Research: Theory of Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis studied camerawork and editing in music videos in which while observing she found that there was more editing in music videos than in film. As well as the visualisation in videos, the editing i.e. cuts would closely relate to the beat and meaning of the song. 

A lot of the time, the rules of continuity editing are broken in music videos in order for the viewer to pay closer attention to the artist or what is shown on screen. 

Edits may also be extremely obvious in order to capture the artist such as fades and wipes.

Here is an example of this:

RIHANNA - RUDE BOY

The use of edits are apparent throughout this video, much of the editing is done through using a green screen room rather than a specific location. 

A master shot, which is also referred to as a base track is used to give the music video structure. In the example below, there is various base tracks used:

JENNIFER LOPEZ - GET RIGHT