CAROL VERNALLIS’ THEORYTHE KINDEST CUT

Harry Devonport

COMPARISON OF EDITINGVernallis compared the styles of editing used in music videos to that used in Hollywood films. The main difference found was that in music videos the editing is very scattered, with the narrative following no real path, whereas in a Hollywood film continuity editing is used and it is shown in a chronological order.

MUSIC VIDEOWhen comparing the two types of editing, Vernallis found that conventional music videos are edited and structured in a certain way:

A music video contains multiple incomplete or obscure storylines, none of which are brought to a close by the end of the video.

The order of the shots are unconventional. The video appears to cut freely between scenes with no real order.

To link the different shots together visual hooks are used to create graphic matches, allowing the different scenes to flow.

The time, space, characters, and the narrative are not fully revealed to the audience. The music video often starts during a set of events, and the audience doesn’t need to know where about the characters are or what time it is.

The different elements that make up a video (Editing, Cinematography, Mise en Scene etc.) are sometimes equal in terms of dominance, however sometimes one element stands out much more than the others.

The video can appear very discontinued, especially in the pop genre. They tend to focus on the artist, and draw away from the narrative to help try and promote the star.

HOLLYWOOD VIDEO

Compared to music videos, Hollywood films followed their own type of editing, which generally is much more conventional and continuous.

The narrative of the film follows a clear path and order, allowing the audience to be drawn into the films world.

The order of the shots are conventional, following the typical shot order e.g. Establishing shot to a long shot, followed by a mid shot.

There’s a unity of time space, and the audience are able to understand where the characters are and the reasoning behind their actions.

PHANTASMAGORICAL BODY

Varied shots of the artist’s body will encourage the consumer to piece together a perfect person out of the different parts they are shown. This is called a phantasmagorical body and is done by not showing the audience the artist’s whole body, but rather smaller parts of it. This is often used in a pop videos, to try and create a lot of sex appeal for the artist.