Similar Music Video's and their Conventions

In this post I will talk about the Conventions we have decided to use in our Music Video, and similar Music Videos and Artists that have also used them. Most of the examples I will use are a good representation of the Indie Genre, although they all may have their individual sub-genre's.

Narrative within the Indie Genre
In many Indie Music Videos there are a combination of performance and narrative; the narrative is mostly filmed in a contrasting and dissimilar location the where the performance footage is based; an example of this is in One Night Only's 'Say you don't want it', where the narrative is in the city and is busy, and the performance is on the roof of the building, just outside the city, where it is free and empty.

To complete and apply this Convention of narrative theory to the music videos, I have found a narrative in the Indie Genre in which I can analyse and make sure we can attract the audience in the same way.

In Kate Nash's Music Video for 'Foundations' I found that the lyrics link to the action is the scene, such as when the lyrics ' and I know that I should let go, but I can't...' are sung the couple are holding hands until the words 'let go' are sung. This links to an aspect we were interested in applying as in our lyrics when the singer says 'go to sleep my love...' the female character of the relationship in the video will be laying on the bed and a close up of her eyes closing will be filmed. The narrative is represented as a casual, average day, in which our scene will be as firstly the average day of when they were together, and now when they are apart; the Artist 'Kate Nash' is singing to the camera, whilst getting on with her everyday life.

Editing Technique- Overlay
As we have decided to create an overlay of scene's in the middle of our Music Video to show the Artist
singing alone, and the overlay of a previous time when the characters spent their time together there happy.


Olly Murs song 'Dear Darlin' is a perfect example of when this is used, as he uses an identical location but overlays him and his ex-girlfriends past times and fun they have shared in that location whilst he is singing alone of the bed about losing her. From this video you can tell that this Music Video is effective as the similar narrative and love story can be represented by this technique and help the audience understand the emotions involved in the song, which links to the Artist himself. To complete this in the most professional way possible we would have to film twice in the same location, with the camera running throughout; after we would have to edit it on final cut pro, by cutting, overlaying and tweaking the opacity of the image to make it subtle and appear a memory.

Editing Technique- Filter/ Camera use
The effect we want to portray in our music video is that of a warm and comforting video, despise the narrative behind it. The hue we want to create it that alike the colours and hues in Ben Howard's video, 'Keep Your Head Up'.

The filter of this video creates a more exciting feel to the Music Video and draws the audience in to watch for the rest of the song.

Another convention of the music video we are using are the different Camera shots we will use, in which will make, what could be, a boring love story into something more eye-catching and emotional. This is used in the Music Video on the left when the character is sliding down the water slide, the worm view perspective, the handheld showing shots of the reaction shots whilst sliding down the hill, and the birds-eye view assist the video in having a more exciting aspect and captures the listeners attention.





Lip- Syncing
The use of lip-syncing was important for us as the narrative will be happening around the Artist through an overlay and the 'average day' happening around him; the song in which is being used diagetically.

The Artist Daughter uses this is their song 'Still' this was influential and a linking convention to our Music video as the use of the artists image being presented on the T.V and the narrative working around it reminded me of our Artist sitting and having the narrative around him. This is effective due to the creativity but the unhappy narrative explains and shows the audience the details.







Binary Opposition Urban and Nature
The use of the Binary Opposition will be used due to the contrast we will use of the Urban and natural setting. This convention is used in Ben Howard's 'Only Love' video.

We firstly see Howard riding his bike, at a low angle capturing the power and the sunlight through the tree's. A jump cut is then used to show an urban setting in which the cuts are in time to the beat of the song, this adds interest and the audience want to know where the character will end up, why and for what? This is a convention that we are going to use.

Outdoors/ Guitar/ Urban-Natural

John Mayer's Video, 'Queen of California' contains all three of these factors which we are interested in using within our video, we know we want to incorporate the outdoors and the guitar; an idea of binary opposition and a contrast of an urban-natural setting is an idea we liked. As you can see on this Music video the guitar features at the start, and as he is walking through the streets it changes to walking through a forest; his outfit and accessorizes change throughout this also, which I found very exciting and fun.

Mise En Scene... Male/Artist Costume Ideas

Danny is playing the role of the main character and the Artist, Mike Dignam. His image throughout will be important in our music video and photo's for our Digi Pack.

In order for him to look authentic our group has started to look into different clothing ideas' for our chosen Indie Artist, with this in mind, the clothes he wears are an important factor of this image. Indie/ Indie Acoustic artists wear a laid-back and effortless look which may have come from a selection of vintage shops, such as Rokit and Beyond Retro. Our group decided to look at ASOS, Urban Outfitters Renewal section and the international fashion social site, LookBook. Below is a selection of looks our group has found to express and present the style in which our Artist will be dressed.

Danny will definitely be wearing the typical Indie Style such as this outfit establishes on the left. The dark jeans such as these are a brilliant base trouser to work with and style; the black vans are also a casual aspect of the typical indie style. The buttoned up shirt is a stereotypical item of clothing for and Indie artist to wear, so we will be sure to use this. We used the different items on the clothing website, such as ASOS, to create the perfect look for our Artist; due to the full outfit not being right or working for our Genre.


We have decided to stick with the colour palette as being quite earthy with clothes that represents the natural and casual of aspect of Indie, such as: navy's, dark green, grey, black and blue's.





Another outfit my group put together is the one on the left, again this establishes the colour palette that we believed was appropriate for the Genre. As you can see layering is a big part of the Indie image, through the use of tee-shirts, shirts, jumpers and coats; a specific and very popular item that is worn is the Parka Jacket. The skinny jean and baggy top look is also worn quite a lot in the indie scene, along with brogues or desert boots for the footwear.

Due to us using the Artist, Mike Dignam, we wanted to make sure we kept his personal style as this is very important for his look, and his fans. Through the research I see that he wears a lot of denim, a short sleeved t-shirt or rolled up sleeved, buttoned up shirt. A guitar is also going to feature in the Music Video so we want the style of the outfit to match the style of the music, and acoustic feel of the Indie Genre.

Indie Digi Pack... Back Cover