Today i looked at 4 music videos from the indie'alternative genre (as this is the genre of the band i will be making a video for). The band i am creating a video for is called Castaways and i looked to their influences to see which videos to look at.
I looked at the vaccines 'If You Wanna', White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army', Noah and The What 'Life Is Life' and Pulp 'Common People'.
The Vaccines video was just of the band playing on a stage with no audience and just different shades of lighting to accompany them. There was a focus on each of the band members but there was camera preference on the front man. The band was relatively new when this video came out so possibly it is just a video of the band playing because they only had a low budget for the video. Bright colours appear mainly throughout especially booming from one colour to another on the chorus. The dark blue comes on the bridge of the song where it slows down.
The White Stripes video uses special effectes to create an optical illusion of a triangular tunnel, which the band members are playing on and in. Yet again there is a focus on the bands performance rather than a story. Half way through the song skeleton warriors are also a part of it (maybe showing that this band had a bigger budget that other indie/alt. bands). the main colour theme is red white and black, possibly having connotations to anger and war.
Noah and the Whale's video is slightly different to the previous two as this one alternates from watching the band play to a actual story to follow. There is silence at the begining of the video and then as the music comes in, we watch as the girl runs in time with the music. the band are playing in the middle of an american field with cheerleaders surrounding them and a red white and blue backdrops (this could possibly be the British band trying to appeal to an american audience and 'break' America, as it were). We get to the end of the story, after watching the girl run and run and it turns out it was just a dream (slightly cliched, but Americans are said to like that type of thing).
And finally pulp's video. This uses some amatuer special effects which are pretty cheesy but this was filmed in the 90's. the bands logo is clearly seen behind the band that are playing and so the audience will definitely know who they are. In this video, actors sing some of the lines and this shows that it doesn't always have to be the lead singer that lip syncs in the video, it can be anyone (based on the story of the video).
In these indie/alternative music videos, i have learnt that footage of the band playing is a big convention. This helps the audience to relate with them and see what it could be like to see this band live. There are a lot of close ups of the band members especially the lead singers.
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