IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE THE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
In our music video we made specific decisions to adhere to the conventions of our genre so we could be sure to appeal to our target audience. For examples we used imagery associated with alcohol such as red cups and a shaky hand held camera, this can be sen in Modern Baseball's The Weekend and is common among indie artists as it uses Dyer's star theory and shows the band as youthful and rebellious which s appealing to a teenage target audience as well as older people who want to reminisce.
We also took a lot of inspiration from other media products in terms of our lighting, we wanted to convey the professional aesthetic shown in the performance elements of music videos so we used a black backdrop and coloured lights to showcase the band's musical talent. This is a key part of indie music videos as the USP of indie is that its entirely organic and 'real' compared to manufacture pop artists and the intimate gig setting and lighting conveys that. This lighting can be seen in Bry's music video for Alright.
We also made sure to include plenty of closeups and extreme closeups of the instruments and lip syncing as these shots are conventional of indie videos as they once again emphasise the musicality of the artists. Also, through the facial expressions and emotion conveyed through the band members it allows the audience to engage emotionally with the song and coincide with the indentification elements of uses and gratifications that dictate that audiences want to see media that is relatable and see themselves reflected in media. One example of this is the shots of Ben Barlow in Neck Deep's A Part of Me.
We also used indie conventions in our narrative sections as we wanted to show our band as extremely down to earth and accessible to our audience so we shot them messing around and having fun which is inspired by the Front Bottoms acting silly and juvenile in the video for Fireworks. This again works with Dyer's star theory as he dictates that stars should show elements of youth and we thought the most effective way to do this is through playful shots in the park and showing the bond between the band.
Costumes was another area we decided would be best left conventional, while analysing music videos such as Honey by Swimdeep we saw that dark skinny jeans and t-shirts were among the most common outfits seen on men in music videos of the genre so we chose to put the frontman in a slightly different baseball shirt in the performance sections to make him stand out and then in the narrative we chose to put them all in different outfits including flannel shirts and t-shirts as these are intrinsic to indie culture as a whole.
Natural settings were used in our music video as we found this to be another convention of indie music videos while conducting our research as it emphasises the musicality and 'organic' nature of the band with quite obvious symbolism but it also appeals to the more free spirited and adventurous fanbase indie music has. We used this in our music video as not only did it associate our band with something beautiful and positive but it is also a key feature in the area we live and we wanted to show it the best we could in our music video as small town indie bands are often the most popular because hard work is valued over money and production value in the indie scene.
Images of the crowds and party aspect of our video was an important convention to include because it showed the engagement between the artist and audience which is a key element of the indie genre as the artists should be more accessible in this genre as the music itself holds more feeling and deep emotional connections, this technique can also be seen in Modern Baseball's The Weekend.