RESEARCH: Carol Vernallis Theory

Carol Vernallis
Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context (2004)

Carol Vernallis studied editing and camerawork in music videos. She observed that edits in music videos come much more frequently than in film, that many stand out as disjuncture and that the editing seems to have a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song. 


Main observations:
- the usual rules of continuity editing (usually found in broadcast fiction) are broken in order to draw attention to what is on screen;
- edits may be really obvious to draw attention (wipes and special effects)
- jump cuts are used very often
- a master shot (base track) is often used to give the video a structure
- the camera may move in time with the music

A video which illustrates the views of Carol Vernallis is Jessie J's 'Do It Like A Dude':

In this video, the camera moves a lot, and in time with the music. There are a lot of obvious edits, jump cuts and base tracks are used to give the video a structure (it comes back to a shot of Jessie J singing alone looking at the camera, or to a shot where she dances and sings with a group of dancers behind her). Therefore, the rules of continuity editing are broken, as there is no story to the video, but the viewer will interpret the images themselves.