Planning

Shooting schedule

Wednesday; 5pm-8pm
Thursday; 5pm-8pm
(repeat weekly)
One Saturday; 1pm-6pm
Stuart edits at home 

Timetable

Thursday; storyboards (hand over to Jonathan).
Friday; Get info on band, Work on shot types, locations, props and actors, plan video in more depth. 
Saturday; Get storyboards off johnny, take pictures and send to stuart to work on animatics.
Monday; Photograph research and plans as evidence, string the photos together.
Tuesday; Upload all evidence and research to group blog.


Task list

Finish storyboards.
Create an animatic.
Take pictures as evidence of work.
Get actors organised for video.
Find out more about our band.
Find locations to film.
Upload evidence to group blog.
Create and design a website.
Make an album cover.
Create Digipaks.

Song

Stupid girl- the native (4 members)


Lighting needs

Natural lighting
Artificial lighting
post-production editing to enhance brightness


Location list (ciaran)

Lady dixon
Queen's university
Bands' jamming spot


Costume list

For the actor and actress, where casual clothes of their choice to make it feel more like reality.

We believe the band should wear their own clothes to establish a certain image to  the band and to show what they are really like, and what style they like to the audience.

Planning - Shot List

Shot-by-Shot Plan:

Shot 1 - Zoom Out/Black to Holding Hands

Shot 2 - Close Up/Artist's Guitar

Shot 3 - Pan/Forrest

Shot 4 - Close Up/Boy with hands over his eyes

Shot 5 - Medium Shot/Girl running through forrest

Shot 6 - Close Up/Artist Singing

Shot 7 - Wide Shot/Artist Singing and Playing Guitar in forrest

Shot 8 - Long Shot/Boy walking through forrest shouting

Shot 9 - Medium Shot/Girl peeking out behind tree

Shot 10 - Close Up/Artist's Guitar

Shot 11 - Close Up/Artist Singing

Shot 12 - Over the Shoulder/Boy spots Girl

Shot 13 - Wide Shot/Boy runs towards Girl

Shot 14 - Close Up/ Artist Singing

Shot 15 - Close Up/Girl head in hands

Shot 16 - Medium Shot/Boy embracing girl

Shot 17 - Wide Shot/Artist Singing

Shot 18 - Close Up/Bot and Girl kissing

Shot 19 - Medium Shot/Holding hands walking away

Fade out

The native- stupid girl breakdown

What I took from the song "Stupid Girl" was that it was in fact of the indie genre, in between indie pop and indie rock. This is due to the fact that there are some fast-paced, upbeat parts to the song, but there are also parts which are slower and more peaceful.

This could well be the story of one of the band members and they could be representing that at some points in their life at this time, things were nice and peaceful, but at other points their life was frantic and stressful. Even through the name of the song alone it is clear that it was a frustrating time for the man.

I believe that after listening to the song, the story in our video should be surrounding the relationship between two people and the ups and downs that they have throughout their relationship.

To show that the song relates to one of the band members and that it is personal to them as they wrote it, I believe it would be a good idea to have shots of them playing throughout our video and some close-ups. Another advantage to doing this is that it means we are following the codes and conventions of the indie genre precisely.

Lana Del Rey

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant (born 21 June 1986), better known as Lana Del Rey, is a singer-songwriter from Lake Placid, New York, United States. Del Rey is known for embellishing her songs and music videos with an eerily nostalgic vibe heavy on Americana themes, including images of surfing, Coney Island, Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe. She has also listed a large number of her artistic influences, including Allen Ginsberg, Elvis Presley, Britney Spears, Nina Simone, Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan , The Beach Boys, Antony and the Johnsons, actor and filmmaker John Waters, artists Mark Ryden and Marilyn Minter, and photographers Juergen Teller and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

Grant released her first professionally produced body of work in 2010, an EP entitled Kill Kill, as Lizzy Grant via Five Points Records with producer David Kahne. It was available for purchase on iTunes for a brief period before being withdrawn for unknown reasons. Soon after, Del Rey released a self-titled collection of songs, Lana Del Rey, for electronic download.

In June 2011, Del Rey was signed with Stranger Records and issued the “Video Games” single, and in October 2011 she signed with Interscope Records.

