The document discusses conventions in indie music videos and how the author both followed and challenged conventions in their own music video. Some conventions discussed include bands wearing casual clothing, using minimal props, incorporating various camera angles and editing techniques like thought beats. The author also discusses how they incorporated conventions but added their own flair, like using bright colors. They summarize how they approached elements like the digipak, poster, and website design in a way that both referenced conventions and added their own personality.

1. After researching into indie band videos I both challenged and followed their
conventions in my own music video.
Clothing and props: Typically in indie music videos the band wear casual/cool
clothing for example both the arctic monkeys and the 1975 wear dark clothing
with their lead singers wearing leather jackets giving them a cool persona. I got
my band to dress in more casualstyle clothing adding their own personalstyle
as I wanted their personalities to show. Indievideos tend not to use props as
it’s cheesy and they are all abouttheir music. The band will always been shown
with their instruments at somepoint in the video, I do this a lot on my video as
I wanted my bands love of music to show. Going againstnormal non prop
conventions my video included brightvibrant paint, something that also goes
against the constantblack and white themes seen in videos such as Arabella by
arctic monkeys, I took a huge inspiration fromGirl by The 1975 a video that
pokes fun at indie band conventions.
Camera angles and editing: indie videos tend to use a rangeof camera angles
including hand held shots giving them a rough around the edges feel I used this
a lot in my video particularly with the camera phone footage something that
hasn’tbeen done in other indie videos but I felt it showed the personalities of
my band something I constantly wanted to do as indie bands tend to show off
their cheeky side. The star image is also a common usein indie videos showing
the lead singer in close ups or central in a group shot, the 1975 do this in their
girls video. Itis also common to show a close up off the drummer playing his
instrumentor of a guitar being played as again indie bands are all about the
music. A long studio shotis also a convention of indie videos as this shows the
band playing their music and the simplicity of the studio goes with their style.
Straight cut editing is the most common formof editing in indie videos as over
complicated cuts wouldn’tgo with their style however thought beats are used
a lot making the visuals go pleasingly with the beats of the track after looking
at two door cinema clubs ‘whatyou know’ video I choseto usethought beats
alongside my paint. Some videos such as Arabella by arctic monkeys play
around the reversing shots and speed of shots, I choseto do this in my video
slowing, speeding a reversing shotwith the powder paint as I felt this both
went with the theme of my band but challenged a typical indie music video.
After looking at walk of earth red hand video I chose to experiment with

2. speeding up my track beforehand filming in a sped up motion and later slowing
it down in editing, when editing I realised my scenes could have been sped of
even more to look more effective in my video but the effect is still there. Black
and white is an obvious theme in indie band videos and is used in most, I didn’t
want to keep my video black and white all the way through so I used vibrant
paint and edited translucent colours over the top of shots to make my video
more interesting and challenge some conventions. I keptthe vibranttheme
throughoutmy video, digipak, poster and website and took a huge influence
fromband the 1975 as they do the same throughoutall their works.
Locations: Indiebands keep their locations simple using low class settings for
example Arabella uses a dingy club for someof their footage. More modern
indie videos tend to usesome formof studio shots as this gives the band an
opportunity to show off playing their instruments without any distractions
around them. The 1975 girls is shotcompletely in a studio. Indiemusic videos
tend to follow one of these three concepts. Number one ‘pureband’ this will
show the band in a studio playing or practising their instruments, it may also
show hand held footageof the band doing normal things. Number 2 ‘pure
narrative’ this video doesn’tinclude the band but is more like a shortfilm,
although this video doesn’tinclude the band it still follows the style of indie
bands for example the arctic monkeys ‘when the sun goes down’ still uses
settings/styles that indie bands aim for. And three both narrative and
performance– this is the mostcommon stylefor indie bands however the
narrativeisn’t always necessarily clear or relevant to the lyrics. I choseto
producea pure performancevideo as my band is all about its music and I really
wanted to show off their personalities. Originally I had three locations to shoot
at but due to problems such as unreliable band members and weather I was
unable to do this so I changed my storyboard slightly still following the
conventions of an indie band but justshooting in the studio. I was worried that
this could get boring so I research pureperformancebased videos and found
miles kane’s video ‘rearrange’ changed the background colour of the studio
throughoutto keep its audience interested I choseto do something like this in
my video as this also followed my theme of adding colour to the video
ultimately breaking the typical indie band conventions.

