Carol Vernallis.

Blogging task on Carol Vernallis

Vernallis states that music videos are not continuously edited (i.e contain a lot of jump-cuts) in order to bring focus to a specific occurrence. If videos are fluid, then the focus of the shot may get overlooked by being blended into the next shot, whereas in jump cuts, the audience’s eyes are constantly refocusing onto each shot, bringing special attention to them. This is enhanced through the use of base tracks, where the song is filmed continuously from one angle and scene, being broken up throughout the video, making that specific scene more obvious when it is jumped back to. It is also enhanced with the use of the camera moving in time with the music, so one specific movement is focused on through camera movement. Vernallis also states that a lot of edits and special effects are used to reinforce the attention being drawn to something specific.

In the Black Eyed Peas’ video “where is the love”, jump cuts bring focus to the repeated symbol of the question mark, which is symbolic to the video with the question of “where”.

In Bruno Mars’ song “Grenade” the camera follows Mars as he pulls a piano, which is in time to the music. This follows Vernallis’ theory of having the camera move with the music.

The music video for the song “Niggas in Paris” by Kanye West and Jay-Z has the very obvious “mirror” effect. As Vernallis stated, obvious effects may be used to draw attention to something in specific. In this case, it’s the movement of the artist and the crowd at a live concert, to bring interest and focus to the rappers, as their words are the most important part of the song.