This document discusses conventions in alternative rock music videos. It analyzes conventions around camera work like close-ups and tracking shots, editing techniques like cutting to the beat and ramping up shots, dark costumes, gritty locations, passionate performances, and direct address of the audience. The document also examines conventions for band websites like dark colors and advertising new albums, as well as album cover conventions like animations and mysterious color schemes. The music video discussed in the document follows many of these conventions to appeal to alternative rock audiences.

1. E V A L U A T I O N T A S K 1
B Y A L E X G

2. W H A T A R E C O N V E N T I O N
• A convention is a way of recognising a way of doing
something has to do with content, style and form.
Conventions help the audience to relate to certain
products especially within the music industry. In terms
of music videos, conventions are often based around
elements involving camera work, editing, casting and
location. Therefore in the alternative rock genre, we
searched into similar conventions to help the audience
our group relate to the audience and to appeal to the
audience.

3. C A M E R A
One of the key element used in our music video
was close ups as all rock bands within the
alternative rock genre use close ups to helps
establish the aggressive tone towards the music
video. Imagine Dragons use close ups when the
singer sings a key part of the lyrics this is because
this forces the audience to concentrate purely on
the music. In our music video we added a lot of
close ups of our singer when he was belting out the
key lyrics to the song therefore we followed the
convention of using close ups.
Another typical conventions is that most
rock bands add tracking shots to add
movement and give a burst of energy to
the music video. Therefore for “american
idiot” by green day they add a tracking
shot to give a burst of energy to the
music video. This was similarly used with
our music video as we wanted to make
our music video seem more energetic
and aggressive.

4. Editing is a crucial part to most music
videos as it allows the music video to be
visually impressive as it doesn't contain
any dialogue and its within a small time
frame
For our music video it was important to cut to the
beat of the music video . This is conventional with
any genre of music videos as it essentially helps
make it more aesthetically pleasing to an audience.
For our music video we started gradually building
the pace of the cuts once the chorus hits, this helps
show the pace and the energy of the shots as they
chorus is meant to make it match the energy of the
song.
We also used discontinuity editing, as it helps keep the shots
up with the fast paced songs. Many rock bands like the Foo
Fighters ramp up many shots in “The Pretender”. This makes
their music video seem more action packed with energy
which is commonly used to help the shot keep up with the
song. We used similar techniques when we ramped up the
tracking shot as it helps the shots keep up with the song.
Ramping up shots is key as it helps maintain the energy of
the music even after two minutes.
E D I T I N G

5. V
Another technique we used to maintain the audiences
attention is through the use of a time-lapse. This isn't a
common convention in most alternative rock band as they
tend to maintain to audiences attention through the use of
a narrative. As Nirvana in “Smells like Teen Spirit” where
its about teens destroying the assembly hall as the bands
playing. Meaning our group went against the general
convention of the music video as we wanted to make it
solely performance based and maintained the audience
attention through a second element of a time-lapse.

6. The Killers Oasis
Wild Wons
COSTUME
C O L O U RH A I R C L O T H I N G D E T A I L

7. One main similarity is that most of the bands within the entire
rock genre tend to all wear dark clothing to symbolise the rock
genre. Therefore most bands like The killers always wears dark
clothing to symbolise them as a group and to help illustrate
them as a rock band. As we made the band first music video we
had to follow similar conventions to help the audience relate the
band to a rock genre. Our group also made one of the guitarist
to wear an Guns and roses shirt to allow the audience to see
bands within the similar genre as our band.
Another typical convention of alternative rock band is to
have long hair as it connotes wild and freedom therefore
when we were casting the group we need to ensure most
of the band members had mostly long hair. We followed
the convention as we looked at classic rock band like
Oasis to give us inspiration of what a typical rock band
look like.

8. S E T S A N D L O C A T I O N S
Having a Dark atmosphere helps to set the tone of
the track. As the band Creed in “One Last Breath”
used a dark atmosphere to allow the band to set a
serious tone towards the song. We adhered to this
convention as it allowed our group to set a more
aggressive and violent tone towards our music
video.
Having the location within the carpark helped our music video seem more violent
through the connotations of concrete surroundings as being rough. Bands like
Three Days Grace in “Never Too Late” use similar conventions as it helps make the
band seem more serious and hard-hitting

9. P E R F O R M A N C E
The performance element to a music video is key to
many rock music videos, this is because it gives a
glimpse of how passionate the band is. Therefore for
Green Day for “American Idiot” it largely consist of
performance element so illustrate the passion within the
song as the guitarist jumps up in the air. For our music
video we felt that we should carry on this typical
convention as it gives the audience a taster to the
amount of energy the band will have during a concert.
Therefore as you can see our guitarist kicking up in the
air to convey help the enegery.
We also added direct address in our as thats a typical
convention of a music video. As you can see in Nickelback in
“Someday” they use direct address to help connect the
audience with the band, as direct address allows the
audience get a close inside of the band. Therefore we used
direct address to bring the audience closer towards the band

10. W E B S I T E
C O L O U R
B A N D L O G O
A D V E R T I S E N E W
A L B U M O N H O M E P A G E
A common convention to websites for music videos is that they
tend to use dark colours especially black, which is shown in
bands like The Killers. This is because it allows the fans to
relate to the rock alternative genre.
Having a band logo isn't typical in new alternate rock bands
however many old school rock bands add their logo like AC/DC
We did this to allow our fans remember our band of something
rather then just the name.
Many alternative bands all market their album on the homepage.
This is common as it allows fans to listen to the music before they
go to the bands concert. Therefore bands like Imagine Dragons
and AC/DC have all use this therefore we felt that is a convention
that we had to follow.

11. D I G I P A K
As you can see a typical convention in many alternative rock album
covers is that it consist of some kind of animation. Therefore Rolling
Stones, Muse and Linkin Park all have animations on their album
cover. Therefore we felt that our group should follow this convention
as we wanted our album cover to match with similar band within the
genre.
Another similar aspect was that all the album
covers have a very mysterious colour
scheme towards them making them look
very unique like muse and linking park. As
our group was new we wanted to let the fans
see what kind of band they were and how
unique their music is, therefore we followed
his convention
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