The typical age for Lana Del Rey tend to range from ages 17-50. This is due to her music being quite old fashioned with a nice, slow beat that appeals to an older, mature audience as well as young adults. Her music has been featured in such movies as "The great Gatsby" which is more suited for a mature audience and this is how she has listeners who are a great deal older than some of her fans. However, the reason why some of her listeners are so young is due to her dress code and persona, also through her album "born to die" which would appeal to the younger, indie fans. Last.fm supports these statistics as if we look at the top listeners we see that the age of the listeners varies greatly.

Through last.fm I was able to find out that the majority of listeners on last.fm are from the United States, Canada and Brazil. One is not surprised by this statistic as Lana Del Rey was born in the United States and performs mostly around America, resulting in the majority of her fan base to be around this location. Lana del Rey has played in Brazil three times which would explain why that country has the largest amount of fans on last.fm. She has also done tours in the United states and Europe which would explain the fans on last.fm from Russia, Poland etc. 

The social background of people who listen to Lana Del Rey would once again vary with the ages. Some of the audience such as the younger fans would be interested in music greatly which seems to be very common throughout the indie genre. From profiles on Last.fm I was able to discover fans of Lana Del Rey usually have an interest in vintage clothing and have a unique style and a music taste that is very broad which covers a number of genres. The more mature audience would usually be family orientated as they are in their 30's or older and seem to have a normal social background. They would have interest in music but not as much as the younger fans and would wear casual clothing, they tend to share their music with people of the same age and the same social background which seems to be people who are in relationships or are family orientated.

The main fan base for Lana Del Rey consists of women as her music appeals to women more through the lyrics, the style of her music, instrumentals, her keen interest in clothing and her vintage style. However, her music also appeals to men and this was shown on Last.fm as a couple of the top listeners were young males in their 20's.

The spends and interests of fans tend to be on music, clothing (usually vintage), and social gatherings with friends. This is very similar to other indie fans although they may focus on clothing more than music, while Kodaline fans may focus more on music than clothing. Overall it seems that a few main interests keep recurring throughout the indie genre.

Ryan Beattie Interview

What age are you? and could you tell me the range of ages of your friend group and what their music taste is?
17 years old, and the range of ages in my friend group are 16-30 and most of my friends have a similar taste in music as me.

Where are you from and could you please tell me the location of any of your friends who have the same music taste?
Belfast, Northern Ireland. This is where most of my friends are situated although i have some friends in England who would have similar music taste. I would say that there is an increasing number of indie lovers in Belfast.

How would you describe your social background? For example style and social group.
Me and my group of friends interests would all include music, i play the guitar and a lot of my friends would play some sort of instrument.  I would describe my dress code as indie/alternative rock, i like clothes such as skinny jeans, and I like to wear "beanie" hats. We would all be interested in gaming and our most common interests would be music and gaming. Indie music is very common in my friend group but a lot of us are also interested in different genres of music such as rock, or just all genres in general. We all in a way have our own individual style of clothing and have different interests.

What are your spends? (disposable income)
I receive £60 every two weeks from EMA payments. I spend my money mainly on clothes, concert tickets, albums (hardback), and video games. I like to shop in less well known shops that would suit my style of clothing more and sell other smaller items that would interest me.

What are your interests?
My main interests are music and i consider music to be a big part of my life. I love to play guitar also, I have an alternative style in clothing that differs from many of my friends in my group, I love gaming which would be very apparent throughout my whole friend group and it is an interest that we would all have in common. I am also into reading and politics and very few of my friends would be interested in the books I read and although would have the same political views of me, well that is the few friends in my friend group who are also interested in politics.

Similar artists you like and cultural interests similar to your friends?
Bands/artists that I like consist of performers such as Bad Books, Manchester Orchestra, Right Away Great Captain, The Artic Monkeys, Arcade fire and The Tallest Man On Earth. Similar cultural interests that me and my friend group are our political beliefs, we all have a similar outlook/approach to things. We are mainly all from the same area of Belfast, however there are some who would be from other parts of Belfast. We all love music and playing instruments, and when buying an album, the artwork on it appeals to all of us and we seem to have similar artistic tastes. However when it comes to the music that we listen to it is generally similar, but can vary greatly sometimes.

