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The song that we chose to make a video for is a combination of both indie and electronic music styles. For this reason we have included a range of conventions that are shared between the genres, as well as exclusive to them. The main concept of our video (having a projection over the performers) isn't strictly related to either of these genres, but there are certain conventions that we have stuck to. The majority of indie music videos have shots of the band performing. Sometimes they will include a rough narrative or shots of the band doing things; whether this be going about their daily business or causing mischief at a party. We have put to use all three of these elements, although not in an entirely conventional way. In indie videos the band is usually shown performing on stage and there is often a lot of fast cuts between this and focusing (extreme close up shots) on the instruments they are playing (see A & B, screen shots from the video for Foals' song Balloons). We decided against using this sort of shot as firstly it would have been impractical - neither me nor Billy play an instrument, it would be difficult to obtain one to film with and would have looked ridiculous as we would not have known what we were doing. We also felt that the sombre mood of the song would not have been suited to a fast-paced performance scene. Performance shots are also typical to electro videos, so we decided that it was essential to have some kind of shot that follows this convention. Because we'd already decided against using instruments the only real option we had was to use lip syncing. This is where we conceived the idea of using a projector in our video as we decided it would add a 'quirk', us simply miming against a plain background would have been very dull, also that is a convention more typically used in pop videos. Many electro videos make use of odd or surreal visuals (see screen shot C and screen shot D, taken from Foals' video for the song '2 Trees'), whether this be animation or simply illustrations in the background. This is what influenced the montage video that I created for us to project. As the projection scenes were to make up the bulk of our video, the atmosphere that this montage creates is essential for our video to work and to convey the message that we wish it to. This is why I selected mainly ambiguous and slightly surreal clips, for example clips from the cartoon The Simpsons (see screen shot E), as well as clips of a woman dancing to a snake, taken from the classic film Indian Tomb. When editing our video we also added overlays, using a video called 'Trippy Visuals' (see screen shot F, you can just about make out rainbow-y patterns). This also makes reference to the drink/ drug culture that I talk about in slide three. A B C D E F

Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

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Page 1: Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

 The song that we chose to make a video for is  a combination of both indie and electronic music styles. For this reason we have included a range of conventions that are shared between the genres, as well as exclusive to them. 

The main concept of our video (having a projection over the performers) isn't strictly related to either of these genres, but there are certain conventions that we have stuck to.The majority of indie music videos have shots of the band performing. Sometimes they will include a rough narrative or shots of the band doing things; whether this be going about their daily business or causing mischief at a party. We have put to use all three of these elements, although not in an entirely conventional way.

 In indie videos the band is usually shown performing on stage and there is often a lot of fast cuts between this and focusing (extreme close up shots) on the instruments they are playing (see A & B, screen shots from the video for Foals' song Balloons). We decided against using this sort of shot as firstly it would have been impractical - neither me nor Billy play an instrument, it would be difficult to obtain one to film with and would have looked ridiculous as we would not have known what we were doing. We also felt that the sombre mood of the song would not have been suited to a fast-paced performance scene. Performance shots are also typical to electro videos, so we decided that it was essential to have some kind of shot that follows this convention. Because we'd already decided against using instruments the only real option we had was to use lip syncing. This is where we conceived the idea of using a projector in our video as we decided it would add a 'quirk', us simply miming against a plain background would have been very dull, also that is a convention more typically used in pop videos. Many electro videos make use of odd or surreal visuals (see screen shot C and screen shot D, taken from Foals' video for the song '2 Trees'), whether this be animation or simply illustrations in the background. This is what influenced the montage video that I created for us to project. As the projection scenes were to make up the bulk of our video, the atmosphere that this montage creates is essential for our video to work and to convey the message that we wish it to. This is why I selected mainly ambiguous and slightly surreal clips, for example clips from the cartoon The Simpsons (see screen shot E), as well as clips of a woman dancing to a snake, taken from the classic film Indian Tomb. When editing our video we also added overlays, using a video called 'Trippy Visuals' (see screen shot F, you can just about make out rainbow-y patterns). This also makes reference to the drink/ drug culture that I talk about in slide three.

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Page 2: Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

There are also some clips that relate closely to the lyrics, for example when the singer says 'Smile at your name', the projection shows a close up of the female character's smile. When I first heard this song, I imagined an outcast, nerdy man, reminiscing about the unattainable girl with whom he has an unhealthy obsession. This man looks at his obsession through rose-tinted glasses, seeing himself as a romantic, rather than just a freak who is aiming higher than his station. Although this sounds a rather macabre analogy, I think this quite heavily inspired out video, as the theme of it basically is a couple looking back at what they have lost. Although the montage is seemingly random, it could be memories that are shared between the couple.

Many indie/ electro bands use hand drawn illustration on their albums. The album cover that really influenced the one that I've created is 'Antidotes' by Foals. This wasn't actually purposeful, but I think there was a subconscious influence as after I'd created it realised that it had an uncanny resemblance to the 2008 album cover, which is one of my favourites. I used a picture of space in this as that is something that, at the moment, is quite fashionable with the whole Indie 'image'. I couldn't find text that I liked so I drew an alphabet and scanned it in to the computer so I could create the words I wanted in Photoshop. On the blank sections I had intended to put lyrics, but the band that wrote our song is relatively unknown, they don't have an album out and I couldn't find any of their lyrics online – I didn't fancy composing my own. I could have filled these sections in with drawings like the one I did for the cover, but that would have been very time consuming (it took me about three hours to draw that).

