THEORIST- PETE FRASER 

CAMERAWORK

Camera work is very important in music videos. This includes camera movement, angles and shot distance, which must all be analysed in detail. Camera movement may accompany movement of performers (walking, dancing, etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance, by for instance constantly circling the band as they perform on stage. 

Close up shots are predominate in music videos, which creates a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises the artist and the voice in particular. John Stewart of Oil Factory said that he sees the music video as essentially having the aesthetics of the TV commercial, with close ups being used and lighting being brighter to emphasise the star's face.

EDITING 

Even though the most common form of editing for music videos is fast cutting, there are many videos which use slower pace and gentler transitions to establish mood. This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with a broad audience appeal. Often enhancing the edits are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different viewings for the audience. This might take the form of split screens and colourisation .

STAR IMAGE

Richard Dyer noted a star image is constructed from a range of materials. Fraser supported this through pop music and these materials include the songs, the record covers, media coverage, interviews about the career and private life through to tabloid gossip, live performance, the music videos which may draw upon the image presented in each of the other aspects.

Each video may also draw upon its predecessor both in reinforcing the star's existing image and in taking the image on further, perhaps in new directions.

VOYEURISM

This idea, as suggested from Freud, has been much used in Media Studies, particularly in explain the gendered pleasures of cinema. Broadly, it relates to the idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. It has been argued that the male viewer's gaze at the screen is geared to notions of voyeurism in that it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display.

In music promos, as we have seen the female is on display and has been a staple element through the Scorpions to Duran Duran and beyond.

Goodwin argues that the female performer will frequently be objectified in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing, with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star. In male performance videos too, the idea of voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent with the use of dancers as adornments flattering the male star ego.   

The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music video through a system of screens within screens- characters shown watching performers or others on television, via webcams, as images on a video camera screen or CCTV within the world of the narrative. Indeed the proliferation of such motifs has reached a point where it has become almost an obsession in music promos.

INTERTEXTUALITY 

Broadly, if we see music promos as frequently drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience, we have a working definition of 'intertextuality'. Not all audiences will necessarily spot the reference and this need not massively detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but it is often argued that greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somehow flattered by this.

It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point, since their directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself. From Madonna's 'Material Girl' (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend') to 2Pac and Dr Dre's 'California Love' (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on 'Mad Max') there are many examples of cinematic references which dominate music video. Television is often a point of reference too, as in The Beastie Boys' spoof cop show titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show parody 'Bad Day' (Tim Hope 2003).

For the near future, John Stewart suspects that the influence of video games will predominate for the younger audience with the more plasticized look of characters emerging (as seen for example in Robbie Williams' 'Let Love be your Energy' dir. Olly Reed 2001 and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Californication' dir.Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 2000)

His description of the music video incorporating, raiding and reconstructing is essentially the essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar to generate both potentially nostalgic associations and new meanings. It is perhaps more explicitly evident in the music video than in any other media form, with the possible exception of advertising.

NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE  

Narrative in songs is rarely complete, more often fragmentary, as in poetry. The same is true of music promos, which more often suggest storylines or offer complex fragments of them in non-linear order. In doing this the music video leaves the viewer with the desire to see it again if only to catch the bits missed on first viewing. 

The video allows the audience access to the performer in a much greater range of ways than a stage performance could. Eye contact and facial gestures via the close up, role playing through the narrative and mise-en-scene will present the artist in a number of ways which would not be possible in a live concert.

The mise-en-scene may be used as a guarantee of what Simon Frith terms 'authenticity' as in the stage performance/use of a rehearsal room by a band whose musical virtuosity is their main selling point. It can be important to a narrative-based video to establish setting and relationship to existing film or televisual genres. 

Other commentators have divided music videos in terms of style, though often there will be crossover between these; apart from Performance and Narrative, it is possible to identify at least six: Gothic, Animated, Dreamscapes, Portraiture, Futuristic and Home Movie.