How is your social group related through media products?
We have the same music taste so would buy similar albums, instrument such as guitars as we all play instruments as a hobby so would discuss which instrument we were going to buy next or what brand it was. We all seem to wear band/artist t-shirts, We also all have an interest in tattoos and this would be inspired by seeing our idols in magazines and seeing all their tattoos, music magazines such as NME is also something that we would all buy and read. Finally radio stations would all relate to us such as radio 1.

How do the products relate to the indie demographic?
They relate to the indie demographic as they show our love for music/bands through the clothes they sell, artists we like usually have tattoos which inspires fans to get tattoos to be like their favourite artists as they see them on TV or in magazines. The instrument a band member plays also inspires one to play a particular instrument as their idol may play it. Sometimes band members are paid to play an instrument of a particular brand, which influences fans to buy the same brand. Album artwork appeals to people as it is attractive and makes one wants to buy it because it stands out to them. Magazines which show band interviews and the products celebrities wear makes one want to buy certain products and have certain cultural interests. This keeps fans updated with what is trending in the indie world as well as the radio as it plays new music which would appeal to the indie genre.

Are there specific codes and conventions that are evident throughout the indie genre that I could use in my music video to appeal to the audience?
Live performances in indie music videos is very common and appeals to many, also having a narrative in the video and abstract album artwork all appeal to the indie genre.

Kodaline- Indie rock/alternative

 Kodaline is a Dublin-based Irish alternative rock quartet. Originally known as 21 Demands, the band made chart history in March 2007, when their debut single “Give Me A Minute” topped the Irish Singles Chart; becoming the first independently released track to achieve the feat. In 2005 the band participated in the irish competition called ‘You’re a Star’ and managed to come in seconds place and then in 2011 they changed their name to Kodaline. 

Growing up in houses just two minutes away from each other in Swords, a working class town near Dublin airport, Steve Garrigan and Mark Prendergast met aged eight, when they were the only boys in the school choir. Skip forward six years and they recruited Vinny May, also situated a stones throw away and together set about forming the first of myriad bands. The line-up for Kodaline was recently completed by the addition of bassist Jason Boland. The band’s name, incidentally, means absolutely nothing. For the moment they wanted something they could take ownership of.

The band became a YouTube sensation with their music video for the song ‘All I Want’ which tells the heartbreaking story of a man. On October the 4th 2013 Kodaline released another music video for this song called ‘All I Want part 2” this again tells us about the man. Their album, ‘In A Perfect World’, contains 11 if their songs including ‘All I Want’, ‘High Hopes’ and ‘One Day”. The oldest on their album is ‘High Hopes’ which was based on a series of breakups that members of the band were facing during that time.

Teaching each other the principles of songcraft, the music they came up with some of which can be found on their self titled EP isn’t wan or introspective or self-serving. Instead, it’s bold, epic and stirring. Currently maintaining an air of understated mystery, Kodaline are soon set to unveil themselves to the world with these first four tracks recorded with Steve Harris (producer for Dave Matthews band, mixer for U2).

The typical audience for Kodaline would be people who regularly listen to indie/alternative music and who are around the age group of 17-40. The reason why there is such a wide range of ages that listen to  kodaline is because this group in particular appeals to people of all ages. The music that they create is indie and does not specify on one main genre e.g.. indie rock or indie pop. Through the instrumental, lyrics and locations that kodaline use it makes it easy for teenagers to enjoy the music, as well as more mature adults as it is music that a wide range of people can relate to.

Through music profiles on Last.fm I am able to support some of the points previously made. For example, Kodaline are a group that can appeal to a wide range of people regardless if they prefer indie rock more than indie pop. Through research I was able to find a profile that supports this point. The person who owns the profile on Last.fm is one of a male who's username is "gonzaD456." From his Last.fm profile I was able to see his most listened to artists which mostly consisted of indie rock bands such as Paramore, Panic! at the disco and 30 seconds to mars. However also in his top played artists were Kodaline.

The location of listeners is mainly around the UK and Ireland, this is because Kodaline are from Ireland. This is reinforced through the UK iTunes store which has shown that Kodaline's album was in the top UK downloads. However through the last.fm top listeners section on Kodaline's page, there is also quite a significant number of listeners from Poland and Brazil.

