Analysis of a Music Video - Genre

I analysed a music video that fitted into the genre conventions due to gathering a greater understanding. The reasoning for this, is to base our own music video with all the different conventions for this genre. 

I chose the artist Katie Tunstall - "Other Side Of The World." I felt that this song had more similarities with our chosen song, therefore allowing a wider range of analysis. 

Sound:


This song has a slow beat with strong sounds of instruments. In comparison to the artist that we chose the song to create a video to, for coursework, it also has a slow beat with heavy instruments creating the beat. Katie Tunstall fits into the genre of indie, due to the lyrics and beats of the music, however, not being what  most people associate indie music with, I feel that both songs fit well together. 


Editing:


In this music video, it heavily relies on editing showing the 'two sides' of the story. The male and female sides. This gives the viewer a different aspect of a music video. Comparing this music video with Audrianna Cole's, the editing has a wider techniques that is needed. 'Misplaced' is a narrative story line, therefore need more 'behind the scenes' editing, with the changing of scenes and shots. Where as "Other Side Of The World" can be seen visually throughout the video. 


Mise en Scene:


During this video, the mise en scene is used in 'every day life' where as in Audrianna Cole's video the props that are used are very fairy-tale, following the narrative. The clothing again, during 'Misplaced' is very magical, following the story line, where as the video above is just casual clothing. 

Research on Indie Clothing

To gather a greater understanding of what indie clothing is, so that the digi pack will really show the conventions of the genre or in fact push the conventions. I therefore did some research on the clothing.

The definition of indie is independant. This means that indie covers a wide range of clothing as it is what individual people decide on what to wear and what their style is. Girls tend to wear dresses and big cardigans with ankle boots topped with leather or denim jackets. From that style to the other extreme, it could be the most outragious clothing and would still class as indie, therefore this genre is hard to define. All types of genres could be added together and it would overall be classed as indie. Alexa Chung is a great icon to see what is classed as indie.

Simillar Editing

For another aspect of research, I compared the music video of Audrianna Cole 'Misplaced' with Sarah Barailles 'Love Song' to show editing. The reason that I am comparing editing with each music video, is that it shows me a more in depth understanding of why editing is used, and how it is used to create a better music video for the audience.

However, the comparision to both of the music videos, could not be classed as having the same aspects. Due to the fact that Sarah Barailles' music video is very heavily edited, and featured all through out the video. The editing consists of the artist made to appear within a music box is her being tiny playing the panio.

In comparison to the music video above, Audrianna Cole's video is edited simplistic to add effects. When filming our music video, I feel that i will use the approach of Audrianna Cole's music video.

Simillar Camera

To understand the nesscary camera angles and durations of shots, I compared a simillar music video that had many of the shots in both music videos. The music video that i compared our artist's music video with is 'Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles'.

The reason for using this artist's music video is due to the fact that long shots are very heavily featured within her video. Wide angles and ariel shots are also used often compared to extreme close ups. The reasoning for this, is that it allows the viewer to really gather the understanding of the narrative that is created.

Also within both music videos, the duration of shots are slow. Again, creating a more in depth focus to the linear narrative. However, there is a risk with a slow cutting rate, as the audience could become bored and lose concentrating, compared to a faster cutting rate.

Now that i have created a greater understanding for camera angles within a music video, simillar to the artist that i have chosen. I now understand that long shots and wide angles are nesscary to use to make it clear to the audience what is happening. However, with filming our music video, I feel that the cutting rate will be quicker to grab a greater understanding of the narrative within the video.

Similar Narrative

Expanding from genre research, I decided to compare our artist with another artist, in this case a band, that also had a narrative in their music video. The music video that I thought would be best to compare with is, 'One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It'. 

The reasoning for this, is that it features a linear narrative. This is where a story line is running in the correct order. In lesson a while back, we annotated this music video taking out a few key notes that carried the most importance. Due to the fact that we were focusing upon the linear narrative. 

One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It' has the narrative of boy met girl. The boy  is rebellious being chased out of corner shops and running through the busy streets. However, unexpectedly, they are personified as dogs, which is then apparent at the end of the video. The female dog (girl actress) is taken in a rich looking car with a well manicured car. However the male dog is left. This could mean that one got famous and the other didn't. 

Therefore, both videos have a narrative, which we could ultimately take inspiration from this video. 

Indie Genre Research - Simillar Music

Audrianna Cole (our chosen unsigned artist) is classed in the indie genre. Therefore, I decided to gather a gerater understanding of this genre, so that when it comes to creating our own music video, we can provide the key factors that is included within this genre. 


For sound, I felt that the artist, Amy McDonald, shared huge simillarites to our artist that we chose. They both have the same singing style, which I feel is almost 'country'; however, they are both classed as indie.   

The beat to both the songs, are also quite simillar due to the insturstments used and the climax of the songs. The are tend to be quite slow but quicken the beat slowly.

Simillar Music Video

I created a prezi to show simillar indie artists compared with our chosen unsigned artist. I have placed the music video along with the simillarites along with Audrianna Cole. 

Copy of Copy of Similar music videos on Prezi

Genre

David Buckingham - 'Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather. it is in a constant process of negation and change'


What does the indie genre want:

• Different to mainstream
• Stand out
• Low quality budget
• Authentic
• Challenge
• Rejection
• Inclusion
• D.I.Y - Hand held, Low light
• Does something different 
• Natural Surroundings
• Instruments
• Artist identity
• Genre performance 
• Narrative - Rise to stardom

Cross genre: Where artists are in a particular genre but use conventions from other genres

Hybrid: Combination of two genres 

How I could use this information for filming of a music video:

From brainstorming ideas of what people want from indie music, it provides information that i should require within the filming of our music video. In most cases of indie videos there are a narrative story line, taking this idea, i could produce a story that is in connection with the lyrics in the chosen song. 

Artist identity will be featured heavily throughout the filming of the music video. The reason for this, is that fans of the indie genre expect many shots to be filmed with the artist.  

There will be the sense of a low budget film, due to the fact that its purely a D.I.Y music video. 

To push the conventions of this genre, the use of natural surroundings could be twisted into a abstract image. Along with the natural surroundings that would be altered, the narrative aspect could also be changed to a way that is not expected.