Carol Vernallis

In her works, 'Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context' (2004) and 'Unruly Media: Youtube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema' (2013), Vernallis identifies 4 key factors in music video production, which are:

• Narrative
• Editing
• Camera Movement and Framing
• Diegesis

Narrative
The visuals you see in a music video are the visualisation of the song's narrative, or at least how a certain person views the narrative of the song. However, this narrative can often be skewed or fragmented, so an audience does not receive the full interpretation, which can often lead to many questions being left unanswered by the music video.

Editing
A common convention of music videos is experimental editing style and often breaking away from traditional continuity editing, through the use of jump cuts, breaking the 30 degree rule, contradicting imagery and often jarring transitions.

Camera Movement and Framing
The two most used shots in music videos are Establishing shots and Close Up shots, due to the nature of these shots being that yo set the scene, and then focus on something specific or get to feel the emotion in the song through close ups. Framing is also very important, because the placement of certain things can often be specific to that music video, creating a specific style.

Diegesis
The diegesis in a music video is often revealed slowly, and actions can often be disrupted or left unfinished. Music videos will often contain repetition of frames, because there is often one theme to a music video, or a piece of footage specific to a chorus that represents the song and is therefore repeated.

Vernallis, Carol. 2004. Experiencing Music Videos: Aesthetics and Cultural Context. Columbia University Press.
Vernallis, Carol. 2013. Unruly Media: Youtube, Music Video and the New Digital Cinema. Oxford University Press.