After researching into indie band videos I both challenged and followed their conventions in my own music video.

Clothing and props: Typically in indie music videos the band wear casual/cool clothing for example both the arctic monkeys and the 1975 wear dark clothing with their lead singers wearing leather jackets giving them a cool persona. I got my band to dress in more casual style clothing adding their own personal style as I wanted their personalities to show. Indie videos tend not to use props as it’s cheesy and they are all about their music. The band will always been shown with their instruments at some point in the video, I do this a lot on my video as I wanted my bands love of music to show. Going against normal non prop conventions my video included bright vibrant paint, something that also goes against the constant black and white themes seen in videos such as Arabella by arctic monkeys, I took a huge inspiration from Girl by The 1975 a video that pokes fun at indie band conventions.

Camera angles and editing: indie videos tend to use a range of camera angles including hand held shots giving them a rough around the edges feel I used this a lot in my video particularly with the camera phone footage something that hasn’t been done in other indie videos but I felt it showed the personalities of my band something I constantly wanted to do as indie bands tend to show off their cheeky side. The star image is also a common use in indie videos showing the lead singer in close ups or central in a group shot, the 1975 do this in their girls video. It is also common to show a close up off the drummer playing his instrument or of a guitar being played as again indie bands are all about the music. A long studio shot is also a convention of indie videos as this shows the band playing their music and the simplicity of the studio goes with their style. Straight cut editing is the most common form of editing in indie videos as over complicated cuts wouldn’t go with their style however thought beats are used a lot making the visuals go pleasingly with the beats of the track after looking at two door cinema clubs ‘what you know’ video I chose to use thought beats alongside my paint. Some videos such as Arabella by arctic monkeys play around the reversing shots and speed of shots, I chose to do this in my video slowing, speeding a reversing shot with the powder paint as I felt this both went with the theme of my band but challenged a typical indie music video. After looking at walk of earth red hand video I chose to experiment with

speeding up my track beforehand filming in a sped up motion and later slowing it down in editing, when editing I realised my scenes could have been sped of even more to look more effective in my video but the effect is still there. Black and white is an obvious theme in indie band videos and is used in most, I didn’t want to keep my video black and white all the way through so I used vibrant paint and edited translucent colours over the top of shots to make my video more interesting and challenge some conventions. I kept the vibrant theme throughout my video, digipak, poster and website and took a huge influence from band the 1975 as they do the same throughout all their works.

Locations: Indie bands keep their locations simple using low class settings for example Arabella uses a dingy club for some of their footage. More modern indie videos tend to use some form of studio shots as this gives the band an opportunity to show off playing their instruments without any distractions around them. The 1975 girls is shot completely in a studio. Indie music videos tend to follow one of these three concepts. Number one ‘pure band’ this will show the band in a studio playing or practising their instruments, it may also show hand held footage of the band doing normal things. Number 2 ‘pure narrative’ this video doesn’t include the band but is more like a short film, although this video doesn’t include the band it still follows the style of indie bands for example the arctic monkeys ‘when the sun goes down’ still uses settings/styles that indie bands aim for. And three both narrative and performance – this is the most common style for indie bands however the narrative isn’t always necessarily clear or relevant to the lyrics. I chose to produce a pure performance video as my band is all about its music and I really wanted to show off their personalities. Originally I had three locations to shoot at but due to problems such as unreliable band members and weather I was unable to do this so I changed my storyboard slightly still following the conventions of an indie band but just shooting in the studio. I was worried that this could get boring so I research pure performance based videos and found miles kane’s video ‘rearrange’ changed the background colour of the studio throughout to keep its audience interested I chose to do something like this in my video as this also followed my theme of adding colour to the video ultimately breaking the typical indie band conventions.

Digipak: In order to create my digipak I researched digipaks of the same genre to my work, I found that there are two types of digipaks a band can follow depending on their style as a whole and the style they were aiming for within the songs on that particular album. For example both arctic monkeys self-titled album and the 1975s self-titled album uses a simple black and white theme that goes with the almost all black and white videos of their videos for the album. The vampire weekends self-titled album uses a colourful chaotic theme giving the album personality. I chose to do the same with my digipak, I wanted to show the chaotic side to the band as shown in the IPhone footage in the video so chose to place random and funny items together in the studio I shot the video in. Items from the front alongside individual screen shots (compare to the kooks film strips bit) of the band are on the inside of the digipak keeping a theme flow through the digipak just like arctic monkeys album with the cigarettes. I used a screen shot of the powder pain as a background for the track list and behind the photo booth strips as I felt this was more interesting than just plain white and linked the video and album together. I looked into booklets in album covers and chose to include one in my own as I feel this gives the band a chance to connect with their fans something indie bands are big on as they have a huge respect for their fans and music. I added sections such as ‘stupid things we have said’ because I felt this added to the cheeky funny lads we had seen in the music video something fans would fall in love with. I kept my CD plain black and simple with the band logo on top in white as this is something indie bands tend to do, I chose black because this section of the digipak is the only one kept in black and white linking back to those moments in my video and making it stand out. I felt I should include the final shot of the video on my digipak and website as this linked all three together and is a memorable shot advertising the band and using the star image to show off the lead singer.

Poster: indie bands tend not to release posters as it doesn’t go with their laid back image however some have released digital posters to advertise gigs or albums. I kept the background of my poster black as this is an obvious indie colour and it allowed my band logo and text stand out. Indie bands identify with their band logo and include it on almost anything they release as it is seen as iconic to fans. I used objects of the album cover just like I did with the photo booth strips as I felt this connected the two and made it familiar to fans, many

indie bands tend to use the album cover but I felt this to be boring. I made the font of the album title bigger as I wanted this to stand out, I also included the twitter and website address of the band keeping it up to date with advertising today.

Website: I looked at websites from bands such as the 1975 and vampire weekend for inspiration on creating my own and found they don’t necessarily stick by the black and white convention of some other indie bands websites. Due to the nature of my music video I felt this would work well so I chose a bright and almost girly background to my website breaking the dark conventions. Like the 1975 website I kept my band logo in the top left corner. My album is advertised at the top of the page as indie bands want to get their music out there, I also included a large black and white picture of the band playing as like I have stated it’s all about the music. As you scroll down the homepage you come to the picture from the video and digipak connecting all three items together. I also included a short bio on the band as indie bands audiences tend to be people who want to know about them and their life the 1975 have a whole page dedicated to writing entries for fans to read and keep up to date. Below this are the tracks of the album and a picture of one of the objects of the album cover I wanted to keep this a theme through everything. The 1975 new album follows a pink theme and so they changed the album to follow the same theme making it familiar to fans. Below this are tour dates bands tend to have these on the homepage as this is a main source of income for bands. Indie band websites always have a page dedicated to their music including links to videos and where you can download/buy the music. The gallery allows fans to feel connected to the band indie fans tend to feel a strong connection to the band as see them more as friends something indie bands aim for. Finally at the bottom of my page I have contact information, every bands website has a page for this as it’s an easy way to advertise and makes it easier for fans to get in touch. My website follows many conventions of a modern indie band and keeps with the theme of my digipak and video.