3. Digipak:In order to create my digipak I researched digipaks of the same genre
to my work, I found that there are two types of digipaks a band can follow
depending on their style as a wholeand the style they wereaiming for within
the songs on that particular album. For example both arctic monkeys self-titled
album and the 1975s self-titled album uses a simple black and white theme
that goes with the almost all black and white videos of their videos for the
album. The vampire weekends self-titled album uses a colourfulchaotic theme
giving the album personality. I choseto do the same with my digipak, I wanted
to show the chaotic side to the band as shown in the IPhonefootagein the
video so chose to place randomand funny items together in the studio I shot
the video in. Items fromthe frontalongside individual screen shots (compare
to the kooks film strips bit) of the band are on the inside of the digipak keeping
a theme flow through the digipak justlike arctic monkeys album with the
cigarettes. I used a screen shotof the powder pain as a background for the
track list and behind the photo booth strips as I felt this was more interesting
than justplain white and linked the video and album together. I looked into
booklets in album covers and choseto include one in my own as I feel this
gives the band a chance to connect with their fans something indie bands are
big on as they havea huge respect for their fans and music. I added sections
such as ‘stupid things we have said’ because I felt this added to the cheeky
funny lads we had seen in the music video something fans would fall in love
with. I kept my CD plain black and simple with the band logo on top in white as
this is something indie bands tend to do, I choseblack because this section of
the digipak is the only one kept in black and white linking back to those
moments in my video and making it stand out. I felt I should include the final
shotof the video on my digipak and websiteas this linked all three together
and is a memorable shotadvertising the band and using the star image to
show off the lead singer.
Poster: indie bands tend not to release posters as it doesn’tgo with their laid
back image however somehave released digital posters to advertisegigs or
albums. I kept the background of my poster black as this is an obvious indie
colour and it allowed my band logo and text stand out. Indiebands identify
with their band logo and include it on almost anything they release as it is seen
as iconic to fans. I used objects of the album cover justlike I did with the photo
booth strips as I felt this connected the two and made it familiar to fans, many

4. indie bands tend to use the album cover but I felt this to be boring. I made the
font of the album title bigger as I wanted this to stand out, I also included the
twitter and website address of the band keeping it up to date with advertising
today.
Website: I looked at websites frombands such as the 1975 and vampire
weekend for inspiration on creating my own and found they don’t necessarily
stick by the black and white convention of some other indie bands websites.
Due to the nature of my music video I felt this would work well so I chose a
bright and almost girly background to my website breaking the dark
conventions. Like the 1975 websiteI kept my band logo in the top left corner.
My album is advertised at the top of the page as indie bands want to get their
music out there, I also included a large black and white picture of the band
playing as like I havestated it’s all about the music. As you scroll down the
homepage you come to the picture from the video and digipak connecting all
three items together. I also included a shortbio on the band as indie bands
audiences tend to be people who wantto know about them and their life the
1975 havea whole page dedicated to writing entries for fans to read and keep
up to date. Below this are the tracks of the album and a picture of one of the
objects of the album cover I wanted to keep this a theme through everything.
The 1975 new album follows a pink theme and so they changed the album to
follow the same theme making it familiar to fans. Below this are tour dates
bands tend to havethese on the homepage as this is a main sourceof income
for bands. Indieband websites always havea page dedicated to their music
including links to videos and whereyou can download/buy the music. The
gallery allows fans to feel connected to the band indie fans tend to feel a
strong connection to the band as see them more as friends something indie
bands aim for. Finally at the bottom of my page I havecontact information,
every bands website has a page for this as it’s an easy way to advertise and
makes it easier for fans to get in touch. My website follows many conventions
of a modern indie band and keeps with the theme of my digipak and video.