This product uses conventions of existing music video forms by including a mix of live performance, narrative, and visual imagery within the typical 3-4 minute format. It challenges conventions by including more narrative than is typical for indie rock music videos, which usually focus only on performance. The narrative and mise-en-scene have a retro, timeless style while maintaining aspects common to the indie rock genre like simplistic camera work and locations. Elements like diegetic sound, low-fi audio quality, and magazine/album design conform to industry conventions while attempting to stand out.

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES
THIS PRODUCT USE,
CHALLENGE OR
DEVELOP FORMS
AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?

2. There are essentially three parts to a music
video:
• 1. The Performance
When the you see the artists wither playing
their instruments or doing a performance,
like a live concert or even a dance routine
type performance.
• 2. Narrative
When the artists tries to get deep into the
meaning of their song, mainly through visuals
that mimic/match the lyrics of their songs,
even slightly. This is so they show a meaning
between the song and the narrative.
• 3. Concept
This is where the video is shaped by an idea,
rather than a story or performance.
MUSIC VIDEOS

3. Music Videos that have the performance idea in them can be:
• Vida la Vida – Coldplay
• www.youtube.com/watch?v= dvgZkm1xWPE
• Love on Top – Beyoncé
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc
• I will Follow – U2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARNP2x4NnNM
Music Videos that have the narrative idea in them, can be seem in:
• Violet Hour – Sea Wolf
www.youtube.com/watch?v=09t2uFgwDbY
• 16 Military Wives – The Decemberists
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7fzUGR8ZH4
Music Videos that display the Concept idea, are shown in:
• Thriller – Michael Jackson
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

4. • Levi – Strauss says our audience should
be able to relate to, and identify with
our artists. As our music video’s
narrative is just two couples on a day
out, most of our audience would be able
to relate to that, and therefore the
artist, as I’m assuming most of them
have had a fun day out with friends.
CONVENTIONS
OF A MUSIC
VIDEO:

5. • This product uses forms and
conventions of existing music videos, by
sticking to the pre-existing conventions
of this music genre.
• In 3-4 minutes a typical music video
combines a mix of live performance,
narrative, and other visual imagery
including computer graphics and
animation.
• It does this to advertise the band/artist
and song
• Stated by Chris Cunningham and Vivien
Clarke
THE MUSIC VIDEO:

6. • Its common of artists of the indie rock
persuasion to do a live performance for
their music videos, as essentially they are
keeping the focus on the music, not the
other aspects involved in other music
videos. (as you can see on the left had
side, with The Smith, Heaven Know I’m
Miserable Now)
• This is typical of the indie rock artists as
they are all about the music, not the
success.
• However it is becoming more popular to
include a slight narrative side to break up
the shots of the performance, and give
the viewer something more interesting to
watch, therefore making it memorable.
CONVENTIONS OF
THE INDIE ROCK
GENRE:

7. SIMILAR LIGHTING

8. SIMILAR SHOT TYPES

9. SIMILAR SHOT ANGLES

10. • As I said before (Its common of artists of the indie
rock persuasion to do a live performance for their music
videos, as essentially they are keeping the focus on the music,
not the other aspects involved in other music videos. This is
typical of the indie rock artists as they are all about the music,
not the success.)
• We have done this, we kept our video
60/40 toward performance, with
narrative being less. This both uses and
challenges conventions of our genre. It
uses the convention, as it is mainly
performance based, however it
challenges our genre because it does
have narrative in it, which isn’t
particularly common.
• We did choose to use narrative because it
would make our band stand out among
all the other indie rock bands with non-
narrative music videos.
LIVE PERFORMANCE:

11. • We included a narrative side to our
music video, we had a home – made feel
to it, by adding in the camcorder effect,
where the camera work was jagged or
when the actors looked at the camera.
• We also had it very simplistic, by the
fact we didn’t have to pay to use any of
our venues, as they were public places
(Brighton) or we had free access to
them (the school hall and friends
house).
NARRATIVE:

12. • The Mise – en – Scene of the narrative side is
retro, as we made our actors go for the Vintage
look in clothing, with the girls in floral and lacy
clothing and the guys in chinos and jeans, all of
which aren't really restricted to a certain time
period. We wanted this because the idea was
that the music video could have been shot
either yesterday or years before, timeless.
• These all used conventions of the look of the
Indie rock genre , however we slightly
developed them, as there are not many
narrative music videos in the genre.
• We again conformed to the conventions
because the narrative music videos that are
around in our genre, have an idea of a couple,
which we have too, but we developed it, as our
idea surrounds two couples, but more
importantly it is about our couples having fun as
a group of friends too.

13. • Music videos can use diegetic sound at
the beginning of the music video to
show the narrative side before the song
starts. We have used this, as you see a
car pull up and toot at the beginning of
the video.
• We did use to have some sound at the
end as well, however we kept the
picture but removed the sound as we
thought it wasn’t needed, and perhaps
lowered the standard of our music
video.
• Our music video has a clear low fi sound,
suggesting it’s independently produced,
therefore confirming its within the
indie genre.
SOUND:

14. • Our Music video has taken ideas from other music videos we analysed
from all different genres.
• Our Band’s digipak has taken ideas from those already on sale and in
stores, from all types of different artists to get the common
conventions. Like the production company, barcode, track names,
and the basic layout of CD covers. We probably didn’t use the
conventions of an indie rock band for our digipack, as we thought
that they were rather boring (left), and we wanted ours to stand out
(right).

15. • Our band’s magazine cover is copied from NME magazine covers,
so we had to research all magazine including NME, to find
common connections and conventions, like the type of picture
used, the font and they other types of headline titles. NME would
also be the type of magazine that would advertise an indie rock
band, therefore we conformed to these conventions.