The social background varies greatly from person to person as said before, the music Kodaline makes appeals to a wide range of people. It could appeal to people who like skateboarding and have a sort of gothic look to them, or it could appeal to someone the complete opposite, who dresses colourfully and has a completely different taste in music and is interested in completely different things. They tend to mostly be form Ireland and the UK, the fans from Ireland might be more passionate about their support for Kodaline than the UK as not as many groups make it big form Ireland as in the UK.

I believe because of the music Kodaline make, the lyrics and their personality, there would be an equal number of men and women listening to Kodaline as they are an indie group who appeal to everyone. This is supported by Last.fm which show an even number of men and women in the top listeners section for the Kodaline profile.

The spends and interests of fans of Kodaline through asking members of my class seem to consist of music, clothing and drama. Most of the listeners spends are £60 every two weeks and people who have part time jobs who would earn a little more, but overall have an average student income. Another interest would be going out to concerts and clubs with their friend group.

Ed Sheeran- I See Fire

this song has inspired me and what i would like our music video to be like. It is a song specifically made for the new Hobbit movie, the desolation of smaug. I really adore the idea of the two stories going on at once, the non-fictional, showing the recording of the song and them celebrating, also ed sheeran in his home home. I especially like the shot where it shows him playing and the video is worse quality and then it shows the reason why this is, and the girl recording it from her phone and we see it from her point of view. I like the fictional story that is being told throughout. It shows the middle-earth and the whole story that comes with it and then the shots return to reality as well.

 I believe the use of the fictional story, as well as the artist performing live is very effective and is something that I have saw in many of the indie videos that I have studied during research. When making the storyboards I believe that the idea of the live performance as well as the fictional story should be included as it is central to following the codes and conventions of the indie genre.


 

Manchester Orchestra

Manchester Orchestra is an American indie rock band which formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 2004. The group is currently composed of rhythm guitarist, singer/songwriter Andy Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, keyboardist and percussionist Chris Freeman, bassist Jonathan Corley and drummer Tim Very. Former drummer Jeremiah Edmond parted ways with the band in January 2010 to focus on his family as well as running the band’s record label, Favorite Gentlemen. The band has released three albums - 2006’s I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child, 2009’s Mean Everything To Nothing and 2011’s Simple Math.

Manchester Orchestra originated in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. They are named after the English city Manchester, a place rich in musical history (The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Joy Division, Oasis, New Order, Happy Mondays). Feeling increasingly alienated at his “small-town-Georgia, Christian high school”, Hull became so frustrated that he spent his senior year studying at home. Early in their career, the band recorded an album entitled Nobody Sings Anymore. However, it was never released due to the shift in the band’s musical direction and personal changes undergone following its recording. The band stated that “the band that made the record was different to the band now.” Some of the tracks written for the album were released instead on the EP You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, But Brilliance Needs a Good Editor.

Following You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, But Brilliance Needs a Good Editor, Manchester Orchestra recorded and released their debut album I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child. This album gained the attention of the music industry, and eventually led to their signing with Canvasback. 

The typical age for listeners of  Manchester Orchestra range from people aged 16-25. This is supported by The magazine NME who have stated that Manchester Orchestra tend to have quite a young fan base, and also Last.Fm the too listeners ranged from 17-24.

The location of listeners and fans of Manchester Orchestra are mainly from the USA, Canada, the UK and Brazil. This is probably because of The Manchester Orchestra being from the United States. They also have a name that was inspired by the City Manchester in England.  This makes the name appeal to people in the UK and  would explain why  they have a big fan base in the UK.

The social background would be very similar to other indie bands simply because of the age of the teenagers . They would most likely have a part-time job, enjoy going out with friends, and are basically living the student life.

There is no main gender that the Manchester Orchestra would specifically appeal to. This is due to the style  of the music appealing to everyone, a recurring theme in the indie genre.

Artic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an indie rock band formed in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England in 2002 after meeting at Stocksbridge High School. The band consists of Alex Turner (vocals, guitar), Jamie Cook (guitar), Nick O’Malley (backing vocals, bass) and Matt Helders (drums, vocals). Founding bassist Andy Nicholson left in 2006.

