Carol Vernallis

Today in class we learnt about Carol Vernallis and her 4 point theory. The 4 points include, Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement and Framing Diegesis.

Narrative

Carol Vernallis when describing her theory suggests that the video is avisual response to the narrative. Therefore whatever is happening on screen reflects the choice of lyrics that the artist is singing. However Vernallis then goes on to say how the narrative may not always be completed and can be partial with the video appearing disjointed, disconnected and appear in fragments. The video has something driving it forward but this may not necessarily be the narrative, it could be the music itself or other elements in the video. However if the video is left uncompleted it can lead to many questions about the narrative that wont always be answered throughout the video. Finally although the video may have a theme or narrative, it is probably displayed in a montage style, rather than in one clear focus.

Editing

Carol Vernallis states that a clear convention of music editing is that the video may disrupt or break the conventions of continuity editing. The editing may also be brought to the foreground, become visible and not hidden apposed to the invisible style of continuity editing. Meaning the video will have a style of editing running throughout that is distinctive to that video.

Camera Movement 

Carol Vernallis states that establishing shots are one of the key camera features of a music video and are used frequently throughout a music video as well as close up shots. The style of framing of the video again is quite distinctive to the video and also the camera may move in time with the lyrics. Extreme shots also known as master shots are also very common.

Framing Diegesis

Diegesis in terms of media the diegesis is the world of the music video. Carol Vernallis explains how the diegesis will be revealed quite slowly. The actions in the video wont always be completed and may be disrupted in someway. There will be many repetitions throughout the video and some frames will appear more important than others due to the way they have been shot/framed.