CAROL VERNALLIS

Carol Vernallis

Vernalis’ theory centres around

4 key concepts

that all relate to the way the music video is constructed.

They are:

1. Narrative

2. Editing

3. Camera Movement and framing

4. Diegesis

1. What does she say about Narrative?

She says that 

The video is a visual response to the music

There is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance

The narrative is not always complete – it may be a partial, fragmented narrative

The structure of the video may appear disjointed

Something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative. It could be the

music, the performance, a mixture or some other element

There may not always be a clear resolution (closure) at the end

The video may pose questions that it doesn’t actually answer 

There may be a narrative or theme running through the video, but in a montage style

2. What does she say about editing?

She says that 

Editing may match the musical phrases or the beat

The video may break or disrupt many of the ‘rules’ of continuity editing – this is a clear convention of music video editing-

Editing may become ‘foregrounded – the edits may be really obvious, to draw attention  to themselves as opposed to invisible, continuity editing