This below is the storyboard that me and Brad created and then Brad digitalized using PhotoShop for better clarity than a scanned image. To do this Brad scanned in the image and then recreated the shapes within PhotoShop, doing this also allowed there to be slight improvements to the storyboard.
The first code and convention I will discuss is the tendency of indie music videos to use live performance in their music videos. An immediate example of this is the Arctic Monkeys breakout song, "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor', which is all performance.
Clearly this convention is used to show the indie artists passion for performing and the fact that they are in it for the music- not for the fame that typically more mainstream artists are in it for. It also shows they can actually play their own music- making them seem homegrown and not manufactured, like many mainstream artists.
Often both live performance and narrative are used, with the narrative breaking up the nonstop performance, as sometimes being strictly performance can make the music video seem dull.
Performance can also show that the band are skilled at what they do- seeing them performing seemingly live may attract an indie audience as they like to see that their favorite band can perform live.
We will probably not use performance in our music video, as it doesn't suit the style of the song we have chosen and we feel that an all narrative based music video will work more effectively
2 - Narrative
Many indie music videos may use an entirely narrative based music video. A good example of this is "Danny, Dakota and the Wishing Well" by A Silent Film, which is completely narrative focused.
Narrative is a convention used by an extremely wide range of music videos, as it can be applied to many different circumstances and artist images. A narrative video can be very memorable, and may, in many indie music video's cases, provide a message for the audience to decipher. It is a good way of making a music video stand out, as if you can do something fresh and never seen before it will guarantee interest, even if the actual song isn't very good. People who either haven't heard of the artist or dislike their music can still appreciate a good narrative focused music video, as they tell a story and aren't straight up performance, attracting an indie audience.
We will be using narrative as the key part of our music video, as it is entirely narrative based. Our video will also try to send the viewer a message, and leave them wondering exactly what happened. Hopefully this will make it stand out from the crowd.
3- Mise- on- scene
Mise-on-scene is another crucial part of an indie music video. An example of an indie music video with good mise-on- scene is 'Cousins' by Vampire Weekend, which utilises props to portray the lyrics of the song
Many artists in the indie-rock genre have a very retro look, such as Parma Violets. This is to distinguish them from the mainstream, and make them seem unaware of current music trends and fashions, and clearly all about the music.
Props are also very important and often used in indie music videos, such as in the song above, where props have been used to depict the songs lyrics. Often the instruments used by the band are stylised and made to look retro and help to distinguish from more modern instruments like DJ decks. The fact that mainly the standard band layout of guitar, bass, drums is used in indie music also shows that they are all about the music, and don't believe in the manufacture of music.
Our music video will utilise props and mise-on-scene to further enforce our focus on narrative, by realistically representing our characters and setting. This will hopefully make our video immersive and realistic.
4 - Editing
Editing is also crucial in the representation of an indie band in a music video. Many indie music videos utilise a 'retro' feel to their video, an example being 'Reptilia' by The Strokes. This effect and feel to the music video again helps to add to the idea that the band play their own music and are not manufactured.
Rhythmic editing is often used to sync the music's beat to the clips shown in the video. This is crucial in music video's in general, as a good piece of rhymical editing can tie the music video together and make it seem like the video is to the song, and not just a random lot of clips thrown together.
We will look to use rhythmic editing in our music video, as it will help to make sure our song syncs with our video. We will probably not use a retro feel, as it wouldn't suit our narrative.
As a group of only two people, both me and Brad have decided that we will both contribute equally to our music video, with both of us sharing the workload and both having roles in filming and editing, as both me and Brad are good editors and can contribute well to our small group. If we had more people in the group I would consider splitting into smaller roles however, with such a small group it will be much easier if both of us split the workload, allowing us both to be involved throughout the production process.
We are currently two students studying A2 Media Studies at sixth form. For our coursework we have been challenged to make a music video for a song of our choice.
We have found that the song "Love Lost" by the Temper Trap would be perfect for the music video we would like to create. We are big fans of the Temper Trap and would love to use one of our favorite bands music in our A-level coursework.
Therefore we are asking for your permission to use the song for our small A-level project and hopefully create something which will get us the most marks possible!
Thanks for your time,
Tom Woodhouse and Brad Matthews
We have sent this email off to the record label and copyright owners of the song "Love Lost" by The Temper Tramp- this should mean we can use the song in our music video
Andrew Goodwin came up with the theory that there are 5 key aspects of music video's:
1) Thought beats
2) Narrative and performance
3) The star image
4) Relation of visuals to song
5) Technical aspects
Thought Beats
Thought beats are the way we see sound in music videos. This can be done by making the video visualize the lyrics, as many songs can tell a story. The video could also reflect the distinct voice an artist has.
Narrative + Performance
In your video, you should always try to communicate the gist of your story- it is extremely difficult to tell an entire story well in a short amount of time.
Repeatability is key- repeat the same ideas throughout your music video
Good lip syncing!
Make sure your video is an advertisement for your artist
Star Image
Your artist should be in the video- remember that the video is an advertisement for them!
This doesn't always apply- some indie artists could prefer to show how artistic they are by not being in the video
Relation of Visuals to song
There are 3 different ways of doing this
Illustrate- visual illustration of lyrics
Amplify- Meanings and effects shown constantly
Disjuncture- Meaning of song is completely ignored
In our music video, me and Brad are looking to use either Illustrate or Amplify, as Disjuncture isn't really something we want to do. Amplify will probably be the best choice as our music video is mainly going to be narrative based.
This music video is a great example of some of the techniques we want to put into our own music video. The narrative in the video is told backwards, from the start where the man is lying in a paddling pool, to the end where he is shown eating a dodgy brownie. This makes the video stand out and makes it unique, as you rarely see this type of thing in mainstream artists music videos. There is also a lot of use of editing effects which we want to use in our video ; reverse and slow-motion. These two used together can create a very interesting music video, and it works well in this video, using the backwards effect to show the mans journey from end to start, and slow-motion used when he gets to the house to show the people enjoying themselves to the band playing. The use of narrative closure and the fact that there is infact a narrative despite the entire video being backwards is a main technique which me and Brad want to use in our own music video, and watching this one gives us inspiration. The video also features clear roles, the protagonist and antagonists are clearly shown, with the man as the protagonist and the masked men as antagonists. There is also a wide variety of shots used throughout the video, with noticeably there being a lot of close-ups on the protagonist and an establishing shot at the beginning, with mid and long range shots also being used in the house to show the dancing and general enjoyment of the people there. The performance near the end is also very good, as it still keeps to the narrative and doesn't cut away like many music videos, keeping the viewer immersed in what is going on. There is also a use of pathetic fallacy in the video- the dark, cold night which the man begins in reflects the dark hallucinations he is having. The song is quite cheerful, and clearly this is juxtaposed with the dark mood set throughout the video. Lastly, there is some use of classic horror conventions in the video, and the mirror shot, generally used in horror films, is done backwards, making it not scary and odd.
Overall, this music video is extremely useful for helping me and Brad to work out how to use editing effects like slow-motion and reverse along with a narrative in an effective way. We hope that we can take some of these techniques forward into our final music video.
