codes and conventions continued

It is very common in indie music videos to include a live performance. This helps focus on them as a performer doing what they love to do. It also helps keep the focus on the actual music itself and the talent that the artists have.  This is typical in the indie genre as the genre itself was more about the music and passion rather than about the success of the artist. A good example of this is Ed Sheeran.  A modern twist is often put on this with a narrative included to break up the music video. There is also more room to play around with the video if a narrative is included so a lot of artists tend to use a mixture of performance and narrative in the music videos. It also allows Indie artists to compete with artists of other genres who do narrative videos that are heavily based around a story to make it memorable.  Live performances promote the artist as the audience will be able to see what the artist is like live and it may make them want to see the artist live.

Narrative in music videos is used to tell a story by using a sequence of imaged and videos to 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 links with Goodwin’s theory of illustration and amplification.  Narrative is very popular with all genres of music as it leaves room for the imagination. There are a lot of different variations and there is a lot of room for creativity which can leave the video very memorable to the audience. This is a great way of making a music video stand out and making it popular. This is because there are a lot of different variations so you can make it as different as you like. Also, now due to new technology, new storylines can be created by using special effects and after effects to make the video look a lot more realistic and exciting. Narrative videos also keep peoples attention better in comparison to performance as what you are seeing is always changing and keeps you entertained. Even people who aren’t necessarily a fan of the artist may still enjoy the video so this method could help gain success and status.

Mise en scene plays a large role in music videos and especially in the indie genre. This is because a lot of indie artists often have a retro look and this can be created through the sets they use, props and also their own appearance. Props can change the whole look of the video. A good example of this is Lana Del Rey’s – National Anthem. The audience can see her glamorous and expensive looking house. This suggests to the audience that she is wealthy and well respected. Costumes give people their identity and set them apart from the rest. Makeup is also important as it can give us an indication as to which era the video is set in. For example, Paloma Faith has very subtly makeup in her videos wit a pale face and red lipstick, this suggests that her music and music videos are supposed to be similar to the 50s.

Web design ideas- Sigur Rós

Kodaline website

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.