Research - Indie Conventions

Music Video

• It is very common for indie artists to do a live performance during their music videos, this way the main focus is on the singer and their talent - a modern twist on this is now to add in a narrative in between to break this up which will entertain the audience and also help the artist compete with other genres who have narrative based videos.
• Instruments are often used in indie music videos as it is mainly about the music they produce instead of having a big flashy video.
• Extreme close-ups, close-ups and pan shots are very common in music videos especially in the indie genre, this is because the artists will have their own alternative style which will be shown through close- up shots, and pan shots will be able to display the band/performance shots and highlight the instruments used, these conventions are clearly shown in the video for Sundara Karma's 'Loveblood', with close up showing Oscar Lulu's eyeliner, nail polish and crop top and pan shots displaying their performance.
• Editing is used a lot now in indie videos to make them look more vintage/old fashioned as that is mainly how people who are considered 'indie' usually dress and the things they like are the same style.
• Indie music videos are often known to be quite low budget, this is why their locations are usually places that can be easily accessed, for example studios, parks, tunnels and pubs.

Costume
Indie bands usually wear clothing of two sorts, either mainly black clothing (like Van Mcann for example, pictured to the left, this time without his typical leather jacket,  but in a black top and black jeans), black and white stripes are also popular with the indie genre.
The other style usually linked to indie is vintage style clothes, for example vintage, patterned shirts, the kind of things you'd find in thrift shops and charity shops (one example is Oscar Lulu from Sundara Karma with his bold, vintage shirts).


Make-Up
The make-up used in indie videos is usually very natural, at most there will be some eyeliner and foundation on during performance shots. When the video is mainly narrative based, there will be make-up appropriate to the story line, e.g if the song is sad and emotional there may be smeared make-up or if it is a really happy, party like story there will be excessive amounts of glitter used.


Shot Types
We watched the video for Catfish and The Bottlemen's Cocoon and made a list of the shot types included in the video, we also then watched the first part of the Homesick video to compare and add to the list. Most of these are conventional indie shots but I don't think all of them are applicable to our music video...

• Framing
• Track shots
• Zoom
• Two Shot
• ESL
• Short ASL
• Shot Reverse Shot
• High Angle Two Shot
• Group Shot
• Blur
• Left Of Frame
• Montages
• Performance Shot
• Black and White
• Vintage/Sepia filter
• Hand Held Camera

How This Research Has Influenced My Planning
After researching this, I would like to use quite bold vintage shirts in the happier scenes to represent the indie genre, the sadder scenes would be all dressed in black, so black jeans and a black t-shirt and a black leather jacket or suit jacket. The make-up will start really natural but will acquire eyeliner and then lipstick as the video progresses.