Rock Music Video Conventions

• MISE-EN-SCENE: Rock music videos often have a story or meaning to them which is intertwined with the performance element of the band performing their song. The performance aspect of the video is usually done on a stage performing to an audience. 
  The lighting of rock videos are often low key dark lighting, producing lots of shadows. This can help to convey to dark, rebellious atmosphere of the rock music genre. Strobe lights are also usually used to create stand out moments in the video. Nirvana's music video for Come As You Are is a good example of this as it uses lots of low key lighting and shadows to portray the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the song.

The location of the music videos are often set in dark, grungy looking places and are usually at night. 

For their costumes, artists and actors normally wear dark clothing however they main contain small elements of colours in order to portray emotions. Such as red used to portray angers or love.

• CAMERA WORK: Often the lead singer of the band will be the main focus of the camera work as well as including shots of the audience in order to portray the lively atmosphere of a rock concert. To accentuate the atmosphere a hand held camera is often used to create the sense that the audience are at the concert as this would be similar to what they see. Close ups of the instruments they are playing are often used in order to emphasise they many of the band members have the ability to play an instrument as well as sing which can accentuate their talents to the audience. By making the artists appear impressive this also has the potential effect of making the song also appear impressive. An example of a music video including many close ups to portray the bands talents is Stereophonics Mr Writer.

• EDITING: Often the editing of the rock music video reflects the narrative. For example if the video is portraying anger the editing may be fast in order to reflect this. Because rock music is commonly fast paced, straight cuts are usually used so that frames can change in time with the beat.