This document summarizes a student's media studies coursework where they produced a music video for the song "So Far (It's Alright)" by 1975. The student discusses how their music video challenged some conventions of the indie music genre while also following others. Some ways their video broke conventions included leaving the narrative ambiguous and not including a performance aspect. However, they also adhered to conventions through their styling choices, locations, and cinematography. Overall, the student aimed to put their own spin on typical music video forms while still clearly fitting the indie genre expected by audiences.

1. By Georgia McLaughlin

2. For my A2 media studies course work I (with a group of fellow
classmates) produced a music video to the 1975’s So far (it’s alright).
As well as this I also produced a CD Digi pack and an album release
poster. In doing so I believe we used, developed and challenged the
forms and conventions of real media products as we followed some
stereotypes to fit the genre and the song; this being indie rock as well
as trying to put our own spin on videos of this type. For this question I
will discuss how we did this.

3. Firstly, in terms of narrative our music video uses both a fragmented narrative and
narrative enigma to leave the audience on edge and help them come to their own
conclusion. The narrative enigma comes from the unanswered questions though
out, for example leaving the audience to wonder why Darcy is crying and the
fragmented narrative comes when we cross cut between happy memories and
Darcy crying again. This is similar to the neighbourhoods ‘let it go’ music video
which shows the two sides of a suburban housewife. The use of narrative enigma
continues visually on ancillary one as seemingly unconnected images (i.e. a
flower and the artist walking down a winding path) work together to create
meaning and significance.
The neighbourhood – Let it
go

4. A typical convention I found in indie music videos was a happy end to the narrative or overall
feel good story. This was seen in videos such as Coldplay’s ‘Paradise’ and The 1975’s
‘Robbers’. Our video breaks this convention by leaving the audience with no clear resolution
making them sympathise with the girl as they don’t know whether or not she is still with her
abusive ex.
Unlike other indie music videos such as the 1975’s girls and Oasis’ Wonderwall our video
contains no performance aspect. Adding a performance aspect is a stereotypical convention of
indie genre music videos and is featured in almost all of the 1975’s music video.
The 1975 - Girls
Coldplay - paradise
Oasis - wonderwall
The 1975 - Robbers

5. We followed the conventions of the 1975’s past work and the work of other artists of
this genre for the styling of the video and ancillaries as we used an easy to read
white font with large spaces and made all images and footage black and white to
maintain a theme.
Opening credit on real
media products
Use of black and white in real media products
(indie genre)
The 1975 – the city Arctic monkeys – R U
mine?
Ed Sheeran -One Coldplay - Magic

6. Within the mise en scene we tried to maintain the indie style by having the
characters dress in a laid back, casual style; often including checked shirts, denim
jackets, and American apparel style hoodies. This style is popular among teenagers
and is typical of the indie genre. We also did the majority of our filming in or around
Manchester city centre to contribute to the iconography. This can often style be seen
in videos by circa waves.
Our video Circa waves - young chasers
The 1975 – band style

7. Indie music videos often show the artist in the video (such as videos by the 1975
and the Neighbourhood) to challenge this convention our music video did not
feature the artist at all. However I did feature the singer on the cover which is not
usually done.
The 1975
- the 1975
The
neighbourhood
– I Love You
Arctic
Monkeys - AM
Bastille
– Bad Blood
< My CD cover

8. Finally, our use of cinematography was entirely hand held to make it seem more
personal and get the audience involved. This was done in Ed Sheeran’s A-team
video to make the audience feel sympathetic towards ‘Angel’ like we have done for
‘Darcy’
In terms of editing we frequently used cross cuts to cut between narratives to put a
spin on the typical one narrative storyline music video. For the shot in the car we
speed this up to not only fit the beat but also as a pastiche of the 1975’s chocolate
video and the neighbourhoods sweater weather.
The 1975 - Chocolate
The neighbourhood –
sweater weather

9. I believe I have successfully challenged the conventions of a real media product
with the creation of my music video and ancillary projects by putting my own spin
on a traditional narrative. However we have still made it clear what genre and style
it is by sticking to certain conventions that the audience are familiar with (I.E. the
use of black and white).