1. Narrative
2. Diegesis
3. Cinematography (camera movements and shots)
4. Editing
I will apply this theory the music video Eminem - Not Afraid because it's a rap video and will be used as inspiration for my music video because of its use of editing.
Narrative
"A music video is a response to the song and lyrics not the other way around. The video should support the song and lyric meanings but artist should remain dominant. This is to appeal to the audience. There does not need to be a balance between narrative and performance. A song can have a full narrative or full performance. A lot of the time, performance takes prominence in order to showcase the star."
Contrary to what Vernallis says, there does seem to be a balance between performance and narrative. Infact, the line seems to be blurred because sometimes the performance starts doing the narrative and vice-versa. I think this music video is a perfect blend between performance and narrative because you can understand what is happening and what the narrative is but also get a very powerful performance from Eminem. You can really feel the energy that he is putting in from the music video as a whole.
Diegesis
"The world inside the video. This is revealed slowly allowing interventions and a story to develop over time. Repetition is key in music videos because it allows the artist to get a message across through the concept of quantity. It means they can create a world for their song through the video."
This is a perfect example of diegesis. Throughout the music video, the world inside the music video is very much like real life. It primarily consists of Eminem rapping in two separate locations, the city and a basement. The edits cut between the two and the audience don't expect anything weird until halfway through the video where it's revealed that there is a cliff at the end of the city. This is built up incredibly well and subverts audience expectations.
Cinematography (camera movements and shots)
"Extremes are very common with establishing shots, even if they are extreme close ups. Music videos try to avoid shots such as mid-shots. Styles of framing and movement through through the video."
This contradicts Vernallis' theory because there are plenty of mid-shots throughout the music video. Extremes are rarely seen if at all. Even the establishing shot is just a casual long shot. There are no establishing shots of a city which is normally very typical of rap videos to do establishing shots of cities. Styles of framing and movement do run through the video but in an unconventional way. There is a variety of camera shots and angles, very unpredictable and keeps the audience interested.
Editing
"Editing will sometimes match the instruments or beat linking visual images. The audience realise the beat links with visual images and they relate this to other aspects of the video. Music videos constantly break or disrupt rules of continuity editing."
The editing is the best part of the music video. It does not match the instruments or beat, but rather the lyrics. Usually at the end of each line, there is a cut. There are cuts when he emphasises a certain word. Eminem is the one who matches the beat with his performance, not the editing. Therefore the audience will realise that the editing links with the lyrics rather than the beat. Continuity editing is heavily disrupted because the starting frame and the ending frame is exactly the same but in reverse therefore the end of the video can be mistaken for the start of the video. Very cleverly done and not typical of rap music videos at all.
Mise en scene: The lighting is quite low-key because there is a dark shade even when he's outside, the music video only becomes high-key at some points when the sun is rising and we see the sky. But throughout the music video, the lighting is low-key. This correlates to how Eminem's personality is rather dark and affects the world around him however he feels the nature is pure which is reflected in the bright lighting the appears.The locations are mostly the same, varying from a basement, to the city, to a rooftop. The location changes with each verse and the chorus is almost always in the city which correlates to how Eminem grew up in the city and lives in the city, it doesn't make sense for to be in a rural area.The clothing that Eminem wears is mostly the same throughout with a black leather jacket, typical of a rap artist. Black having connotations of power, sin and impurities, these are all words that are associated with Eminem. His facial expression is also very serious, never smiling because the tone and lyrics of the song are very serious and talks about Eminem's life.
Sound: Mixture of non-diegetic and diegetic sound, his narration at the start of the music video is definitely diegetic. However when he is rapping, it could be debated whether it's diegetic or non-diegetic. The song are also synched with his mouth therefore if the song is non-diegetic then someone had to sync up the song with his mouth movements.