Video Coventions

We took a look at several videos by artists of our chosen genre, for example, Katie Melua, Nora Jones, Eva Cassidy. A common convention is the use of soft focus and colour filters. We found that it commonly used colours like blue, green, brown or yellow. These colours represent a calm atmosphere and are often linked to nature. This is important because the genre of music is usually all about playing acoustic guitar, being in a rural setting and singing about emotions. We think this is a good basis to work on for the music video, as this is what the audience are going to expect.

The settings usually portrayed in this genre are in the forest or countryside. For example in the video "Sunrise", Norah Jones walks into a apartment in a busy city, only to find that she is in a setting of a fantasy world. She is surrounded by paper owls and giant flowers. This creates a fairytale and girlish environment, and seems fairly appealing and calm. This reflects the genre of music, which too is very calm. The common use of green and yellow also gives the message that it's natural and friendly.

As the camera zooms up onto Norah Jones' face, her costume and style changes from reasonable business attire to a dress and styled hair. The filter has changed from grey to a warm red, to give some colour to her appearance.

We plan to use conventions such as this, as it links directly to the song we have acquired, and in turn the genre.