All artists and bands use a wide range of music video conventions, styles and techniques to help create a successful and interesting video. I have decided to look at three music videos from the band The Neighbourhood and see which conventions, styles and techniques they follow and use. Firstly, the style of this music video is a narrative and also impressionist. Narrative means that the video tells a story, and this is demonstrated through the women at first being a happy conventional house wife, and then once it reaches the chorus she completely freaks out; therefore this is showing a metaphorical story. This video is also in the style of impressionist meaning that the video isn't all about the meaning but also about the mood and atmosphere. This is demonstrated through the fact that the video has a lot of cutaways showing imagery and looking aesthetically pleasing.
Furthermore, the song 'Let it Go' shows two music video conventions - lyric interpretation and lighting for mood. Lyric interpretation is the convention that means the visuals to a music video match the lyrics of the song; this is seen visually by some of the lyrics being shown on screen as text, for example the phrase "spending pennies" pops up on screen when the singer sings it (see 0:20). This is usually done to add more narrative to a music video, or emphasise a specific lyric to help show the songs meaning. Additionally, throughout all of The Neighbourhood's music videos, they always use lighting to help set the mood. This means that the lighting and colour can be used to help add or create a specific atmosphere. Specifically in this music video, as soon at it gets to the chorus the atmosphere of the video changes to become quite dramatic, therefore the dark lighting helps add to the the ambience as blacks and greys connote feelings such as fear.
A technique that this music video uses is cutting to the beat; this means that every time the the screen cuts to the next shot it is usually on the beat of the song. This technique is definitely seen in this video throughout, specifically right at the start when the singer starts singing. However, it doesn't change every single beat, as this can then become less professional and more robotic and improper. Some shots that are seen in this video are medium shots, this shows the upper half of a persons body, this is seen multiple times of the women seen in the video(see 0:28). This shot is used to show the audience a full scene of what's happening to give the video some content and variation. Also, there are some close ups, this means that there is a full view of either a humans face, or maybe a performer's hands playing their instrument; for example a close up is seen of the women applying her lipstick (see 0:15). The video uses a close up as it shows importance to a specific thing, in this case as it was a close up of the women applying lipstick the band could have wanted to present the idea of femininity and possibly sexism. A camera movement that is used is a panning shot, this is when the camera surveys a scene by turning on it's axis, this is seen when the women is sweeping up (see 0:24). They use this to show movement and keep with the pace, therefore making the video look far more professional.
The next music video of theirs that I watched was for the song 'Sweater Weather'. To begin with, I think the style of this video is also impressionist because it doesn't have much to do with the lyrics, but more so the mood and atmosphere and looking good. This is seen through the use of lots of cutaways to show interesting and tasteful scenes (see 0:23).
The conventions that this video shows is focusing on the performer as well as lighting for mood. Focusing on the performer is a main convention of a music, it means that the music video mainly shows the artist or band using various shots. This music video does it a lot as the majority of the video just shows the singer as well as the whole band. Furthermore, like most of The Neighbourhoods music videos they use lighting for mood, however unlike most of their videos they do not use dark grimacing lighting to create a scary/sad atmosphere, they use a lot of bright lighting which connotes peace and harmony.
Most videos cut to the beat, as it makes it look more professional, and this music video also uses this music video technique mainly during the verses of the song and it does it (jump cuts) quite quickly. This helps keeps to the pace of the video, keeping it upbeat therefore definitely making it look professional. Additionally, this video uses many shots - it has close ups (for example a close up shot of a record player at 0:15), long shots (this is seen at 1:09 of the band members driving a car down the coast) and lots of cutaways throughout. They use the close up to add variation and this keeps the video looking more riveting and keeping the audience interested. As well as this, they use long shots to show a big scene, in this specific example they show a long shot of a car driving down the beach front, they used this because they wanted to show the audience the whole scene and therefore keep with the impressionist style. Lastly, they use many cutaways to keep with the pace of the video, keeping it upbeat and looking fascinating rather than slow and dull. There are also pan shots (for example at 1:24 there is a quick cutaway to a panning shot of someone looking through some vinyls), they use this to add movement making the video look more professional and engaging. They also use tracking shots (this means that the camera follows and object) during the chorus when the band members are driving in their car (1:09). Similarly to pan shots, tracking shots add movement and make the video fast paced and appealing to the audience.
The final video I decided to look at from The Neighbourhood was the music video for the song 'Afraid'. I think that the style of this music video is definitely narrative as at the very beginning of the song we are shown a young boy sitting down and then walking up to some kind of pillar which then proceeds to show various scenes through his eye therefore trying to present some kind of metaphorical story. I also think that the other style of this music video is surrealist (this means that there is a lot of bizarre imagery that can seem unconnected from the song) as it doesn't initially seem connected to the song as it is quite strange as it shows a lot of weird imagery.
The conventions that this music video uses are focusing on the performer, extending a songs meaning and lighting for mood. Like the music video for 'Sweater Weather' the members of the band are shown in the video, however they are not the main focus of the video, there are only short clips of the singer and instrumentalists. Extending a song's meaning is when the music video shows the audience imagery and scenes that can add content and meaning to the songs lyrics; this music video does it as the lyrics can seem quite straight forward at points for example "my friends always lie to me" therefore this gives us the impression that the artist is obviously stating he has untrustworthy friends, however the music video demonstrates this lyric differently therefore making us question or understand the songs actual meaning. Like all of The Neighbourhood's music videos, lighting is very important to them, and this particular video uses lots of dark and dim lighting to present a scarier and depressed atmosphere which clearly fits with the name of the song 'Afraid'.
The techniques that this music video uses are cutting to the beat, and using special effects. Like the majority of videos, this music video also cuts to the beat meaning that on almost every beat the shot changes (particularly when the boys eye blinks there is a new shot shown inside). Furthermore, quite obviously this music video uses special effects and more specifically a green screen; this is seen through the use of the boys eye showing different scenes inside every time he blinks. As well as this, some camera techniques used are a couple different camera shots (extreme close up and long shot). Firstly, an extreme close up is seen of the boys eye (see 0:37), and a long shot is seen at the start of the boy sitting down and the pillar on the other side of him (see 0:09). They use a close up of the eye to make it look unique and bring the audiences attention to it, also they use a long shot of the boy at the start to present a full image to the audience to allow them to gain an understanding on what is going on, therefore fitting the narrative style.Lastly, there is a camera movement of a zoom (this means that the camera moves closer or further away from an object smoothly), this is seen at 0:28 when the young boy is slouching on the ground, the camera slowly gets closer to him. They use this zoom to add atmosphere, it makes it seem tense and slightly surreal, which is fitting for the surrealist style.
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