Vernallis Analysis

Marine and the diamonds



Narrative: The music video cuts in time with the soundtrack. The video suits the style and the
look of the artist too. There is not necessarily always a balance between narrative and performance
The narrative is not always complete- it may be a partial, fragmented narrative
The structure of the video may appear disjointed
This is typical to the pop genre as it relies heavily on the artist’s performance rather than a story-line  The different scenes are incomplete/ disjointed and do not really tell a story, conforming to the ‘quirky’ indie.

Editing: Editing may match the musical phrases or the beat
The video in general cuts to the beat of the music or in time with the lines in the song to run fluently alongside the music. Every movement, action or cut in the visuals fits with the rhythm of the soundtrack.
For example, in the space of ten seconds in the video (0:40-0:50) there were ten cuts averaging at approximately one per second, in time with the beat. The video may disrupt/ break many of the ‘rules’ of continuity editing- this is a clear convention of music video editing
This music video breaks a lot of the rules of continuity editing. It uses features in the visuals such as jump cuts or complicated transitions to make the editing more of an obvious aspect to the music video than continuity editing normally would.

Camera: When it comes to shot types, extremes are very common

Extreme shots are common (extreme close ups) however aren’t as common as mid shots and close ups, familiarising the audience with the face and look of the artist. The style of framing and movement may run through the video and be distinctive to that vid 

A lot of panning/ turning shots using mid-long distance to match the ongoing

action and movement of the artist and scene.

The camera may move in time with the music

The camera may move on the lyrics

The camera moves and cuts in time in this video, either to the time of the lyrics, or the rhythm of the music

Diegesis:

The diegesis may be revealed quite slowly

This video is unconventional in that it is based completely on performance, basing the visuals more on running themes of the video rather than a plot or narrative.

e.g. Eccentric styling and themes throughout

Actions are not necessarily completed- they may be disrupted or interrupted in some way

A lot of the character’s actions are almost random/ confusing and the fact that there are a lot of fast cuts in the video mean that a lot of the actions are cut part way through and then returned to after another scene making some of the actions fragmented or disrupted.

Character or object movements may move to the music

Both the character movements and the camera movements are in time and rhythm with the music, whether its a panning shot or the character twirling around in a scene to add more fluency to the video.