1. Analysis of ‘If So’ by Atlas Genius
Genre elements Conventions
Characters –
representations,
stereotypes, behaviour,
body language, specific
actors/stars
There are 4 main characters in this video, three of them being the members of the band
and the last one being a female that stars in the video. The characters are all represented
as being quite happy and fun loving because in many shots they will be seen smiling or
laughing. All characters are wearing very modern, contemporary clothing showing that
they all are very in touch with their fashion which is very stereotypical for an indie band.
Narrative events –how is
the narrative ordered and
structured? Can character
types or other narrative
elements such as
opposites/ stages of
equilibrium/disequilibrium
be applied to
photos/video?
This particular music video is conceptual the screen is split straight down the middle is
almost every shot and both sides will be a shot from a different location at a different
time even though they filmed and edit the music video in a way that makes it appear like
the characters or objects in each shot are interacting with one another. This technique is
very effective in engaging with the audience because it is a hard concept to grasp and
believe in because the audience will know it cannot be real, although the video makes it
appear as though it is.
There is no real order to the shots because they are all so random it can go from a shot
taken at night to another shot taken in the middle of the day at any point in the video.
There is also no set style to all the shots, for instance at one point in the video there may
be two shots, one with a character in each and then two shots one with a landscape in
each.
This particular music video is quite original which also helps engage the audience,
although on a whole the conceptual style of video can be seen in many different music
videos within the indie genre because it is like an art form and many of the bands and
artists involved within this genre all see themselves as having created pieces of art when
they make a music video.
Iconography – props,
symbolic
codes/fonts/colour
schemes
Some of the iconography includes the very contemporary clothing that we see all the
main characters wearing because from the clothing alone you could recognise what
genre of music this video fits into.
There are also many brightly coloured backgrounds to the shots in the video which is
conventional to conceptual indie music videos. All of the locations are in very interesting
places and there is never a dull shot making for a very bright colour scheme which is
again very stereotypical for the indie genre of music.
Setting- mise en scene in
moving image/photos
The setting for this video takes place all around the world although the various shots are
taken from a magnitude of different locations and it would be hard to put just one label
on the ‘setting’ for the video. What can be said about the setting is that many of the
shots are taken in places that appear very sunny which brightens the mood of the video
and this uplifting mood is conventional for indie music videos.
Technical and audio codes
– camera use, editing,
lighting, diegetic/non
diegetic sound, sfx/page
layout: the Guttenberg
principle/rule of thirds
The editing used constantly splits the screen vertically so that two shots are displayed
and they are edited in a way which makes the characters/objects in each shot appear to
be interacting with each other. This layout of two screens at once makes the video very
interesting for the audience to watch.
All of the sound for the video is non-diegetic because it comes from the music track and
the video is not a performance style video.