History and Evolution Of Music Videos Editing Techinques

 The beatles were the first band to really make a big deal out of music videos as they produced black and white short films to accompany their videos such as 'A Hard Days Night' in 1964. They used conventions seen in films such as titles. They used the same technique with 'Help' in 1965. Before CSO/ Green Screen technology the best way to make a video entertaining was for the band to act throughout the video. The technology was rather primitive during these times and thus in camera editing was used meaning shots were often unadventurous as they had to avoid making mistakes at risk of having to start again. In later years linear editing could have been used where the film and audio is sliced up and arranged accordingly.

   The beatles also brought the next big editing revolution into the spotlight, pioneering the use of animation within their 1968 video, Yellow Submarine. This technique featured in more of their future videos and shot them to further fame because of their videos popularity.

  Time and space manipulation was a huge step with regard to music video editing, instead of the previous Beatles videos that would invariably take place during one part of one day, editors had the technology to produce videos that took part over longer periods of time. For example, Coldplay's 'The Scientist' video depicts a man, in one shot, walking down a beach where day turns to night within 3 minutes.

  Music videos which tell a story are still the most popular medium as it is entertaining, easy for the audience to follow but also allows for artistic interpretation for example in Kasabian's 'Club Foot' video, the story of a pirate radio station in a communist war torn country is told.

  Shot combination is a technique used in music videos and helps portray what the song is about. For example in the song 'Born Slippy' by Underworld there is lots of flashing neon shots to emulate the fast paced music.

  The 180o Rule
This rule is used in most mediums of video and film from music videos like Kasbian's 'Underdog' to sitcoms such as 'My Family'. The 180o rule involves and imgainary line, all the action happens on one side and the cameras stay on the other side. This technique helps to ensure the audience does not become disoritentated. A new l80 line can only be established if the line of sight/action changes, then the 180 line must change smoothly.