What makes a good student music video?

A good student music video has shooting material that is appropriate to the task set and suits the genre of the music chosen to be the song for the music video. The camera will be controlled and not shaky unless it is deliberately a hand held shot that intends to be slightly canted or shaky if someone is supposed to be drunk in the video and you are seeing something from their perspective. There should also be a variety of shot types for example a long shot, close up, extreme close up, mid shot etc. This is so you can see characters emotions or what is going on in the background etc. Sometimes long shots may be good to see dance routines also. The editing must be good in a student video. This will include some transitions, cuts that work well and don't cut to something irrelevant. The text saying the song title and performer will need to be in a font and colour that suits the song genre and the artist. Other effects if used such as black and white will need to be appropriate to the song and if special effects are added it still needs to be clear what is going on in the video unless there is a blur added so you deliberately cannot see what it going on in a shot and it will become apparent what happened later on in the music video. The sounds and music will need to be appropriate and the syncing of the music to the visuals will need to be synced well so that the lip syncing is in sync with the music and looks realistic like the actor really looks like they are singing that song. If a student uses the key elements of a music video including narrative, concept (symbolic or thematic) and performance the music video will also hopefully be a good final product because real music videos in the music industry also use these elements.

A good example of a student music video is one made for the song 'when I was your man' by Bruno Mars. Although this student music video is definitely missing out on the there being an artist present in the music video and lip syncing the narrative, shot types and the editing is very good. This is because it is clear that the video works from the end backwards and shows the night from the end to the beginning and how it was good at the beginning. It follows Todorovs theory of equilibrium for the first three stages but backwards so at the end of the music video there is the recognition of disruption and that he should have treated her better, during the middle of the music video there is a disruption where he makes the mistake of ignoring her and at the end of the music video (but the beginning of the night) there is the state of equilibrium and they have photos together. The editing is very clever as the whole video runs backwards just the like the  real music video for 'The Scientist' by Coldplay. There are many different shot types including close ups, long shots, mid shots etc and from different angles.

 




Mid
Shot












Close Up

Long Shot



When I create my music video I will need to consider the editing, camera work, sound, mise en scene, the narrative, performance and concept that will be in my music video to ensure the music video will look as good as industry standard music videos and be realistic as this will make a good student music video.