The band has released five studio albums, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2006), “Favourite Worst Nightmare” (2007), “Humbug” (2009), “Suck It and See” (2011) and “AM” (2013), all of which debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart.

The band’s rise to success started in late 2004/early 2005 when demo songs which had been handed out in CD form at gigs found their way onto the internet. These demos rapidly spread among message boards and friends leading to a growing fan base for the band, and were collected on the unofficial Beneath the Boardwalk, which the band recognizes on their website. The band owe much of their success to viral buzz via the Internet, and have eschewed typical ‘commercial’ channels, including refusing to appear on the UK’s (now discontinued) Top Of The Pops music program, which was often seen as a gateway to success. 

 

The typical ages for the Artic Monkeys fans tend to be people in their late teens and some younger. This has came about as one of the ways in which they became popular was through online promoting which is more popular among younger age groups, as most of the time they are more technologically advanced. This resulted in the bulk of their fan base being younger, however as they became more popular one could see that the typical age of their fans gradually became a little older such as people in their late teens and 20's.

My main source for finding the location of listeners has been Last.Fm, however one can also see that the Artic Monkeys have a huge fan base in the UK as this is where the Artic Monkeys established their band and the majority of their concerts have been in the UK. Using Last.Fm one can see their popularity worldwide and this is due to them being a band of the "Internet Age", meaning it is easier to promote music worldwide and for a band to trend worldwide. Evidence of this is listeners across the world in Australia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, The US and even Viet Nam. Overall their main location of listeners would be the UK but they are well known worldwide.

The social background of listeners of this band would be mainly students and people living the university life. This is because their fan base is relatively young. Many of their fans would also have a keen interest in music and most of their friends in their friend group would listen to similar music, and also as other indie bands, their fans have a broad taste in music. Due to their age they would be interested in style, music, going to concerts and out clubbing with friends. One can see how the age and music taste of a fan can greatly affect their social background.

There is no specific gender that dominates the fan base of the Artic Monkeys as their music is appealing to everyone and is not intended for males rather than females, or vice versa. It is becoming more apparent that with indie artists, their music seems to appeal to a wide range of audiences and does not specifically focus on one group more than the other.

The spends and interests of fans of the Artic Monkeys would consist of the typical student income, possibly a part-tim job and university loans. However the slightly older fans may just be starting a full-time job. Their interests would be concerts, shopping in less mainstream stores for items that appeal to them, clothes and albums. Also an interest would be going on nights out with friends.

Pop Indie Artists

Below is a list of some of the indie bands/artists we looked into. When researching these indie artists, we looked at many of their youtube videos, websites, facebook pages and listeners on last.fm and by doing so we were able to look at the codes and conventions throughout their music videos, what recurring techniques were used in the video, the bands' website and the layout, and also the target audience in which we wanted our music video to appeal to:



Ed sheeran
Lana Del Rey
Imagine dragons
Rhye
The Smiths
The temper Trap
the xx
artic monkeys
the vaccines
vampire weekend
Kodaline

Research - Indie Pop

The genre of music we have chosen for our video is indie pop. Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock which originated in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally and often still a form of independent music, it is closely associated with indie rock, both genres are similar, yet there are differences between both. Indie rock tends to be edgier, rougher and harsher-sounding, contrasting the more melodious indie pop. Indie pop additionally takes influences from 1960s girl group music and power pop, often giving it retro elements, and makes usage of jangly guitars. We aim to create a music video for a slow indie pop song, with this video we could create a sense of romance and love in a romantic acoustic sound. 

With indie pop music video certain codes and conventions apply, in that a light sunshine filter is usually added to the image. Also the way in which the story of the video is conveyed is very similar in a lot of indie pop videos, a story is shown with shots of the band playing the song.

Live Performance-

It is very common for artists in the indie genre to do a live performance for their music video. This way the main focus is on them as performers doing what they love to do. It also keeps the focus on the actual music itself and the talent that the artists have. This is very typical in the indie genre as the genre itself was never about success but more the music and the passion that the people have to perform and play. A modern twist is now often put on this with a narrative included in-between to break up the music video and give it a story for the reader. Also there is more room to play around with the video if a narrative is included so many artists tend to use this technique a lot. It also helps them to compete with other genres who make narrative videos that are heavily based around a story to make it more memorable. Live performances also promote the artist as people will realise how natural they are and that they can actually sing well and sound the same when live. It takes a lot charisma to be able the play an instrument and still perform so the live performance option highlights artists talents in a good way and can therefore attract an audience.

