The document discusses how a group analyzed music videos in the indie/indie-pop genre to inform their own music video. They tallied shot types and found mid shots featuring blank/sad facial expressions were most common. They replicated this convention in their video. Their video also included conventions like a love story narrative and unique introduction. While their settings made logical sense, audiences may have expected more unique locations, as changing settings is also a genre convention. Their album packaging and website similarly followed conventions like featuring the artist's face and including forums/ticket information.

1. By Alex Jokovic

3. Whilst researching, our group looked at and analysed various music
videos from other artists within the indie/indie-pop genre. Some the
artists that we looked at are Sam Smith, Bruno Mars and Adele. We also
decided to tally the different shot types that were used in these music
videos, as well as looking at the codes and conventions of this genre.
What we found from tallying up the different shot types used is that
the mid shots was used most, and that the artists faces in most of
these mid shots were blank/sad expressions, often looking away from
the camera in a direction. We replicated this type of shot in our music
video, examples of this can be seen in screenshot 4. Due to facial
expression being an element of that kind of shot, we used it in our
video so that the audience can understand what the artist is going
through by understanding the artist’s emotions, which are presented
by this type of shot.
We did however, go away from this convention in one shot of our
video, as can be seen in screenshot 5 in which we used an aerial shot
of our artist in a church. This shot was used to emphasize the initial
theme of isolation, and him being alone, in addition, the shot adds to
the representation of him as a solo artist.

4. Another convention we picked up from our research into other music
videos was that a love story is often the narrative in music videos of
the indie-pop genre. An example music video of the a love story
narrative is seen in 'Sam Smith - Leave Your Lover'. Screenshot 3 is an
example from our video that shows we implemented a love story
narrative. Also in screenshot 3 is an example that we edited the
portions of the video that show a love interest to be flashbacks, this
was done using the common editing technique of adding a yellowish
filter over the video, making it seem as if it’s in the past. From our
research, we also found that most videos of this genre have a specific
introduction that is unique to that video. An example of this is found
in the music video 'George Ezra - Blame It On Me'. We analysed the
introduction of this music video frame by frame to gain a further
understanding of introductions, and to have better knowledge when
making our own unique introduction.
Our introduction consisted of a black screen, before showing the artist
alone on a stage, our artist then looks up and at the same time, a light
turns on with him in the spotlight, this can be seen in screenshots 1
and 2. This type of introduction was done to emphasize the loneliness
and isolation theme of our artist, in addition to further representing
him as a solo artist.

5. A way in which our music video challenges conventions of the indie-
pop genre is due to the fact that it has zero sudden changes of setting
and that there are no outlandish or uncommon settings used. These
changes would intrigue the audience to wonder, why the change, and
why to that specific location. An example of this would be the music
video 'Sam Smith - Stay With Me', in this video, the scenes go back and
forth from a scene in a house/bedroom to a scene in the street, which
do make logical sense, as he ventures further down the street as the
video goes on. The scene that doesn't make sense in this video is when
the video cuts from a house/bedroom shot to a scene in a modern
church of some sort. This doesn't make sense as there is no reason
shown in the video why there should be a scene in a church.
In our music video, we chose to have our artist in a park in one scene,
and in a church the next, this makes sense to the narrative of our
video as he is shown to be seeking redemption in a church, so he is
there for a reason, and our artist is in the park as he is attempting to
forget the memories he had with his ex. Both the church and the park
are places where the artist can go to leave his problems behind.
Although we used these scenes, audiences may have expected us to
use unique scenes as it is a convention of the indie-pop genre.

6. Both the digipak and the website follow conventions of other
digipaks and websites of the same genre. One way that the digipak
does this is by having our artists face on the frot cover of the
digipak, this can be seen on various artists' album covers such as
Adele, Ellie Goulding and James Blunt. We did differ slightly from
these examples however, as although we included our artists face
on the album cover, it was edited so that the face of our artist is
only seen in the text, and the rest of the cover is white, this is
shown in screenshot 6. A example of an album cover that differs
slightly although not in the same specific way ours does would be
the Ed Sheeran album '+'. In this cover, the artists face is faded out
by orange on the edges of it.
The digipak also had a credits/thanks section, which is common on
digipaks researched. In addition, there are pictures of our artist's
iconic guitar, furthering the image that is being presented and
further attributing the guitar to him. It also has a picture of a
piano, we did this to have a variety of instruments on the digipak
as we felt that having 3 pictures of a guitar would be too boring.
Showing images of instruments on digipaks is also a convention of
this genre when it comes to digipaks.

7. Our website also contained various conventions of the indie-pop genre.
One was the use of a splash screen before you enter the main site which
can be seen in screenshot 8, in order to promote the latest album release
or a forthcoming tour (we promoted our album). An example of this would
be Ed Sheeran's website, in which he uses a splash screen. In the website,
we also included a shop page, in which we sell clothing and bags with an
Alfie Adams logo that was made and edited onto the photos. The logo
specific to an artist is a convention of artists within our genre who need to
promote themselves more. Our logo and shop page can be seen in
screenshot 9. Through research into other websites of our genre, we also
learned that a forums page and information on tickets for upcoming events
is a convention, and so decided to include both in our website. The forums
page allowed fans to communicate to each other on various topics
surrounding our artist and feel more connected to our artist. The
biography also allowed the fans to feel more connected to our artist.
After we saw a lyrics page on Ed Sheeran's website specifically, we also
decided to make our own 'lyrics and albums page' After conducting
research on music magazines, we looked at the big issue magazine and
saw that it had featured Ed Sheeran in a previous edition, when he was an
up and coming artist, much like Alfie Adams is. Based on this research, we
decided to create our own big issue front cover for our artist, which we
included on our website in order to help promote him, the magazine cover
can be seen in screenshot 7.