Page 3: Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

Music videos made for young artists generally hint at the drink and drug culture that is prevalent in today's youth society. This convention is true for many music videos, although this decadent behaviour is presented in noticeably different ways depending on the genre of the song in question. For example, the artist in an RnB video is usually depicted as drinking and partying at much swankier locations than an indie band, for example in a club or on a boat. A pop artist is usually shown at a 'controlled' party. Not to say that these parties aren't depicted as wild, but this is the easiest way for me to differentiate between this and the kind of party that may be shown in an indie or electronic video. In indie videos, young people are often seen causing chaos at the kind of 'parents have gone on holiday'-style house party, whereas in a pop video the parties don't appear to be nearly as destructive and are definitely allowed to be happening. The 'house-party culture', made popular by shows such as Skins and endorsed by indie-electro bands like Foals, shows a much less polished and a more realist view of young people's social lives. This being said, I don't actually know anyone that holds house parties, but I suppose it is more conceivable than a seventeen year old riding around on a yacht and drinking cocktails.

There is another scenario that is shown in indie videos which generally wish to convey a rougher vibe. This scenario usually depicts a smaller group of people, drinking or using drugs in much grittier settings, usually places like car parks or skate-parks. Often they are shown doing so in the day time rather than night, which promotes the idea of the 'fucked-up generation' – a sane, wholesome, nicely brought up young person would not get out of their head in the daytime. We decided that this was more suitable for our video. The first reason is that it fits well with the 'rough and ready' sort of feel that we were going for in our video, we wished to depict troubled youths. Secondly, it was much more practical than staging an entire party solely to film a couple of scenes (although now I think of it, I should have tried 'Mum, let me have a house party; I need to for my media coursework).

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Young people shown acting decadently in a skate park in Foals' 'Inhaler'

Characters in our video shown drinking and smoking in a

carpark

Jason Derulo in a club scene in the 'Riding Solo' video. You can clearly see drinks in the shot. This is a very typical RnB video

Lady Gaga's 'Pokerface' video.

To illustrate the pop convention of a 'controlled'

party.

Page 4: Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

It almost goes without saying that hand in hand with this culture comes sex. Sex will always be part of young people's lives, not just because this is what we are told that we are supposed to like by the media, but for obvious scientific reasons too. Alongside hormones comes a morbid fascination with anything that can be deemed slightly sexual.

Representation of sex is presented in several different ways, but I don't believe these representations are genre specific, but rather more dependent on the general theme of the song, or the image that the industry/ artist wishes to present for that artist. Undoubtedly, I am categorising these very broadly but it seems to me that most commonly sex will be presented in one of three ways. Firstly and most obviously, literal sex; often characters will be shown grinding with each other and making out – there will be little or no attachment between people shown. The second way is through romance and a utopian view of relationships, 'love'. The third way is probably the most controversial, so inevitably, this is how we decided to represent the relationship shown in our video. I am not entirely sure how to label this 'category', the easiest way would be to call it dis-utopian relationships, depicting mild violence between the couple, although also showing extreme passion. The reason that it is controversial is that many people believe that it glamorises abusive relationships, teaching young people that there is a link between love and violence. These relationships are shown as fiery affairs, much more exciting than the standard relationship. I also think that this kind of relationship seems to be attractive to young people as it does not look at the world through rose-tinted glasses, depicting 'love' – something that society tells us should be perfect and beautiful from a very young age. Many young people strive for the 'me and you against the world' mentality, we love the idea that even a stormy, far-from-perfect relationship is still stronger than the world outside, we wish to cling to each other desperately until there is nothing else left.

We took much of the inspiration for this aspect of the video from Rihanna's 'We Found Love'. Although this is not related to the genre of music that our song is, the video is completely typical of its own genre, and is more closely related to indie music videos,with much reference to drugs and the 'gritty' side of life that I mentioned on the previous slide. Our characters are shown smoking and drinking then proceed to have rough relations and argue violently.

Rihanna's 'boyfriend' in video shown roughly slapping and tattooing her behind with the word 'mine'

Male character in our video shown grabbing the girl's hair and treating her roughly + with force

Page 5: Mediapowerpoint, Charlie Hall

In recent years, clothes have become less exclusive to the genre in which an artist performs. In the past, it was much more straight forward to categorise artists on solely what they wear, you could look at a picture of that person and be able to tell what genre they performed in almost immediately - for example, female RnB artists would generally wear very revealing clothing, the males wearing baggy clothes or flashy-looking suits. I believe that one of the reasons the lines have blurred is that influential singers such as Rihanna or Beyonce who previously wore clothing very typical to their genre have become much more high fashion (A & B are screen shots from the video for Rihanna's 2005 song 'Pon de Replay'. C is a screen shot from the 2011 video to 'We Found Love'. The first two look typically 'gangster', and the top that she is wearing is very provocative. Although in C, she is wearing a short skirt, the outfit is intended to be a fashion statement rather than to turn people on.. What the man is wearing is much more similar to what the indie band Foals are wearing in screenshot F.)

The clothing we chose to wear in our video is fairly low key, as is typical to the indie/electro genre. We stuck to casual clothes,wearing shirts buttoned to the collar worn under woolly jumpers (see screenshots D & E), which is quite a typical 'indie' fashion currently. High fashion or flashy clothes aren't generally associated with this type of music video, male indie bands generally wearing simple clothes (see F), namely shirts and very skinny jeans. Female indie artists generally dress in quite an androgynous way (see the indie/electro artist La Roux, screenshot G), their clothing not differing highly from their male counterparts.

Indie and electronic bands do not generally present women in a particularly sexual way, as I mentioned it is common for these women to dress in quite an androgynous way. It would be very unusual to see a woman writhing about in a bikini in this genre of video, unless perhaps in a tongue in cheek way. Although these women are not shown as sexual objects, they are still often represented as the less dominant sex, the majority of musicians in this genre being male. I do not think this is a conscious statement about the roles that men and women should play as such, but merely a reflection of old stereotypes that still linger in today's society.

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