Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory: Part II

Goodwin stated that there are five key aspects that are used to contribute to a successful music video.

1.) Thought beats - where you 'see' the sound. 

Goodwin categorized this key aspect in three steps:

2.) Narrative and Performance 

Goodwin stated that music videos should avoid the common narrative as their role is more to advertise than become a story. The artist will therefore become both a participant and narrator within the music video to increase its authenticity for the audience.
Lip synching and other actions featured in the video increase its verisimilitude and therefore prevents the audience from disbelieving the narrative/performance.

3.) The Star Image

Goodwin identified that the star image is another key aspect within music videos. He believes that an iconic star image can increase the audience's awareness of the artist and can therefore show a development of the star over time which will increase the audiences interest in their videos.

4.) Relation of Visuals to Song 

Goodwin categorized three ways in which a music video works to promote a song:

1.) ILLUSTRATE: This is when a music video can use a set of images in order to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and represent the genre of the music video. This is commonly used as it is easy yet effective. 

2.) AMPLIFY: Goodwin stated that this is when particular meanings or effects of the video are shown throughout the video in order for the audience to generate their own interpretation of the visuals and become engaged in what is on the screen. 

3.) DISJUNCTURE: This contrasts the previous step and Goodwin identified that in some music videos the meaning of the song is completely ignored and there is no reference to the lyrics. 

5.) Technical Aspects of a Music Video

This key aspect identifies the different considerations when creating a music video to ensure its visual success, these all relate to any piece of film:

CAMERA: This includes camera movement (e.g. panning, tracking, hand held...) camera angles (e.g. low angle, high angle, point of view, over the shoulder shot) and camera composition (e.g. rule of thirds. depth of fields). 

SOUND: This includes the pace of the song and its pitch, These all change with the different types of genres within the music industry, e.g. rock/pop.

MISE-EN-SCENE: This includes, for example, the location of the music video, the costume, the artist/characters are wearing, the make-up people are wearing and many more to ensure it is believable. 

EDITING: This is the effects added to the clips of the film in post production. This can change the pace of the film clip and ensures the audience remain interested in the visuals.