Codes and Conventions of Indie/Rock Music Videos

The genre that I have picked to analyse is Indie/Rock, and I have looked at 2 videos to help me understand the codes and conventions used in music videos of this genre.




In Indie/Rock music videos you usually see the artist/band performing throughout the video. This is shown in Mumford & Sons video 'Little Lion Man'.

The video 'Naive' by The Kooks challenges this though, as there is a sense of performance in the video, but it is focused on one of the band singing, with the rest of the band in the background of the video. I think this is because the video is more narrative based than performance based, and so this challenges the typical codes and conventions of Indie/Rock music videos.

You also usually see the artist/band playing their own instruments in the music videos, and we can also see this in the 'Little Lion Man' video as they are all playing instruments and singing throughout the video.


There are popular camera techniques used in Indie/Rock videos, especially long shots and extreme close ups. In the Mumford and Sons video there are many extreme close ups of the artists playing the instruments, which shows them actually playing the instruments which shows to the audience their talent. 

There are also a lot of long shots used in the 'Little Lion Man' video as it shows all of the band playing all together.

Dark colour palettes are usually used in Indie/Rock music videos, and this is shown in The Kooks video 'Naive'. The video is very dark throughout, and is based at a gig. 

The Mumford and Sons video also has quite a dark colour palette, using mainly white lights and a grey background. The clothes they are wearing are also quite dull and dark, mainly whites grays and blacks. 

The editing usually used in Indie/Rock videos is quite fast paced, and a great example of this is Mumford and Sons 'Little Lion Man'. This is also parallel to the music in this video, as when the music speeds up, the editing and cuts between instruments become faster to. 

These are all examples of typical codes and conventions in Indie/Rock music videos.

Codes and Conventions of hiphop/rap

Mirror- Lil wayne.
Lil Wayne is an artist who very raely has a storyline in his video, he is very about the image
and trying to put across his record labl 'Young Money'

-Long shots on full body to show off the '6 pack and tattoo's'

- By having the top off and wearing sunglasses, shows a 'bad boy image'

-Having close ups on the artists face shows his teeth showing his diamond grills'

-Showing his tattoos and extreme close ups on them to show the different
tattoos and also if those tattoos have a certain meaning.

-Doesnt follow a storyline, the video just shows a warehosue with red and white paint being thrown around and the singer in the middle singing.
-Lighting stays very simular throughout quite dim and dark. The lights get brighter only a little when its close up in his face.

Other Examples Simular to the video.

Usher-Climax, this only uses 2 scenes and dimmed lights.

Tyga-Rack city this uses explict scens of poles dancers to show off woman, then the singer wearing lots of diamond jewelery and showing again the tattoo's.
Chris Brown ft Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne- look at me now
Based in a warehouse and no storyline that relates to the lyrics and shows off the bad boy image again.

I can transform ya- Chris Brown ft Lil wayne - Shows off the 'body' which is the girl appeal and also 'bad boy image' The video has nothing to do wih the lyrics either.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Music Video Name: Whats My Name - Rihanna Featuring Drake


Relationship between lyrics and visuals - There is no literal link between the lyrics of the song and the visuals, but as it has a very flirtatious narrative about a relationship it links in with the visuals. An example from the 'What's My Name' video is when the female refers to the male as taking his time - 'you took your time', the visuals then slowed down. 


Relationship between music and visuals - The music is parallel to the visuals in the Rihanna video. Short shot duration is used throughout the video, and as the music gets faster, the length of the shots also get shorter to match the music. 


Genre characteristics - In the video 'What's My Name', there are very stereotypical characteristics of R'n'B artists, here are a few examples:

• The video challenges the typical locations used in R'n'B videos as they are usually based at a party or a fancy location, whereas in this video it is set in the street and in a downtown supermarket.
• The video conforms to the conventions of R'n'B videos as an expensive looking house is used, the artists are well groomed with nice clothes and expensive jewellery (an example of when this is shown is with a close up of the female characters ring on her finger).

• The video also conforms with the use of camera work and techniques. In r'n'b videos, you tend to see lots of establishing shots and close ups to show the money involved. We can see these have been used in Rihanna's music video as there are establishing shots of the street and also in the house, and close ups of her jewelery and make up. 

Example of an establishing shot

• In R'n'B music videos the artists tend to always be involved, and so this video conforms to this as both artists - Rihanna and Drake are both involved in the music video.
• R'n'B videos do not normally follow a story line, they only follow the genre and so this video challenges this as it is based on a story of a female and male meeting and their relationship blossoming throughout the video.
• R'n'B videos usually use dominant, rich, bold colours, and we can see that this video conforms to this, for example the females clothes are dominantly black and white, and she has bold red colour on her lips.

