Indie music videos have a very different purpose to what a major music video or a self produced music video would have. An Indie artist will not make a music video to sell themselves, their purpose is not to broaden their star image, an indie artist main objective is to draw the audience in to an interesting different music video. An Indie artists music videos are more like a piece of art work, with the purpose to promote their work and music videos, rather than themselves and their own star image, unlike a major artist, who will be the star image with the record label insisting on using close up's on the major artist because they are the talent and the star image. Indie music videos will generally use different conventions, such as the lighting of their videos, which can be varied from any style of lighting, like it being dark or bright, however, the lighting depends on the music video's lyrics or music itself. Indie artists will use different styles, such as a narrative style of possibly a performance style, they will usually focus on the artist themselves, or sometimes they will feature they whole band performing and sometimes neither will appear, this can happen in a narrative styled music video as the video focuses on the characters within the video.
Directors that direct Indie music videos will direct them because they will lead as a stepping stone for them to gain further attention for their work and to broaden their appeal and their careers. They will usually be up and coming directors, they will be noticed for the work they do more because indie artists will be allowed to experiment more and be able to take risks in the music videos, risks that major labels cannot afford to take, these risks would be seen as an artistic view and shown as for the director, that they are more creative.
Example 1: Mumford and Sons - I will wait:
This music video is is a performance video, this is shown as the lead singer and the rest of the band are performing in front of a live audience. We can also tell that this video is a performance because of the audience at the end of the video, as they are clapping and cheering at the end.
The main artist and the rest of the band are dressed in a more causal way than what you could see others dress in other videos, they are dressed in a casual way in order to appeal to their audience, trying to show that they are like their audience and can fit in with their audience.
At the beginning of the video, we can hear the audience cheering before the song has started, showing that it is a live performance. The editing is fast paced also at the beginning of the video and slows down throughout the middle part, however, as each chorus is sung, the fast paced music comes back, throughout the choruses, when the music is quicker, the video flows faster with it, meaning that they have used rythmic editing at times, as they have cut to the beat within the chorus. At the start, they focus on the instruments that each band member is playing, as they cut to the guitar's and the keyboard. The lead singer sings and plays the guitar, this can make him more appealing to audiences as he has a strong diversity to him.
The lighting within the room is of low key around the audience, it is dark to set a specific mood and atmosphere within the audience, however there is high key lighting on the stage where the performers are, this is purposely done because they want to indicate to the audience who and where the star image is.
Example 2: Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta:
This music video is mainly a performance styled video, we can tell this as the artist is singing to the camera throughout almost the entire song and video, there are many conventions showing this is a performance video as there is lip sinking involved by the artists who also features in the video. There is also a narrative going on throughout the video, however it does not come across as strongly as the performance does.
The artist uses a lot of match on actions throughout the video, they do this by linking the story and the performance together as they come on to the stage as the curtain draws at the end, the match on actions are used specifically to link the events, showing the different band members playing a different instrument, they also use these match on actions to sell the artists image, to help create their star image to the audience, as the lighting is low key, with more light emphasizing on the performers, it shows that they are the star image and they are being focused on.
As the room is dark, they light candles in certain areas of the room and a bright light flashes out at times, this adds to the fast paced feel to the music video, appealing to the audience, giving the video a live performance feel or possibly a club like feel. Towards the end of the video, the last verse and chorus are even faster than the others, this is because they want to conclude in a fast paced way. They use fast cuts to flow with the music.
The band members wear causal clothes in order to appeal to their audience, to show that they fit in with their audience, they are in a casual location, somewhere that their audience will like and enjoy, to show that they can fit in with them, they do this to help there star appeal. The indie artist here use close ups to show the main artist, this is very important because they are the face of the band and they are the star image and what will sell and make money for the band and any record label.
Example 3: Arctic Monkeys - Snap out of it:
The music video many times uses voyeurism, this is because the female character within the video is sexually appealing the male audience, so she is sexualised. This may also appeal to females who may wish to look like the female in this video.
The video is very sexual, as it shows many different scenes of voyeurism, an example of this is where she is eats the meat and picks it out of the frying pan whilst it is still cooking.
The video high key lighting, it has been lit like a house is supposed to be lit, this means that the band are trying to emphasize the realism in the story and the house. The artist is not in the video with the woman, this shows that the artist is not desperately trying to broaden there star image. They are in the video that the girl is watching throughout the video, this is where the artist is shown, it is supposed to symbolize the woman and the artists past, this is supposed to indicate they were once together, adding to the realism of the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment