RMAs - Ending of Songs

As we had to cut the song of our music promo short, the music ended very suddenly and did not sound right. To improve this, I looked back at my RMA research to see how other indie music videos conventionally finish theirs.


Wild ~ Troye Sivan

The song fades out slowly during this shot and quickly cuts to black before they kiss. This is foreshadowing the next video as part of this trilogy, therefore works effectively in this sense. The elongated last note before the silence while still showing the shot is also significant to the storyline as it adds a sense of longing.
Therefore, for my music promo, I will link it to my storyline and see what themes there are to explore to finish it effectively.


Wake Me Up When September Ends ~ Green Day

This music video ends with a shot of the band playing the song and then finishing- emphasising the end of the song. The shot then fades to black. However, as this video started off with dialogue, it then cut to a pan shot of one of the characters who says dialogue, adding continuity.
As my music promo does not include dialogue, I will not be needing this, but ending on a shot that is significant to the story could also be a effective way to end it.


Born to Die ~ Lana Del Rey

This music video ends with a quick cut to black, rather than a fade. The last shot is a long slow zoom of her hugging the man, which is thought to be suggesting the afterlife - a key shot to the storyline. The cut to black, therefore, can represent life being harsh and sudden.
As the storyline of my music video is quite optimistic and hopeful, I do not think a quick cut to black would be effective to the storyline.


After conducting this research, I found that fade to blacks and the fade in music are significant to indie genre music videos. However, they need to be important to the storyline to represent continuity. As my music video is hopeful and ends on a positive note, I think that a fade transition would be effective as it is more of a lighter transition that ends smoothly, leaving the audience to think about the last shot. The last shot in my music promo is of the main protagonist laying in her bed, listening to her song happily - so a fade will elongate this shot to emphasise it.