Narratives-

A narrative video is used to tell a story throughout the video by using a sequence of images and videos that relate to the song. This is done in such a way that it makes sense to the audience so they can follow and link it to the lyrics. This is very popular with all genres as it leaves room for the imagination. There are so manny different variations of this used and there’s a lot of room for creativity which can leave a video very memorable to the audience. This is a great way of making a music video stand out from the crowd and making it popular. This is because there are many variations so you can make it as different and wacky as you like. Also, now due to new developments in technology, new storylines can be created using special effects to make the video look more realistic but also exciting. Narrative videos also hold peoples attention better in comparison to a live performance as what you are seeing is constantly changing and keeps people entertained at all times. Even people who arent necessarily a fan of the artist may still enjoy the video so this method often helps people gain success and status.

  

Camera Shots - 

In music videos extreme close ups are the most common shots used as they introduce us to characters or the artist in the video. It may be done to highlight that they are singing or may be to show which emotion they are trying to convey to the audience. Full length shots are also commonly used to show the setting of the video and also give us a clear view of the artists and their outfits. This is important as a lot of artists are seen as style icons and therefore they need to be seen fully in the video. The setting also needs to be seen as it will help us understand the message behind the video  and the reasonings for it. Crane shots are used mainly in live performances as it allows you to get the artist from many different angles and also helps to keep the focus on them throughout. This looks very effective in videos as it is very continuous and hardly leaves the artist. Tilts or pans are used to make the setting clear and can move from left to right to see the full set and get the most out of the choice of location. This can often help tell the story as it may be a key feature to the video.

Sound - 

This is obviously very important in a live performance as we are are hearing it directly from the instruments being played and therefore can appreciate the talent. Different effects can be added to the sound to either distort it, fade it or even increase it to convey different emotions in the video or even different characters if voices are changed. Diegetic sounds are also used throughout a lot to help set the scene at either the end or the beginning before the main song is introduced.

Editing - 

Editing is now relied on a lot to make a music video successful especially in the indie genre to give it that old fashioned effect. Almost all videos now will have some sort of effect on them to make it either run more smoothly or to even add special effects to make it more interesting. Fast and slow cuts between shots often reflect the pace of the music and link with it well. This helps to put across the mood in the video and also how they want the audience to feel, this interlinks with the editing used in the actual video. Effects are often added over the top of videos to make them look old and worn like they are being played from old tapes. This links into the indie pop genre and is very common in videos today. A black and white effect used to convey this but sometimes a sepia tone works too, to make it seem more rustic and raw. Special effects used in videos to make the artists fly or anything else thats unusual make it more interesting for the audience and once again highlight how new advances in technology are very important and beneficial to the music industry.

Visually, we were inspired by photographic double exposures. Fragmented portraits, created by using human figures as windows into partial landscapes, served as a great way to show characters that are marginalised or internally divided. In this style of image manipulation we would like to show the true internal feelings of our characters and double exposure is a great way of portraying this. In researching this method of visual editing we realised that a photographer called Dan Mountford was very influential in this movement. Here are some of his images:

Also, during our research of this type of photography we wanted to examine whether there were any moving images that featured double exposure. As we explored this we came across the title opening on a TV show True Detective. This features a number of double exposure images to portray the internal challenges of the characters. 

These opening credits are an interesting blend of character portraits and landscape. I hope to include double exposure either in my main product or my ancillary pieces as it is an effective way of image manipulation to create a theme for the band.

Target Audience

Indie bands can attract large crowds at concerts. These crowds are usually made out of young adults who are familiar with the online environment and like to impulse buy things like ticket concerts and different online products. They are the perfect audience for many online businesses which are very interested in creating ads in order to attract these crowds.



Fans of the indie genre are typically introverted, intellectual and creative. According to researchers, they also tend to be more laid back and less gentle. Passivity, anxiousness are other common personality characteristics.

Generally male audiences aged between 15-24 years old are the target audiences for indie. This may be because they have similarities in the clothes they wear and the indie culture and lifestyle may relate to the male audiences.

