Indie music videos typically feature performances by the band and use camera shots that focus closely on facial expressions to represent the emotion of the song. Mise-en-scene elements like props are used to tell the story and represent the band's style, while lighting enhances the mood of the song. In contrast to mainstream pop videos, indie videos emphasize authentic performances over elaborate narratives and rely less on spectacle to market the artist as a commercial product.

1. Conventions
Bradley Barnes

2. Camera Shots
Music videos tend to include many
close ups, mid shots and long shots.
This is to create emphasis on the
artist, location and emotions. Also
close ups are used not only to show
emotion but to reflect the words of the
song with the movement of the lips of
the artist.

3. Camera
movement
The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace
the artist or band.
Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and
crane shots.
Indie Rock Conventions

4. Mise-en-scene
Costume Lighting Actors Make-Up Props Setting
Props again are how you tell who the
artist is for instance Michael Jackson
wears a white glove on one hand.
Setting can show the genre, for example
is it is a stage or a concert this will mostly
be rock or if it was on a beach it would be
pop.
These are used to express the
artist's style and star image, as the
actors portray the target audience
that they are targeting. Costume is
the way that they express or show
their genre.
Lighting depending on the genre can
be light for pop and dark for rock,
these are the stereotypes.
Make up again is a way by telling who the
artist is for example Lady Gaga always
has dark and over dramatic eye liner.

5. Editing
Jumps cuts is the predominate editing technique
used in music videos. This is because; this allows
a sudden change from one scene to another.
Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are
very common in music videos as they create a
different effect to cuts.

6. Indie Rock Conventions
They are mostly about image, whether it’s about the artist with a particular look or the whole video as a whole e.g. a certain theme
running through it. It is common for the image of the artist and the theme of the video to relate to enhance the overall product.
Indie rock bands and any other type of rock band would usually use a lot of performance in their music video and less narrative
because; a lot of these artists play music for their themselves and not the industry. This is unlike the majority of pop artist that are
treated like a product specifically to make money through sells of electronic music to a big target audience.
Mise-en-scene
They use props to help tell the story
and their instruments when they
perform. The lighting is used to
enhance mood of song and the
colours to represent the mood or
theme of the song. Their costume is
normally dark clothes.
Performance
For indie bands, performance is a key element in
their music videos to show off their energy and
passion to attract an audience to their live
shows. Only very few music videos are only of
performance and vice versa. However, usually a
typical indie rock video would have both a
performance and narrative element. For example
Imagine Dragons Demons is mostly all
performance apart from a couple of shots which
are narrative.
Camera
Extreme close ups are used to show
artist to represent emotion of song
through facial expression. Many
establishing shots are used on the
performance of the whole band.

7. Conventions of Indie pop videos
Typical Conventions
Pop music videos are all about
the artist to sell the song to the
audience. Typical elements to
pop video include; lots of bright
colours, makeup and props. The
pop music to go with the videos
tends to be happy and involve a
lot of dancing. For example
Rihanna is seen to be more of a
sex symbol and this sells more
music to get more money to make
more extravagant music.
Mise-en-scene
The use of bright colours to help
lighten the mood. Lots of makeup
and fashion accessories for
example Katy Perry This Is How
We Do. The actors involved will
normally be dancers that are
quite young which attracts the
younger audience. The setting will
mostly be in a studio, beach or at
a party.
Performance
They mainly use this as this
focuses on the artist. For females
they can either perform sexual or
cute which will appeal to their
fans, for example Miley Cyrus
and Taylor Swift. There isn’t a lot
of narrative within a pop video but
if there is the singer will play the
main character as well, for
example Katy Perry Roar. The
typical narratives are parties,
relationships or break-ups.