Carol Vernallis Article

CV says the camera in MV seems to mimic the way we view sonic space…do you agree? Do you think we are conditioned by MV to read sonic space in particular ways?


She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However this is predefined for us by the Director – we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director’s choice than we do in film – do you agree?
I agree to a certain extent as it is completely up to the director as to how they make the video so that the audience sees it a certain way. However, most videos usually leave the viewing experience up to interpretation and so one person may view the same video in a completely different way to another person depending on various factors such as their life experience or the mood they are in. A lot of music videos have layers of meaning which leaves interpretation open to the audience. However, the director still has control over what we see through the camera and so it can be argued that the director also has control over the different ways the audience may interpret the video to a certain extent.

She says MV experience is more like listening than viewing – do you agree?
Again, I agree to a certain extent as the music would still be effective and a pleasurable experience when listened to alone however, I do think the visuals and the music work together and that the visuals add a further dimension to the music. The visuals need the music to be fully effective and therefore I would argue that the music video experience is more like listening than viewing.

“We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame” pg41 Agreed?
I completely agree with this statement as I can personally remember watching many videos in which much of the interpretation of the video is left up to the audience’s imagination. For instance in the video ‘Like a virgin’ by Madonna, we assume after seeing Madonna being carried and laid on a bed by the man that they have had sex but of course are not shown this.


“The body, the camera and the editing thus build a kind of momentum that can carry the viewer through a video” pg41
I think all elements of a music video work together to have the desired effect on the audience and therefore the three are also used to move the music video forward for the audience.

“The mechanisms that draw us forward and keep us at a distance exist in constant tension in music video” pg42
I think this is sometimes true to music videos, mainly those that are narrative or concept based. Perhaps because music videos are made for different interpretations, they are able to send out two messages at the same time of an opposite effect.

“Music videos break down visual, lyrical and musical elements to the smallest constituent parts – a prop, a colour, a gesture, a few words, an intriguing riff” pg42
In my opinion this statement is very true in most videos I have seen. This is particularly true for me in the video for the song ‘I’m yours’ by Jason Mraz. In my mind, I associate the artist with what I have seen of him in this video. I can remember small gestures such as his hands bobbing up and down in a low angle shot to the camera and also pointing to his guitarist during the line ‘I’m yours’. These small elements help the viewer form an image of the artist.


The constant motion in a MV and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point. The MV ‘brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us’ p43 Do you agree?
I think I do agree with the majority of this statement as music videos, particularly those that are performance based, seem to hold the interest of the viewer mainly with those CUs and beauty shots. For instance, a recent music video that comes to mind is ‘Obsessed’ by Mariah Carey in which Extreme Close Ups of her face are used as she lip-synchs. These shots are very effective in bringing the video together as we are taken back to the same shot and therefore giving the video consistency.


Is the viewer sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through editing’?
I think the viewer is made to feel involved in the video through editing. The idea of voyeurism is interweaved into music videos, making the viewer feel as though they are watching through the content of the music video. For instance, a band could be performing on stage or the artists could be looking and singing at the camera and therefore the audience. It is also done through editing as is suggested in the statement below. Through for instance shot/reverse shots the viewer is made to feel special or even directly involved mainly in narrative based videos.

‘A series of sightlines and shot/reverse shots…place the viewer in the position of the protagonist or the privileged viewer’ pg43
This in a way ties into my answer for the last question. This is evident in narrative videos such as ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ by Wheatus. In that video shot/reverse shots are used in the corridor scene when the main boy and girl are walking towards each other. In that case, the boy is looking beyond the camera at the girl and so the audience are made to feel like the privileged viewer. Had the boy been looking at the camera the viewer may have felt like the protagonist.


MV is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective – agreed?
I definitely agree that music videos are more open to interpretation than other forms of media such as films. However this is limited to a certain extent by the director who essentially chooses the way in which we are to see the contents of a shot through the camera which works as our eyes. Although the shots filmed are controlled by the director and cameraman, there is often more than one layer to many music videos and certain aspects are not shown and not made obvious therefore making music videos much more freer.

CV believes the image alone cannot tell the story – do you agree?
I agree that this is generally the case for music videos. I think it is very hard to work out the story of a music video from the video alone without the music and lyrics. For instance, in the video ‘Stole’ by Kelly Rowland, which is a narrative based video, although certain aspects of the story can be worked out it would be impossible to work out the story as a whole. It would be possible to work out that the setting is a school and the focus is at first on a schoolboy. However after this, although you could work out that the dead person in the body bag is the same boy, it would be hard to work out how the other characters that are introduced are related to the story without being able to hear the lyrics of the song.