

This technique gives the effect that everything is in slow motion, however the lip syncing is still in time with the correct speed of the song. The process involved requires the song to me mimed with double the speed, and then once edited it is slowed down by 50%. An example video which uses this technique is People Help the People by Birdy, as the girl is singing at normal speed but everything around her is in slow motion.

Playback and lip sync in reverse:

This technique is similar to the playback and lip sync, however the song is recorded in reverse, meaning the artist has to learn to lip sync the song in this way. An example video is The Scientist by Coldplay.

In terms of my own music video, I want to use playback and lip sync and cutting to the beat, as I feel it could really influence the portrayal of my performance/narrative and is seen in electropop music videos.