Research: Vernallis' theory on music videos

During Carol Vernallis' time during study, she observed music videos in close detail for their use of editing and camerawork. Her observations had aided her in coming to several conclusions about music videos, such as editing appearing much more frequently within music videos as opposed to films, and appear as disjuncture edits rather than editing to encourage continuity. She also observed that editing has a rhythmic connection to the song, for example, having cuts in time with the beat.

The main points of Vernallis' theory based on her observations are as follows:

• The conventions of continuity editing are broken, attempting to draw more attention to what is being shown on screen
• Edits are made somewhat obvious, such as wipes, to help draw particular attention to aspects of a video, and often, special effects are also used
• In order to give the video structure, a master shot is used frequently
• Jump cuts frequently appear
• The camera may move in time with the soundtrack

Some music videos below illustrate Vernallis' theory and her ideas about music videos: