This document discusses conventions and techniques commonly used in indie pop music videos. It provides examples of how performance, narrative, cinematography, editing, and mise en scene are employed in existing indie pop videos. Performance elements like lip syncing and dance are demonstrated. Narratives may be storyline-driven or abstract. Cinematography utilizes close-ups, camera movement, and varied angles. Editing paces rhythmically or creates abstraction. Mise en scene tends to be simple and location-based with minimalistic costumes and props.

1. INDIE-POP CODES
AND
CONVENTIONS

2. From my previous posts I have shown my research into conventions and form; however
I have also researched the indie pop genre because even with the form of a music
video different genres contain different conventions that make them recognisable to a
certain genre. Some examples of this are say for instance within rock/indie music
videos thy rely heavily on performance, typical shots are usually of band performance
and they give a high energy element within their performance to attract an audience to
their live shows.
For example Catfish and the Bottlemen’s ‘Kathleen’ video shows how these certain
conventions are used in rock/indie music videos as completely the video is performance
of the band. Here are some screen shots taken from the video;
The majority of the shot
types with rock/indie
music videos are
medium close ups,
close ups and wide
group shots of the
band. If the video is not
based solely on the
performance element,
narrative is usually key
as they tend to be deep
compared to pop music
videos because of the
meaning behind the
lyrics.

3. PERFORMANCE
 As I have shown in the previous slide on how performance is used in
certain ‘indie’ genres, I have looked at how performance is used in
‘indie-pop’ because this is the genre in which my artist is linked to
and my video will aim to appeal to this audience.
 Lip syncing is a key convention used within indie pop music videos
here are some examples from existing artists associated with this
genre.
These screen shots are taken from Charli XCX ft Rita Ora’s – ‘Doing
It’, there is clear use of lip syncing throughout the video, especially in
the first screen shot they emphasise the use of lip syncing by singing
into karaoke microphones.

4. PERFORMANCE
 Dance performance can be used within indie-pop music videos, here
is an example of how dance performance is used in Ellie Goulding’s
‘Love me like you do’, the dance element in this video is towards the
end of the video when the actual artist does a choreographed routine
of a contemporary sequence.
Here is another example of how
dance performance is used in Ed
Sheeran’s ‘Thinking out loud’.

5. PERFORMANCE
 Using actors instead of the real artists is often a key feature
used in indie-pop music videos as it creates a real narrative
that is linkable to the lyrics of the song. An example of this is
used in Ed Sheerans ‘Give me love’ when the main
protagonist is actually a female actress rather than Ed
Sheeran himself. Here are some screen shots take from the
video of the main protagonist;

6. NARRATIVE
 Predominately in indie-pop music there is often a storyline followed
throughout the narrative, however some indie-pop artists have
abstract videos. Here are some examples of different indie-pop
artists and how they apply narrative to their music videos.
In Hurts’ ‘Better than love’ there is a
clear narrative to the video, the video is
easy to follow through the use of the
narrative. The video a dramatic affair
set in an highly unglamorous dance
studio that’s filled, with uber-glamorous
people. There is a clear link between
the narrative and the lyrics of the song.
On the next slide are examples of abstract videos from indie-
pop artists.
This video is also example of a
storyline narrative – Crystal Fighters
‘Love Natural’

7. Crystal Fighters ‘Love Alight’ Crystal Fighters ‘Follow’
Princess Chelsea ‘Cigarette Duet’ Princess Chelsea ‘No Church on
Sunday’

8. CINEMATOGRAPHY
 For my music video I am using Ed Sheeran’s song ‘I’m a mess’, so I
have researched his existing music videos and looked at how
cinematography has been used.
 Here are examples taken from Ed Sheeran’s ‘Don’t’;
As shown above a variety of different shots are used throughout indie-pop music
videos. More often close ups are used to show performance of the artists, emotion
or emphasise specific features within the mise en scene. Also camera movement is
important wihtin music videos, specific movements are used such as zooms, tilts,
pans and use a variety of angles as shown in my screen shots.

9. EDITING
 Conventionally in indie pop music videos the editing is rhythmic and
matches the pace of the song, especially if the narrative follows a
specific storyline. However as mentioned before some artists within
this genre like to create abstract videos, they use various editing
techniques to create the abstract look for example, distortion editing,
dissolves, pixilation and overlapping shots.
 Here are some examples of music videos that either have an
abstract or story-telling narrative and how editing is used within these
to get the genre across to the audience;
Ed Sheeran – ‘The A Team’ – Storyline
Lily Allen – ‘ URL Badman’ – Abstract

10. MISE EN SCENE
The mise en scene in indie pop music videos tends to be very simplistic
however can be unique and individual. Locations are usually easily
accessible as the videos are typically low budget, and other aspects
within the mise en scene such as costume, props and lighting follow this
simplistic theme. Here are some examples of existing music videos
within the indie pop genre that have a simple and individual mise en
scene;
The 1975 – ‘Chocolate’ this video is a
prime example of how mise en scene
is used within indie pop music videos.
The main location and setting is set in
a moving car as this is easily
accessible to the band, also in terms
of costume, it is very simplistic and
the main colour worn is black this
makes the audience focus more on
the music rather than the aesthetics
of the video.

11. MISE EN SCENE
Sky Ferreira – ‘Everything is
Embarrassing’
Arctic Monkey – ‘Snap out of it
These two videos are from well known indie-pop artists, I have
chosen both these videos of examples of how mise en scene is
used within existing music videos because both a complete
contrasts in terms of ideology and representing the artists however
they both share similar conventions because they are of the same
genre but portray different ideologies.