We found that fans of the indie genre generally all listen to the same artists and would hang around with the same people and in the same environment. They tend to be of a younger generation and up to date with all new music, it's product and the way of consuming it. Indie music has a very big fan base, however, this could make it harder to appeal to the target audience. We believe the best way to appeal to the target audience is to try and follow the normal codes and conventions of the indie genre as closely as possible, which would hopefully result in our video and band appealing to the majority of indie lovers.

Indie genre- what is indie music?

The term "indie" traditionally refers to independent art -- music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture -- created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing. In music, for example, the term refers to music produced and funded by any band or label not affiliated with the four or five major corporate labels like Sony or Epic. The same holds true generally for the music and film industry.

Ryan Schreiber, the editor and founder of Pitchfork Media, a popular online magazine that chronicles the indie music scene, said the definition also embodies a sense of idealism and an anti-corporate attitude.

Eugene Hernandez, editor-in-chief of indieWIRE, a site dedicated to independent movies, said the definition of indie was founded on the virtues of self-publishing and self-releasing books, magazines, tapes, records, and just about everything else from buttons to clothing to posters. "If you're going to be as strict as possible, the only definition was DIY -- do it yourself," he said, referring to the ethos of the punk bands and labels that flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Since the scene's inception in the late 1970s with the advent of punk, some say that the term indie has evolved into something that has far less meaning than the original rebellious, creative, do-it-yourself aesthetic. "For me indie is convenient to use as a term, but it's hard to actually accept that it actually exists on any meaningful level now," said McCabe, who is best known for his work with Interpol -- a popular band from New York City who, coincidentally, just left their indie label to sign with Capitol, one of the largest major labels around. According to critics, indie is now nothing more than a branding tool: a highly commercial and money-driven movement, more concerned with marketing a particular image instead of culture with a truly independent nature and passion for its art.

Another factor that has erased the line between what it means to be indie and what it means to be corporate is emerging technology like the Internet and file-sharing systems that have allowed for more accessibility and better distribution for smaller labels and imprints. "The Internet is definitely the most significant influence on indie culture at the moment," Schreiber said. Online outlets such as iTunes and MySpace have made it easier for fans to find original music, or for bands to set up their own sites and distribute their own music. And video uploading sites like YouTube allow aspiring filmmakers to showcase their work to potentially millions of people, without viewers ever having to step inside a movie theater.

The term "indie" is used to describe any music produced by artists working within the network of independent record labels.

Research - Music Genres

For our A2 practical piece in media studies, we must create a music video. To choose the correct genre to reach a certain audience we are going to research different types and genres of music to give us an insight on what is popular and the certain conventions of these genres. How we are going to determine the type of music we are going to use for our video is to ask people from our school some questions about their favourite genre of music, and how this music is portrayed through music videos.


The most popular genres of music are:
Pop
Rock
Indie

Pop -
Pop music is typically shown as fun, upbeat, colourful and happy. The music videos for this genre is usually fast-paced and edited in such a way that attempts to make the audience feel happy about what they have watched.



In this video the colours are very vibrant, and it is edited to make the audience feel excited and to make the actions of the people on screen look exciting and fast-paced.
If we chose this genre of music we would have to make sure our video is as colourful as this one.

Rock -
In these videos the artist or band are usually featured and they tend to include many long shots, close-ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close-ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.



In this video the band are the main feature of this video and keep a sense of the music. They maintain the rock vibe held by the video and they effectively use a combination of live performance and images of victims of war which work together to make people aware of the goings on in the world. The way this video is made, shows a contrast between the band who are standing together and the people in the images, who are alone. Rock videos almost always feature live performance, but they do not always feature narrative. If we chose to make a video for a song in the rock genre, we would have to ensure the live performance in the video has the energy and passion of the band when they recorded their song.

Indie-

In these videos there is very often both live performance and narrative, with also a filter of the video which makes the video have a rugged look to it. The narrative in the videos often tell the story of the song and the live performance elements are added to make the profile of the band bigger and to showcase their talent.




This video features a lot of live performance with the band showing up in random locations, playing instruments and singing. This gives the video a sense of bewilderment and is much like videos from the alternative genre. This videos colours are very bland and suit the indie genre.