Carol Vernallis Theory - Experiencing Music Videos

Vernallis is a media theorist and compares music videos to Russian formalist films as they are both very
limited forms of media. 

Russian formalist films had:

- no sound

- no text (because the population couldn't read)

- were short (as there was a lack of silver to create film + was expensive)

This is similar to music videos as they have:

- short duration

- a mostly fixed soundtrack (with some exceptions such as Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' video)

- dominated by close ups and performance shots

There is an intro to both the character's with the changing room and then and intro to their performance.

Having every music video following the same style of shots and video elements lead to a lot of similar videos. The response to this has been various expressive style of editing and experimental camera angles. This provides an increase in visual interest and gives different videos a certain distinctiveness that maintains audience interest and originality. 

With this in mind, it is important for us to question how our music will be distinctive to our artist/ genre.

Dizzie Rascal's Bonkers is a key example of a video that uses expressionistic camera and editing