Notions of looking - The female artist in the video is represented as an attractive female who would appeal to the male audience due to the clothes she is wearing and her body language. Camera techniques such as close ups are used to show her body parts such as her lips and bottom which shows sexual appeal. The female in this video is represented as an object, whereas the male is quite casual throughout the video.

Intertextual reference -  None involved in this video.

Base -  'Whats my Name' is a narrative based music video of two people meeting and showing affection towards each other, and the video shows us their relationship.

Demands of record label -  By conducting research on Rihanna and watching a few of her other videos, it is obvious that her record label want her to be sexually appealing to the audience. This is done in many ways, for example, her abstract fashion, her hair and bright, bold lipstick. These are motifs that we can see in most of her videos, and it is very obvious is this video, 'Whats My Name' by Rihanna featuring Drake. 

FINAL ISTOPMOTION MUSIC VIDEO

Background For Animation

Here are images of the background we created in order to produce our animation.

 This is an image of the Bratz dolls we are using as our main characters.



Shot Lists

Ideas For Animation (Mind Map)

Here is a mind map of all of our ideas for our animation music video. We thought about making models out of clay, but we found more negatives than there were positive. For example, it will be hard for us to create people out of the clay, and it will also be hard to change their positions (eg. their mouths) and then change them back to be in exactly the same place.

We also thought about making puppets, by drawing pictures and attaching them to sticks. This could have been a good idea as it will be easy for us to change their appearance but re-drawing the picture, although this may take a long time. We also then had the issue of how to hold the puppets without the camera seeing the sticks, which we don's want as it will ruin the effect of the animation.

We also thought about using lego to construct our animation. This would be easy for us to do, as we can create things easily, such as houses etc. It would also be easy for us to make new scenes. There are negatives with this though, as lego people are hard to move around as they can only bend in one direction, and are also not human like.

Our final decision for our animation music video is to use Barbie Dolls. This is because we can use male and female dolls, and it it obvious which is which. They are also very easy to move around as they are bendy and flexible. They are also very human like so it will fit in with the story of a girl and a boy. There are two negatives with using Barbie Dolls, one being that they may be difficult to stand up, but we have resolved this problem by deciding to use plasticine/blue tac on their feet in order for them to stand up without falling over. Another weakness is that they cannot change their facial expression, but this may add to the effect of using Barbies and also add to the humor of the video.

Animation idea

Our animation is going to be a narrative based animation music video. We have decided to do this as the lyrics to the song tell a story, and so we have decided to make our own story line out of the lyrics. We have also done this as it keeps people entertained throughout the video as they are following a story, and we hope that the animation and story we include will keep people entertained and make them want to watch our animation music video. 

    

We are going to follow the story of the song, and include two characters, a male and a female. We are going to use Barbie Dolls to play our characters as we have decided these will play and portray what we want our characters to be like, as it it obvious which is the female and which is the male. We also think this will bring some humor into our animation music video.

                

We are going to add clouds and a sun in the background of our animation, which are going to move to make it look more realistic and add detail to our animation music video. We are going to use a blue background to act as the sky, using green material for the grass. 

9 Shot Analysis

We chose to analyse Jessie J's music video 'Domino' as it is in the same genre as our chosen music video, 'Call Me Maybe' which is dance pop.
The videos are similar as they are eye catching and colourful. There are many camera techniques used in the Domino video, for example many close ups, medium shots and long shots. There are also canted shots used when she is leaning to the side, in which the camera follows her. The mise en scene is very sophisticated, which is mixed with fantasy as she is wearing a butterfly mask in parts of the video. Her costume is very colourful with many patterns, which engages people to watch the video as it is very eye catching and draws you in. There is a spotlight used throughout the video, especially when a long shot is used. It is a quite dark video, but the spotlight adds more effect on her and her outfit. Her body language matches the lyrics of the song, and as it is a dance pop song she is dancing and jumping around a lot. There are a lot of short shot durations used in the video, which is parallel to the fast, bouncy music.

The elements used in this music video are going to help us to construct our own animation as it has given us ideas on what sort of mise en scene and editing we should use in order to match the music.

Animation Song Choice.

We chose 'Call Me Maybe'- Carly-Rae-Jepson.
We picked this song as we can use a variety of camera angles and mise en scene. It is a happy, catchy song and it gives us a wide range of storylines which we could use in our own video. The original video is a fun video, and so we want to create a new version from our own ideas. It is dance pop genre, and we thought it would a fun song for us to create an animation for people to enjoy.