Question 1: Directors Commentary: Zaynab and Ross

Script

Conventions of the indie music genre:

v  Scruffy unkempt slightly long hair

v  Casual clothes

v  Performance videos

v  Shot in studio, as is relatively inexpensive, or in working class locations

v  Close ups of band members and of instruments

v  Fast-paced editing

We analysed real music videos of the Indie genre, some of which broke the conventions of the genre and some of which followed the conventions.

A video that stuck to the conventions of the indie music genre is the Arctic Monkey’s ‘I bet you look good on the dance floor’. It is performance-based, as indie music videos generally are, with certain elements such as close ups of the band members and the instruments, and also fast-paced editing.

The band members appearance’s also contribute to the typical conventions. Male indie artists usually have long unkempt hair and wear casual clothes, which the Arctic Monkeys have done. They have also shot it in a studio, where most indie music videos are shot in, due to the relative inexpensiveness of it. They have also made use of various effects such as the coloured lighting within the video as are usually used within performance-based indie music videos.

[Show certain stills from the video after several sentences i.e. studio set-up & a couple of close-ups of band members & a couple of instruments & coloured lights]

A video that challenges the conventions of the indie music genre is Franz Ferdinand’s ‘take me out’. even though it sticks to several of the typical indie conventions, as it was shot in a studio and is fast paced as well as having the band members within the video, the video breaks away from the conventions as it is comprised entirely of animated images instead of footage of the band members playing – it has pictures of the band and of Victorian-esque machinery and objects that are put together, which ends up creating a very unusual looking video. There are many types of other shots as well the typical close-ups and medium shots, such as long shots with all the band, and shots that cut to a close up then zoom out, slowly also panning slowly in one direction. Whenever the video cuts to actual images of the band, they are dressed casually as indie artists tend to do, and yet this is very uncommon within the video as it is mainly comprised of animated images of the band’s heads placed on top of bodies made from an assortment of different machinery, giving the video a strange quirky feel, as it is definitely unconventional.

[Show certain stills from the video after several sentences i.e. different types of shots & casually dressed image of the band & band’s heads on top of machine bodies]

Our finished product challenges the conventions of Indie music videos in that Jess is a solo artist, whereas most indie artists are usually in bands, and though the video is fast paced, that is the only obvious thing in relation to Indie conventions. Many indie music videos generally have a toned down colour theme, whereas ours is brightly coloured, following a colour theme of white, green, black, red, blue and many other vibrant colours, also Jess is not dressed casually, and instead in a superhero/evil villain costume. As Jess’s brand image is quirky, fun, spunky, etc., as made apparent by the theme of the music video and the print adverts, this differs from the typical brand image of other artists; as other indie artists are more serious and usually more male-orientated, down to earth, etc. There is also a performance element to the video, yet Jess is dressed in her costume and the video includes significantly more shots of the narrative. There is also a wide range of editing used within the video, such as the one where Jess has a coloured shadow around her during one of the performance based clips. Also, the fact that it incorporates elements of other types of media such as comic books, video games etc is very unconventional, which is also known as intertextuality.

[Insert clips from the video regarding what is the focus in a particular sentence i.e. beginning of video for fast-paced & good Jess and bad Jess & different clips of different types of editing & comic book scene]